[Thread] A lot of people have asked me what we can do about Governor Ricketts not taking any effective action on COVID-19 despite the desperate pleas of front line medical officials and experts at overwhelmed hospitals. The depressing answer is not much, and here is why:

1) The Governor is empowered with broad powers during a declared state of emergency. Which makes sense, as Governor you are in charge of the various agencies of government and best positioned. The only thing that can end those emergency powers is an act of the Legislature.

2) The Legislature could take action and implement our own emergency laws but that would require 33 senators to go into special session and likely the same super majority to pass those laws. Keep in mind the Governor’s legislative allies are at least a third of the Legislature.

3) We only allow for recall of local elected officials so there is no immediate recourse.

4) This is what happens when a very small minority within a partisan political party primary gets to essentially decide who our chief executive is. It leads to a complete lack of accountability or incentives to build coalitions and listen to experts.

In fact they are incentivized to listen to the fringes of their political factions (think anti maskers) because they are the ones most likely to show up to the primary to vote and exercise outsized power.

For instance in the 2014 Republican Primary, Pete Ricketts received only 26.6 percent of the vote (58,671 voters) but advanced and became governor after the General Election.

That being said, I think the best thing we can do is continue to email, call and write the Governor’s office.