LINCOLN- State Sen. Steve Lathrop, who has served in the Nebraska Legislature for three full terms, said that the body has "slipped more and more into partisanship," a far cry from the nonpartisan and more independent body that he served in during his first eight years. For this reason, Lathrop said, he had decided not to seek reelection.

"When I got here in the first class of term-limit replacements, there were a lot of folks still here with years of experience," said Sen. Lathrop. He went on to state that these more experienced and hardened Senators were happy to mentor newcomers, and stressed "the importance of preserving its nonpartisan traditions."

"Now," said Lathrop, "It's less about solving problems and more driven by partisanship." One of the most important functions of the Legislature is to provide oversight of the executive branch, but according to Lathrop, "we haven't seen much of that going on lately." The failure of the Legislature's carefully constructed package for prison, programming, and sentencing reform, which was heavily supported by Lathrop, was "purely political" according to the Senator.

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