LINCOLN- Less than a year after his departure from Nebraska's Unicameral Legislature, former state Sen. John McCollister said he "couldn't bear to watch" much of this year's divisive and heated legislative session. McCollister cited the extreme levels of partisanship in the officially nonpartisan body as his reason for avoiding live or in-person viewings of proceedings, and even claimed this divisiveness as the reason for the widespread dysfunction seen this year by many Nebraskans.

McCollister, a registered Republican, came into the Legislature in 2015, and described his experience over the years as far more moderate than it is today. Another former Senator, Laura Ebke, who also entered the Legislature in 2015, echoed a similar sentiment. "We kind of charted our own course," she said, claiming that, in recent years, there has been a growing demand for Republican lawmakers to unite and be more disciplined in the Legislature. Ebke, prior to leaving the body, switched her party registration from Republican to Libertarian to avoid these demands.

Sen. Danielle Conrad, who returned to the Legislature last year after being term-limited in 2015, said the body has changed greatly since her last tenure. While Conrad recognizes that the body was almost always "right of center," she claimed her first two terms saw lawmakers acting as "independent contractors" rather than party representatives. Indeed, Sen. McCollister saw these growing "vestiges of dysfunction" over the years as well, and contributes them to overfunded campaigns, gerrymandering, and increased polarization in national politics.

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