OMAHA- A series of television commercials asking Nebraska voters to oppose one of two abortion initiatives on November’s general election ballot have unlikely benefactors: candidates for the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. Amid their own reelection campaigns, Regents Rob Schafer of Beatrice and Jim Scheer of Norfolk sponsored advertisements opposing Initiative 439, which would create a “fundamental right to abortion until fetal viability” in the state constitution.

While elected officials or candidates often take a public stand on issues that will go before voters, several political observers in the state said they had never seen regents sponsor political advertising for a ballot issue not under the university’s purview. The commercials also have benefited from at least one contribution to a regent exceeding $1.5 million, which is larger than most made in Nebraska, according to an official charged with monitoring campaign finance.

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