At meeting, Nebraska Democrats debate party leaders' role in primaries

Divisions in the Nebraska Democratic Party over how to recover from the 2016 presidential election led to a dispute at the organization’s state central committee meeting Saturday.

The matter at hand was whether party officials should be allowed to take sides in Democrat-versus-Democrat elections.

The committee held a contentious debate and ultimately approved a nonbinding resolution that suggests the state party chairwoman, county party chairs and staff not take sides in such elections.

The vote came as Douglas County Democratic Party Chairwoman Crystal Rhoades has been criticized for supporting Kara Eastman over Brad Ashford in the 2nd Congressional District Democratic primary. Her husband, Ben Onkka, is also Eastman’s campaign manager.

Two sponsors of the resolution, Stephanie Matejka and Scott Williams, said they didn’t intend to target Rhoades but they pointed to frustration that the national party in 2016 supported Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the primary.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/politics/at-meeting-nebraska-democrats-debate-party-leaders-role-in-primaries/article_a4c49a7b-c556-569f-84e2-815d516248c5.html