‘Back the Blue’ Petition Organizer Says Canceled Statewide Campaign Provided Lessons for New Effort
by Matt Johnson
(Picture credit Matt Johnson)
Advocates for All Nebraskans (AFAN) had an ambitious goal this year to collect signatures for a series of five statewide ballot initiatives. Those proposals included cutting property taxes, replacing the complicated TEEOSA formula with a base salary for teachers, and switching Nebraska’s presidential electoral votes to a “winner-take-all” system.
But AFAN was not alone in its petition drive. A total of 12 were in circulation across the state—likely a record—and the crowded field of paid organizers was one reason AFAN decided to end its statewide effort earlier this month.
“The paid walker scenario has created a little bit of anxiety and animosity toward signature gathering,” Eric Underwood, the organizer of the AFAN petitions, told The Plains Sentinel. “We were getting emails, phone calls, or Facebook messages saying things like, ‘Hey, are your folks at 142nd and Maple? They’re saying they’re for property tax relief, but they’re pretty aggressive.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, that’s not our people.’”
Paid circulators for a petition to allow online gambling, operating under the name “Tax Relief Nebraska,” were seen as deliberately deceptive by some, including Nate Grasz of the Nebraska Family Alliance.
“A clear look at the messaging, tactics, and numbers behind ‘Tax Relief Nebraska’ shows it is perhaps the most deceptive ballot initiative campaign in the history of Nebraska politics,” Grasz said in a statement.
Underwood is optimistic, however, that the infrastructure AFAN has built—including volunteer training, a prioritized voter list, and a walk-book-style app for door-knocking—will yield success in a smaller, more focused petition drive in Lincoln. Earlier this month, AFAN filed paperwork to launch a “Back the Blue” initiative, which would establish a legally binding floor of 450 full-time equivalent sworn police officers for the city. Lincoln’s current staffing level of such officers is a little over 350.
AFAN’s prior door-to-door work provides the proof of concept, Underwood says. Statewide, volunteers using the prioritized list and walk-book app saw doors open 50–60% of the time on first contact, with 85–90% of those households signing the petitions.
“It became a really good metric to prove the concept,” Underwood said. “We need to get 50 to 60% of them to open the doors, and we believe that on this principle-based concept of backing the blue, 100% of them are going to sign this.”
For Lincoln, the group has narrowed its focus to around 22,000 prioritized voters. With a signature threshold of roughly 9,300, Underwood sees a clear pathway to success. AFAN will also benefit from a more flexible timeline than a statewide initiative. The group plans to launch its signature-gathering operation this week.
Parallel local efforts are also underway. Former State Sen. Tony Fulton’s “Good Government Lincoln” group has filed three separate city charter amendment petitions that would establish term limits for city council members, extend voting rights in municipal elections to residents in Lincoln’s three-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), and align city elections with the presidential cycle beginning in 2028. Those charter petitions carry a lower signature threshold of roughly 5,000.
While AFAN’s statewide petitions were not successful this year, Underwood is hopeful that the infrastructure his organization is building will prove more successful in the next election cycle.
“We feel extremely prepared to move forward, not only with this localized one, but we look forward to doing something similar starting early in ’27 for those ’28 petitions.”
— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.