UPDATE: Thursday, Mar 21, 2024 · 6:11:52 PM +00:00
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Irontortoise
Further update from the Nebraska Examiner today:
Deeming a legislative investigation a “slow walk,” a resolution was filed late Wednesday seeking to censure State Sen. Steve Halloran for interjecting a senator’s name while reading about a violent rape.
Such a censure resolution would involve a public hearing to air the complaints and, if the resolution was advanced, a vote by the entire Legislature.
Halloran, during floor debate broadcast to the public Monday night, read the graphic account of a rape while interjecting the name “Senator Cavanaugh” several times during the reading, which included a demand for oral sex.
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The incident prompted State Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island, who chairs the Legislature’s Executive Board, to announce Wednesday morning that he had personally launched an investigation under the Legislature’s workforce harassment policy against Halloran. The investigation must be completed within 45 days.
But Sen. Cavanaugh, along with Dunbar Sen. Julie Slama — who have both said they have been victimized by sexual violence — said the legislative investigation was inadequate and wouldn’t allow the Halloran comments to be addressed until after the 2024 session ends in April.
Some of the disciplinary options, Slama said, would not be available after the Legislature adjourns.
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“We don’t need an investigation,” Slama said. “It only serves to slow walk this and sweep it under the rug.”
Cavanaugh said Halloran’s reading of “vulgar … pornography” on the floor of the Legislature had “harmed me in ways that I have yet to fully process.”
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Slama said the Legislature’s current workforce harassment policies — adopted only a year ago — were “completely inadequate” and regularly make the Unicameral “a national joke.”
The resolution states that Halloran “should be censured and condemned for conduct that rises to the level of harassment and hostility to fellow members of the Legislature….”
Later Wednesday, Halloran said that constitutional questions have been raised about the free speech protections for state senators when giving floor speeches. He said he has talked to the attorney general about getting a legal opinion on that issue.
Seriously, dude?!?
Yesterday I had a story up on the outrageous stunt Nebraska State Sen. Steve Halloran pulled the day before when arguing in support of a typical MAGA book banning/anti-obscenity bill. His behavior was so far over the line that there were calls from both sides of the isle for his immediate resignation, and while he naturally refused to take any real responsibility for his utterly egregious actions, it looks like he may be facing even more serious consequences than he initially bargained for. From the AP today:
A Republican Nebraska lawmaker who stirred a firestorm of controversy by repeatedly name-checking a fellow senator while reading a graphic account of rape from a best-selling memoir on the floor of the Legislature is now under investigation for sexual harassment.
The investigation into state Sen. Steve Halloran of Hastings by the Legislature's Executive Board was announced Wednesday by Sen. Ray Aguilar, a fellow Republican and chairman of the board. Aguilar said he filed the harassment complaint himself after witnessing Halloran's remarks on the floor Monday night...
WARNING — do NOT click on that embedded link unless you really want to subject yourself to Halloran’s sick rape ‘fantasy’ directed toward a specific female Democratic senator. Likewise, be advised that that video is also embedded in the same AP story I’m quoting from.
Machaela Cavanaugh, who was visibly shaken following Halloran's reading, has said she doubts Halloran's claim that she was not the target, because Halloran had approached her a couple of hours before the reading, as she was eating dinner with another lawmaker, and relayed the same passage from Sebold's memoir.
Halloran’s reading drew an immediate backlash from both Democrats and Republicans in the officially nonpartisan Legislature. One of the most vocal has been Republican Sen. Julie Slama, who has called on Halloran to resign. Slama, who also serves on the body's Executive Board, has publicly detailed her own encounters with sexual harassment and assault, including her account of being forcibly groped by former Republican candidate for Nebraska governor Charles Herbster at a fundraiser when she was 22. She has also received rape and death threats while serving in the Legislature.
And these aren't the only scandals involving men targeting women in the Nebraska Legislature in recent years.
In 2017, state Sen. Bill Kitner — a married Republican who had already been fined in 2015 for having cybersex with a woman using his state-issued laptop — resigned after retweeting a comment that implied participants at a women’s march were too unattractive to be sexually assaulted.
Then in 2022, Republican state Sen. Mike Groene abruptly stepped down and abandoned his campaign to be a University of Nebraska Regent after admitting that he took workplace photos of a female subordinate — including what she said were close-ups of body parts while she was clothed — without her knowledge or consent. After several women lawmakers railed against the handling of the complaint against Groene, the Legislature last year updated its policy on workplace harassment.
Some interesting new details from KNWA about Sen. Julie Slama, one of the first Republicans to call for Halloran’s resignation:
In 2020, Slama was the target of comments from then-Sen. Ernie Chambers, a Democrat, who implied she was appointed to her seat in exchange for sexual favors. In 2022, she was among several women — but the only one to come out publicly — to accuse then Nebraska Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster of groping her. Herbster, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, denied the accusations but lost the primary election to current Gov. Jim Pillen.
Slama said Tuesday it made no difference whether Halloran was invoking the name of Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh or her brother.
“It doesn’t matter the gender of the person you were trying to sexually harass,” she said.
If Halloran had interjected the name of a colleague into a graphic description of sexual assault in a business setting, she asked, “Do you think you would have your job the next day?”
“We can’t just let this go,” Slama said. “We owe it to the little girls who are watching at home wanting to be something like this when they grow up. We owe it to every Nebraskan because we are the most public workplace in the state, and we deserve for it to be a professional workplace.”
Speaking in the chamber Tuesday, she condemned the lawmaker’s remarks. “Sen. Halloran, you should be ashamed of yourself for being incapable of apologizing. There is no justification for your actions, and you should resign,” she said, drawing rare applause.
And from the Omaha World-Herald:
After three heated days of debate — including comments that left one state senator facing potential censure — the Nebraska Legislature blocked a bill to remove protections for K-12 educators if they face charges of providing obscene materials to minors.
Legislative Bill 441 failed its first round of floor debate Wednesday in a 30-17 vote. The bill needed 33 votes to pass a filibuster-ending cloture motion.
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Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha introduced a resolution calling for Halloran to be censured — one of three possible punishments available to the Legislature — and accused him of sexual harassment. She said her purpose was to put the matter before a public hearing.
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Aguilar said he supported Cavanaugh introducing her censure resolution and said it wouldn’t change much about the investigation, except that it would no longer be done by outside counsel as he previously stated. It will be an internal investigation instead, he said.
If voted out of committee, the resolution would be put to a vote by the full Legislature, and require 25 votes to pass. While Cavanaugh acknowledged that censure is little more than a scolding, she said it would show that the body acknowledges that what Halloran said was “abhorrent.”
“Sen. Halloran must be held accountable,” Cavanaugh said. “And this body must stand up for dignity and integrity.”
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State Sen. Julie Slama, who collaborated with Cavanaugh on the resolution, said she did so because she had no confidence that leaders in the Legislature truly wanted to hold Halloran accountable. She said Nebraskans deserve to see the matter handled quickly and publicly, rather than being swept under the rug.
“If we cannot take immediate action on something that is said on camera to the entire state, our policies are not sufficient,” Slama said.
Perhaps Sen. Julie Slama should consider switching parties if she really feels that strongly about sexual harassment?