LINCOLN- A little over a year after a turbulent convention resulted in a massive turnover of party leadership, local donations to the Nebraska Republican Party have yet to return to previous levels. Since the convention, local donations to the Nebraska GOP added up to just under $122,000, according to the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. In the year leading up to the contentious convention, the party raised nearly $1 million.

Meanwhile, the Nebraska Democratic Party has outraised the Nebraska GOP, bringing in roughly $2.1 million on the state and local level. According to former Nebraska GOP Chairman Dan Welch, this is an exceedingly rare occurrence. Even Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb was surprised, acknowledging that, while some local congressional candidates have outraised Republican opponents in individual races, it's abnormal for the state Democratic Party to outraise its Republican counterpart by this much.

The GOP convention in Nebraska last year culminated in delegates voting to change the party's constitution to remove former Chairman Welch, eventually going on to replace him with current Chairman Eric Underwood. Welch's removal prompted the resignation of several party leaders, including the executive director, the national committeewoman, and the first and second district chair. Whether the events of this tumultuous convention were the reason for the decrease in funding is unclear, but observers tend to agree that it played, at the very least, a small role.

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