The Nebraska Supreme Court. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)
By Juan Salinas II, Nebraska Examiner
Martinez will face Republican Sheriff Aaron Hanson in November
Lincoln, NE – A Nebraska Supreme Court justice put Democratic Douglas County sheriff candidate Mark Martinez back on the county’s general election ballot Wednesday, ruling him eligible to run.
The state high court overrode a decision by the new Douglas County election commissioner, who had determined he didn’t qualify to run for the position following receipt of a complaint from the Douglas County Republican Party questioning Martinez’s eligibility under a relatively new state law. Martinez had asked the court to put him back on.
Former U.S. Marshall for Nebraska Mark Martinez has sought to unseat Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson. (Courtesy of the Martinez campaign)
Nebraska Supreme Court Justice William B. Cassel, in his opinion, wrote, “The language of the statute is plain. It does not distinguish between an active or inactive certificate. It merely requires that the candidate “possess” a certificate … I decline to rely upon legislative history where a party urges me to detect ambiguity by initially resorting to legislative history.”
The county GOP complaint had argued Martinez was ineligible to file for election to the office under a 2024 state law that requires a candidate for sheriff to possess a certificate or diploma from the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center before filing to run or being appointed to the job. The party said Martinez, a former U.S. marshal for Nebraska under former President Barack Obama, no longer had an active law enforcement certificate.
The Martinez campaign argued that Nebraska’s 2024 law “does not specify that a law enforcement certificate must belong to an active law enforcement officer” and that Martinez has more than the law’s required “law enforcement certificate” and “diploma,” that he has both.
Martinez’s campaign had also argued his eligibility to run for sheriff had been reviewed and green-lighted by the Douglas County Election Commission, the Douglas County Attorney’s Office and the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office before the GOP complaint was filed, the same people the county’s top election official said she consulted before deciding Martinez’s fate.
Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson. Aug. 5, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
First-year Douglas County Election Commissioner Danielle Jensen said in a statement that she removed him from the ballot after further reviewing the law and consulting with the county attorney and secretary of state. Jensen formerly worked as a communications director and senior policy adviser for U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., before Gov. Jim Pillen appointed her to the elections post in Nebraska’s most populous county late last year.
Jensen, in a statement, said she welcomed the ruling for clarifying language in the 2024 law that she thought was “unclear due to questions raised in the objection to Martinez’s candidate filing.”
Her statement said that since no other candidates are running for sheriff, both Martinez and Hanson will head to the general election and will not appear on the primary ballot in May.
Martinez will face incumbent Republican Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson in November. The Martinez campaign, through a spokeswoman, said they were “ecstatic” about the decision and that he plans to hold a press conference on the ruling Thursday.
“Like the situation in a similar ballot qualification case, I address only the statutory qualification to be placed on the ballot,” Cassel wrote. “Whether to support a candidate lacking an active certification status is for the electorate to decide.”
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