Unicameralism: Good or bad?

[Athelwulf]

Hi Nebraskans. This Oregonian would like to talk a bit about your nonpartisan, unicameral state legislature. I get the basics: It's got only one chamber, and there are officially no parties. Do you think it's a better way of doing things than the way every other state does it? Do people generally approve? Does anyone ever think it shouldn't be that way? If there were a proposal to change it, would you be against it? And why? Isn't it a pain not being able to tell right away who's a Repug and who's actually decent?

[silverojo]

1. Everybody knows who the Republicans are

It may not be mentioned, but people know the past history of the politicians well enough to know if they're Dems or Repukes.

And let's face it, in Nebraska, it's damned hard to tell the Dems from the Repukes at times. :(

As for the Unicameral...I've been away from the state for several years, so I don't know how well the system is working, compared to a traditional House/Senate setup. I'll leave it to longtime Nebraskans to answer that question. :)

[joeglow3]

2. I love it

For no reason other than I don't understand why you need 2 houses in a state legislature. While we pay out Senators crap (it need to be increased), I am glad we don't have to pay salaries for double people.

[residentfan]

3. Term Limits

The Unicameral was much more non partisan until the people of Nebraska, in their "wisdom" decided to put term limitations on their senators. Now partisanship is the catch word and the Republican Party has been working overtime to make Nebraska a third world country. Oh, and so the Democrats don't feel too cocky: it was a Democrat that led the mob to vote for this idiotic law.

[New Dawn]

4. The biggest problems are no party labels and term limits.

It is not easy to hold politicians accountable when the average voter does not even know which party they are really a part of. Secondly, voters should be allowed to vote for their preferred candidate as many times as they like. I do not have a problem with the single house idea, but the number of seats should be expanded, because currently there are only 49.