“Allowing special interests or individuals to oppose ballot measures without disclosing their spending undermines our citizen initiative process.”
By Zach Wendling, Nebraska Examiner
A nonpartisan watchdog and a Lincoln state senator filed requests this week to learn more about private and state resources spent against 2024 ballot measures, namely medical cannabis.
The first complaint came from executive director Gavin Geis of Common Cause Nebraska, a nonpartisan organization focused on government accountability.
Geis filed a complaint Thursday with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission (NADC) requesting an investigation into whether John Kuehn, a former Republican state senator and a lead opponent to medical cannabis in the state, failed to disclose related legal expenses in his late 2024 challenge of the related ballot measures before and through the election.
Kuehn filed an initial lawsuit in September on his own behalf seeking to declare the ballot measures “legally insufficient and invalid.” The Lancaster County District Court sided with the ballot measure, and Kuehn is appealing to the Nebraska Supreme Court.
After the election, Kuehn filed a second lawsuit seeking to invalidate the laws, citing federal preemption. Thirty-eight other states have approved medical cannabis and lawmakers continue work to help implement additional regulations.
The NADC confirmed receipt of a complaint from Geis. Under state law, neither the NADC nor Geis can speak about the investigation further until its conclusion, or if Kuehn speaks out.
A 2001 advisory NADC opinion said expenditures against a ballot measure not related to its qualification, passage or defeat, such as constitutionality, are not a campaign service.
Public disclosure laws
Geis said in a news release that “Nebraskans deserve to know who’s working to influence our elections,” whether that is Kuehn or someone on behalf of Kuehn.
“Allowing special interests or individuals to oppose ballot measures without disclosing their spending undermines our citizen initiative process,” Geis said. “If we want to ensure Nebraskans’ voices are heard, we must enforce disclosure laws that show the public who stands against them.”
Geis’s complaint cites state law requiring an individual challenging the “qualification, passage or defeat of a ballot question” over $250 to report such expense.
Geis said that if lawsuits are not covered in this way under current disclosure laws, the Legislature should strengthen them.
Elections lawsuit continues
Kuehn, approached Thursday afternoon by a reporter, said it was the first he had heard of the complaint. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment, including on whether he or someone else funded the election-related challenge.
As part of that first challenge—Kuehn v. Secretary of State Bob Evnen and the three sponsors of the ballot measure campaign—the Attorney General’s Office joined Kuehn in seeking to invalidate the measures before the November election, alleging widespread fraud.
Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong rejected those arguments.
More than 200,000 signatures were collected between the campaign’s legalization and regulatory petitions. They passed with 71 percent voter approval and 67 percent voter approval, respectively.
Kuehn’s legal team included an attorney from Texas, and his team hired the services of an out-of-state cloud-based petition validation service, Signafide, to review the petitions. Artificial intelligence and manual labor were used in that process.
‘Politically charged litigation’
State Sen. Danielle Conrad (D) of Lincoln sent a Wednesday request to Attorney General Mike Hilgers (R) “in the interests of government transparency and legislative oversight.”
“As always conscious stewards of taxpayer funds and in light of the present fiscal situation, it is important for senators to appreciate the expenses your office has incurred in pursuing an aggressive politically charged litigation agenda under and within your sole discretion,” Conrad wrote in her two-page letter shared with the Nebraska Examiner.
The state currently faces a projected budget deficit for the next two fiscal years of $457 million, as the Appropriations Committee has worked to whittle that down to $0.
As of Thursday, when the baseline budget advanced 7–1, it was still $124 million short under state law. Two bills advanced Thursday would help build a positive $7 million, if passed.
That’s before the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board returns Friday afternoon, where many senators expect to be hit with an additional $100 million hole, at the least.
Specific cases targeted
Conrad narrowed her request to expenses regarding ballot measures last year, including:
- Staff time.
- Filing fees.
- News conferences.
- Administrative costs.
- Social media or other paid advertising.
- Mileage, travel, lodging or related expenses.
- Litigation expenses such as deposition costs, discovery expenses, expert consultation, outside counsel (or co-counsel, experts or outside attorneys needed to be hired to defend other state actors).
She specifically asked for related costs to State ex rel. Brooks v. Evnen before the Nebraska Supreme Court in September (abortion), State ex rel. Collar v. Evnen before the Nebraska Supreme Court in September (school choice), Kuehn v. Evnen and others in Lancaster District Court and now the Nebraska Supreme Court through 2024 and into 2025 (medical cannabis) and Kuehn v. Gov. Jim Pillen and others in Lancaster County District Court (medical cannabis).
The AG’s Office hired a forensic document examiner from Colorado as a handwriting expert to review a handful of petition pages in the election-related case from Kuehn last year.
Conrad also included the state’s criminal case against Jacy Todd of York in Hall County District Court and Hall County County Court. Todd is a public notary who helped the medical cannabis campaign and is believed to be the first notary ever criminally charged in this manner. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Hall County District Judge Andrew Butler this week questioned the extent of resources being used to pursue 24 counts of “official misconduct” against Todd, when looking at the current climate of the state and voice of its residents.”
The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. It has traditionally not disclosed specific litigation costs.
This story was first published by Nebraska Examiner.
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