A climactic moment is approaching for Ben Sasse on Tuesday when his nomination to be the new president of the University of Florida will be considered by the university's board of trustees.
No reason to believe he won't ultimately be named president -- with final approval coming from the Florida Board of Governors, which is responsible for management of the entire public university system, when it meets in Tampa on Nov. 9.
The nomination has stirred political and academic debate in Florida along with sounding alarm bells among some students and faculty members centered particularly on Sasse's position on LGBTQ rights.Â
At the campus in Gainesville, University of Florida student body president Lauren Lemasters of Jacksonville told the Independent Florida Alligator, the student newspaper, that she was undecided on how she would vote as a member of the board of trustees and did not expect to reveal her decision before Tuesday.Â
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In Jacksonville, Florida Times-Union metro columnist Nate Monroe wrote that "Sasse's coronation would be the crowning achievement of the DeSantis-led effort to defile the University of Florida," suggesting that the process that eventually led to the nomination of Sasse began when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new law making applications for college presidential openings in the state confidential.
But nothing that I read online from Florida suggests that Sasse's nomination will not be approved, setting in motion a political restructuring in Nebraska.
The anticipated result, subject to the outcome of the Nov. 8 gubernatorial election, is that Jim Pillen, the betting man's heavily favored Republican nominee, would appoint Gov. Pete Ricketts to the Senate seat vacated by Sasse shortly after Pillen becomes governor in early January.
Ricketts has not yet formally said that he would seek appointment to that Senate vacancy, but he has not set in motion any process for making that appointment other than ruling out appointing himself.
And Ricketts did seek a Senate seat in 2006 in his first bid for political office, losing to Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson.
Ricketts has acknowledged that he would like to remain in the public sector rather than returning to the private sector when his days as governor are done.
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A few observations about Ben Sasse and the University of Florida and the road ahead:
* Personal opinion: If he is ultimately chosen as president, faculty members and students who are upset now are likely to find that Sasse is open to hearing and considering their concerns and that he will be focused on building and protecting the university rather than bringing a political agenda to the table.Â
* The University of Florida is a much more prestigious university than I had realized; it was ranked the fifth best public university in the nation in the valued U.S. News and World Report ranking for 2022, trailing only UC-Berkeley, UCLA, the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia.Â
* It is the fifth largest single-campus university in the United States.
* Big changes coming in Nebraska politics now: a new governor, a new U.S. senator, a couple of House seats in play, a sharply reshuffled Legislature with new leadership, and it looks like Ben Sasse won't be selling Runzas at Husker home games anymore.Â
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Former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry has filed a formal appeal of his conviction in a U.S. District Court trial in Los Angeles in March on charges that he lied to federal officials about illegal foreign contributions to his 2016 reelection campaign. Â
The appeal cites two major arguments: improper venue for a trial based on allegedly false statements being made in Nebraska and Washington, D.C.; and inadequate jury instructions.Â
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Finishing up:
* Secretary of State Bob Evnen heads out on an agribusiness trade mission to Nairobi and Zanzibar with USDA Deputy Secretary Dr. Jewel Bronaugh on Monday, returning on Nov. 4.
* The attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband inside their home in San Francisco is just the latest reminder that demons have been set loose in American politics.Â
* Do the losers in next week's elections accept the results? And, even more crucially, does the loser in the 2024 presidential race accept the will of the American people as expressed by their votes and, if not, then what?Â
* Jon Meacham's new book on "Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle," which is titled "And There Was Light," arrives at the right moment, providing a vivid reminder of what happened the last time the country was torn apart and Americans turned on each other.
* The anticipated huge surplus in state revenue presents rare opportunities in addition to more tax relief. Do we seize those opportunities only if it is federal money?