Nebraska GOP decides not to appeal verdict in defamatory GOP mailers case
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Republican Party has decided not to pursue any post-trial motions or appeals of a civil defamation case that awarded a former GOP legislative candidate $500,000 in damages.
The state party lost a lawsuit that awarded former candidate Janet Palmtag of Nebraska City damages for the impact on her business and personal life from mailers a jury determined had crossed the line. The mailers had claimed she 'broke the law' and 'lost' her real estate license and was unfit to become a state senator.
'Although neither my immediate predecessor, Chairman Eric Underwood, nor I was involved in the 2020 actions that led to Janet Palmtag's civil lawsuit and subsequent judgment,' Nebraska GOP Chair Mary Jane Truemper said. 'We are both, nonetheless, sympathetic to the harm it caused her.'
The decision effectively ended neatly a decade-long legal battle between the state GOP and Palmtag, a long-time GOP volunteer. The former party leadership has said it based the mailer's claims on a 2017 case before the Iowa Real Estate Commission in which Palmtag, the owner of a real estate firm operating in Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa, agreed to pay a $500 fine on behalf of her firm to resolve a mistake made by one of its agents. At the time, as Palmtag testified, the agent was gravely ill and had failed to obtain all the signatures necessary to transfer an earnest deposit for the sale of a home in Iowa.
Jury awards $500,000 to legislative candidate defamed by Nebraska GOP mailers
Truemper recently became state GOP chair after Underwood decided not to seek reelection. Underwood and a group of populist Republicans, with old-guard help, took over in 2022 from a party leadership team loyal to then-Gov. Pete Ricketts.
It was the Ricketts-favored team who made the decision to attack Palmtag, who in 2020 ran against a Ricketts appointee, former State Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar. Palmtag was backed by former Gov. Dave Heineman and other prominent members of the party, including former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb.
Palmtag lost to Slama in the GOP-on-GOP race. But the party's decision to take sides in the race upset some Republicans.
After the verdict, Palmtag's attorney said he hoped the decision would serve as a warning to political consultants, professionals and candidates about the claims they make in campaigns.
'We cannot have 'our facts.' Facts are facts — not yours or mine,' Palmtag's attorney David Domina said, 'It is long past time for our discourse to return to this essential home base.'
Truemper said the party's apology may not be satisfactory to Palmtag, but she hopes she knows the party wishes 'for her healing and peace as she moves forward.'
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