by TCG Staff
Matt Schulte upset long-serving Lancaster County Commissioner Deb Schorr Tuesday night in a hard-fought political battle.
Mr. Schulte, who served a term on the Lincoln Public Schools Board and lost a race for County Treasurer in 2018, defeated Commissioner Schorr by a vote of 5,615 to 4,362. Travis Filing received 1,144 votes.
In the absence of any successful write-in or other electoral effort to get on November’s general election ballot, Mr. Schulte will be listed on that ballot and take office in January.
Mr. Schulte and Mr. Filing billed themselves during the Republican primary campaign as the conservative alternatives to Commissioner Schorr, who had served on the County Commission for five terms, beginning almost 20 years ago. She was the subject of an article by The Cornhusker Guardian explaining why Commissioner Schorr was not the conservative, pro-life choice for election to a new term on the Lancaster County Commission.
These were not enough to overcome the burden of her record, which included proposed funding for Planned Parenthood, support for liberal San Francisco-style Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird’s COVID-related mandates and shutdowns
Commissioner Schorr enjoyed relatively easy re-election to her last three terms. In response to this year’s stiff challenge from Mr. Schulte, however, she ran a text book quality campaign, replete with abundant signage and frequent mailers.
In the end, however, these were not enough to overcome the burden of her record, which included proposed funding for Planned Parenthood, support for liberal San Francisco-style Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird’s COVID-related mandates and shutdowns as well as other liberal policies.
Among these liberal policies were approval of a “Zuckerbucks” grant to influence the 2020 election in favor of Democrats (complete with unsecured ballot “drop boxes” in Lancaster County), increasing property taxes 178% more than the rate of inflation during the last decade, and sitting on a County Commission that voted itself a 16.5% salary increase when many voters were struggling to pay heavy property taxes and enduring work shutdowns due to COVID.
