Lincoln Mayor's Chief of Staff Accused of Tampering With Charter Amendment Process
by John Gage and Lewis Thune
(Picture credit Leirion Gaylor Baird)
Organizers behind a charter amendments effort are claiming the process has been compromised and that they plan to start the effort over just weeks after turning in signatures for three separate charter petitions.
The group, Good Government Lincoln, announced Wednesday that it was re-upping its effort to gather signatures, claiming the process might have been tampered with by a staff member of Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird’s office.
“With no update on qualification from the Lancaster County Election Commissioner, opponents of the amendments have begun to openly celebrate the amendments’ alleged failure to qualify,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday. “This leads the Good Government Lincoln Project to suspect underhanded opposition activity to undermine the signature-gathering process.”
The group, headed by former GOP State Senator Tony Fulton, seeks to amend the City of Lincoln charter. Their three proposed changes would institute term limits for the city council, allow residents of Lincoln’s extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction to vote in city elections, and realign city elections to coincide with state and federal elections in hopes of increasing voter turnout.
The signatures for the petitions had been filed with the Lancaster County Election Commissioner in late July.
The Plains Sentinel reached out to Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen, who said he returned petitions to the city council earlier on Wednesday.
“All three petitions have been returned to the City,” he said. “It’ll be their responsibility to share the results.” The city did not return a request for comment on the story.
Complaints that the process has been compromised point back to Rick Hoppe, the chief of staff for Baird.
Hoppe allegedly told multiple people that the amendments had failed just days after they were filed with Wiltgen’s office. Organizers say Hoppe’s comments were suspicious, given that it was likely the signatures had not been fully counted and the group had turned in nearly 10,000 signatures to be verified for each petition, with only 5,000 valid signatures needed to qualify.
Typically, successful petition campaigns aim for 30-50% more signatures as a buffer. Political observers noted that it would be unusual for over half the raw signatures submitted not to be verified.
“There is nothing in the numbers, and nothing in the history of success of the people involved in this effort, that explains why our opponents seem to know something we don’t,” Jessica Flanagan, a consultant for the group, said. “Either our opponents have sabotaged this effort and used unethical tactics to keep these measures off voters’ ballots, or election information has been shared unevenly.”
A petition organizer with Good Government Lincoln told The Plains Sentinel that the “premature celebration out of the mayor’s office” was the catalyst for rerunning the petition.
Hoppe could not be reached for comment on the story.
(Picture credit Rick Hoppe’s LinkedIn)
Baird’s office has been vocal in its opposition to the charter amendments. The day the group announced its launch, Baird called the effort “straight out of the Donald Trump playbook.”
Later, she told supporters in a fundraising email that she needed their money to “push back against these efforts using campaign resources.”
Short Timeline for Relaunch
Fulton said Good Government Lincoln is relaunching the petition drive with the goal to still make the 2026 ballot.
“We may never know exactly what happened,” Fulton said. “What we do know is that voters want the chance to decide this for themselves.”
The group is in a race to meet a September 1 deadline for charter amendments to be certified and make the November ballot. In light of time running short, the group said gathering efforts will resume immediately.
— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.
— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.