In the fall of 1995, I was driving from Grand Island, Nebraska to Omaha with newly-minted State Republican Chairman Chuck Sigerson. We were discussing his fellow chairmen in other states and how a growing number were being paid to be full-time party chieftains.
Would that work better, I asked Sigerson, if the state chairman was paid and could focus on his party mission full time?
“No way,” he shot back, “When you’re paying someone, you’ve got a hold on them. Then when you speak out and upset things, they can pull your chain. Not this chairman. I’m an unpaid chairman, so I say and do what I want.”
With the exception of getting expenses reimbursed, Sigerson took nothing from the party and made his living as a State Farm Insurance agent from 1974 until his retirement in 2009.
Sigerson died on September 6 at 75. But as election day rolled around, memories were vibrant about the fighting party chairman and his knack for “mixing it up” with political opponents — and for expanding the Republican Party by illustrating how different it was from the Democratic Party.
Not long after his election to the party helm, Sigerson threw himself into the Cornhusker State’s U.S. Senate race. Gov. Ben Nelson was favored to succeed fellow Democrat and retiring Sen. J.J. Exon. But Nelson had vowed in writing to serve out a four-year term during his re-election campaign two years before. Sigerson slammed him for “breaking his word to the people of Nebraska” and asked “How can you trust him?”
Voters agreed and Republican Chuck Hagel defeated Nelson with 56 percent of the vote.
“Chuck was an important part of my 1996 Senate campaign” said Hagel, who later served as secretary of defense, “He did a terrific job in helping mobilize the Republican Party during my campaign. The Republicans had not won a U.S. Senate seat in Nebraska in 24 years. We won because of a lot of special people like Chuck Sigerson.”
Sigerson sensed Democrats were building up talented candidates for future races and did his utmost to stop them on their way up. Jessie Kerry Rasmussen, sister of Democratic Sen. Bob Kerry, was a rising star in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature.
As Douglas County Republican chairman in 1994, Sigerson helped recruit realtor Jim Jensen to run a hard-hitting campaign against Rasmussen. Jensen won and Rasmussen’s political career was over.
“You got to take out the farm team before they get too far,” he explained to me.
The Nebraskan was an admirer of the late Republican National Chairman Lee Atwater and closely studied the take-no-prisoners techniques he used in 1988 as campaign manager for George H.W. Bush against Democratic presidential nominee and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.
“People will tell you he ran a dirty race and apologized on his deathbed to Dukakis, but neither is true,” said Sigerson, “He hit hard on issues demonstrating Dukakis was a Massachusetts liberal and it was all accurate. A record is always fair game. And as for apologizing to Dukakis, Atwater apologized if anything he did hurt him. But he didn’t apologize for doing it — and he shouldn’t have.”
Sigerson let everyone know that serving as a party leader would not temper his conservative leanings. He made little secret of voting for conservative insurgent Pat Buchanan over George H.W. Bush in the 1992 primaries because he felt Bush had strongly let down his conservative constituency.
In 1997, Sigerson was an early and vigorous supporter of fellow conservative activist and Texas State GOP Chairman Tom Pauken in the seven-candidate race for Republican National Chairman. Colorado’s Jim Nicholson was the eventual winner, but Sigerson stuck with Pauken until the Texan pulled out.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, the young Sigerson joined the U.S. Air Force after high school. Following his discharge, he earned a business degree at the University of Nebraska (Omaha) and settled with British wife Liz in Omaha.
Sigerson was active in many community groups such as the Boy Scouts, Little League, the Masons and Shriners. But he found his greatest passion when he volunteered for the U.S. House campaign of TV anchorman and fellow Republican Lee Terry for Congress in 1976. Terry lost, but Sigerson helped another Republican, Hal Daub, win the Omaha-based 2nd District in 1980.
He was elected to the Omaha City Council in 2001 and was promptly chosen council president by his colleagues. For someone with a reputation as a fierce partisan, Republican Sigerson worked closely with Democratic Mayor Mike Fahey on the revitalization of downtown Omaha and the building of a new arena.
Re-elected to a third term in 2009, Sigerson was in good position to soon run for mayor or Congress. But a severe stroke forced his resignation a year later and, with wife Liz as his chief caregiver, he would spend the final decade of his life at home as legions of friends dropped in to cheer him.
Recognized by the state Republican party as a “Living Legend,” Chuck Sigerson wanted to be remembered as a politician who was, to use a phrase of the late Rep. Shirley Chisholm, D.-NY, unbought and unbossed. And that is how he is recalled by those who knew and loved him.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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