LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Lt. Gov. Lavon Heidemann resigned from office and ended his candidacy Tuesday, one day after a judge granted a protection order to keep him away from his sister, who accused him of assault.
Heidemann announced his resignation at the Capitol alongside Gov. Dave Heineman. The Elk Creek farmer also stepped down as the running mate of Republican gubernatorial candidate Pete Ricketts.
Heidemann said he disagrees with the statements made about him, but decided not to fight to remain in office.
“After much thought, discussion and prayer, I have decided that for the good of my family, for the office of lieutenant governor and for the future of Nebraska, I am resigning today,” Heidemann said.
The protection order was granted Monday after Heidemann’s sister, Lois Bohling, testified that she was afraid of her brother. Bohling said in a sworn statement that her brother grabbed her wrists and pushed her out of their mother’s bedroom during an August dispute involving farmland and their 84-year-old mother’s care.
Heidemann had been looking to continue serving in state government as Ricketts’ running mate. Ricketts is running against Democratic hopeful Chuck Hassebrook and his running mate, Jane Raybould.
Heidemann served eight years as a state senator and was elected to the University of Nebraska Board of Regents shortly before he was chosen for his current post. His name has already been approved for the November ballot, and state law requires a certificate of death for a candidate to be removed, according to the secretary of state’s office.
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You know, when you’re dropping of a race because you’re an abusive fuck, spare us the bit about your “prayerful” decision making.
He didn’t want his sister see him throttle Granny …?
Looking to compare the public shaming of this well heeded politician to the football player? I know it is intensity and the degree of violence but you know the end results, intimidation by force or mental control. Republicans do it every day but the athletes and entertainers make better copy.
Be careful about generalizing this to ‘republicans.’ It only looks that way because they occupy most of the seats, largely due to the mass spinelessness and bone-headed incompetence of ‘democrats.’ Neither party has a monopoly on dickishness and stupidity.
(Kerry undone by the same tactics as Dukakis? That’s what I mean by bone-headed.)
Nebraska Republicans, what can you say? I live here and can say plenty but why talk about shitheels?
How about Alabama’s federal judge (from Mr. Pierce at Esquire):
But there was another case of domestic violence in the news yesterday, one that got obliterated by the Ray Rice episode. Mark Fuller is a judge in the federal district court in Alabama, and not an obscure one. It was Fuller who presided over the trial and conviction of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman, which stank more than a little, and which made Fuller famous among federal district judges in the South. In August, Fuller was arrested for knocking his wife around an Atlanta hotel.
About a minute into the call, as the initial dispatcher patches an ambulance dispatcher into the call, the woman identified as Kelli Fuller, 41, can be heard saying 'I hate you, I hate you." A male voice responds: “I hate you too” followed by dull noises in the background. The woman’s voice can be heard loudly repeating: “Help me, please. Please help me. He’s beating on me.” The initial dispatcher tells the ambulance dispatcher: “She says that she’s in a domestic fight and I can hear him hitting her now.”
Fuller was busted that night, on a misdemeanor. And yesterday, he took a plea deal. Fuller will have to go to counseling once a week for 24 weeks and, if he manages to complete that terrifying emotional obstacle course, his arrest will be expunged completely. It will be like the whole thing never happened. In the meantime, of course, Fuller will go back to his day job, with full pay and benefits, because the only way Fuller can be fired is if Congress impeaches him.
There are two obvious reasons why the adjudications of these two cases seem so disproportionate.
In the Rice case, there was video.
Ray Rice is black and Mark Fuller is incredibly not.