A handful of people are starting to gather outside the shop, including Mechelle Sky Walker of Lincoln, 36.
She said the @NebraskaDems don’t need their own Trump, that Janicek should leave the race after behaving as he has with staff and others.
Sky Walker said: “I want him to drop out. He can’t use the excuse that he’s gay to talk like that. He’s using white privilege.”
A little more crowded now. Some folks who were finishing signs in a nearby parking lot walked up.
Talked a bit ago to one of the first protesters here, Deb Manning of Omaha, 54. She said she is taking a stand against sexual harassment. She said Janicek needs to quit Nebraska’s Senate race before he irreparably damages his businesses.
Manning said: “The fact is money talks. Had he withdrawn from the race when he was quietly asked he could have avoided this. But he has chosen to stay. So people need to know what he’s done if they patronize his business. He is not a person held in high regard in this community.”
Here’s a group photo of them organizers asked them to gather to take.
The candidate who finished second in the Democrat’s’ May 12 primary is here, Angie Philips. She had called for protests and boycotts of his business. She said she’s here for sex assault survivors and victims of harassment.
Philips, shown here holding a fellow protester’s dog, Clark, said Janicek has lost the moral authority to lead. She said he cannot represent people he does not speak to, that Nebraska already has that in @BenSasse. She supports @Shelton4Senate replacing Janicek once he quits.
Philips said: “This, not Chris, is what the Democratic Party stands for, justice and equality. This is the heart of the Democratic Party. And Chris is holding the party hostage.”
The protest has now spread to four corners of 50th and Dodge Streets.
Crowd thinning out a little over the lunch hour. Talk of more coming.
Just overheard a small group of people defending Janicek. One of them was Steve Gunther, 50, of Omaha, who said he came down to show his support by buying cupcakes but the shop was closed a while during the protests.
Gunther said Janicek is much more than the characature people have seen over the past week. He said he raises money for the Nebraska AIDS project and gives away day-old cupcakes to a local women’s shelter rather than waste them.
Said Gunther: “I know Chris. I would have no problem with my daughter working for him. It was a really bad joke that hurt someone and he apologized. If we want to get stuff done, we have to get to the point where we can forgive someone and move on.”
In front of @CupcakeOmaha, Scott Williams, 38, held a sign calling on Janicek to step down.
“I’m disappointed in Chris Janicek’s decision to not already do the right thing. Apparently he needs further encouragement.”
Said Williams: “I’m proud to be a member of the Nebraska Democratic Party because we have policies meant to prevent sexual harassment. And the party is making clear right now that they will not support someone who breaks that policy.”
I’m going to take a little break to write an onliner from the protest. Thanks for following along. I’ll pick it back up if they’re still here when I’m done.
Things wrapped up before I was done. Thanks for following along. Story will post soon @OWHnews.
One last update: A handful of protesters returned to 50th and Dodge around evening rush hour. One of them confronted Janicek in his shop, which had reopened. He closed @CupcakeOmaha for the day shortly after, I verified with protesters and @CJSenate2020.
Janicek says he talked to the protester, who writes for @SeeingRedNE.
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At the presser for the Support Our Schools group that says they have gathered nearly double the signatures they needed to get on the #Nebraska’s 2024 general election ballot. They’ve been delivering boxes to Sec of State.
Will try to tweet a little of the presser.
NSEA president Jenni Benson says the sheer number of signatures “sends a powerful message to elected officials and Nebraskans need them to listen. Nebraskans support public schools.”
Thread today @NEGOP’s State Central Committee meeting in Norfolk. They’re discussing typical party business. Some of the focus will be on a party constitutional amendment proposal to remove the voting power of four GOP-affiliated groups from state party’s Executive Committee.
The proposal from a 3rd District member, would make advisory members instead of voting members out of the Federation of Republican Women, Young Republicans, College Republicans and High School Republicans. The GOP chair could then exclude any of them from certain exec meetings.
This likely sounds like gobbledygook. Essentially, some partisans say they want to take away these votes because the groups side more often with the traditional wing of the GOP or the Ricketts wing. Some rural folks think the groups give unfair power to urban and suburban areas.
The folks handling Capitol Security and the redcoats are taking the step today of separating the supporters and opponents of Legislative Bill 626, a proposal to ban abortions in the state after an ultrasound detects embryonic cardiac activity.
There are already some folks here standing in the Rotunda who say they are against LB 626.
#Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and former State Sen. Suzanne Geist are participating today in a noon forum at the @LincolnChamber. Will try to keep you posted on how things go. About 200 eating right now. Be about a half hour.
Each candidate will have 2.5 mins for opening, 90 seconds for each Q&A answer. Candidates making their way to the podiums.
First up after a coin flip, Geist is leading off. Thanks Gaylor Baird for her service.
Here today at the #Omaha meeting of the @NDE_News board picking a new state commissioner of education. Will try to tweet a bit.
Patti Gubbels, board chair: Thanks board, staff and McPherson and Jacobsen, former LPS Superintendent Steve Joel's consulting group. Brought to us outstanding candidates. Led us through those opportunities. (These are paraphrases unless direct quoted.)
Gubbels: Thanks to stakeholders who gave input through the online portal. And ed partners who participated on interview panel.