ELECTION 2008: Utter, Shoemaker move on to November in Legislative District 33 race

An attorney and a semi-retired banker will be moving on to November's general election in the Legislative District 33 race.

Chuck Shoemaker and Dennis Utter finished with 2,886 and 2,342 votes, respectively, with 80 percent of the votes counted Tuesday night.

The two men came out ahead of Marvin "Butch" Hughes, who had earned 1,450 votes with 80 percent of the votes counted in the race to replace state Sen. Carroll Burling of Kenesaw, who was not up for re-election this year because of term limits.

District 33 covers Adams County and the southwestern portion of Hall County.

All three men are Hastings residents.

"I ran the kind of campaign I wanted to run," Shoemaker said.

He also expressed his appreciation for the voters who supported him.

He believes his lifelong involvement in civic activities, along with his current service on the Hastings utilities board and prior time on the Hastings City Council, show he will be a good representative.

He plans to continue talking about his ideas for economic development and stressing the need to maintain a strong K-12 education system.

"I'm happy to be advancing, but I'm disappointed in the split between myself and Mr. Shoemaker," Utter said.

He said he'd been busy on the phone Tuesday night and thanked everyone for their support. He added that, in his conversations with potential voters, taxes, government spending, illegal immigration, education, economic development and water issues were among their concerns.

"And I share their concerns," Utter said.

He hopes to keep those issues in the forefront for the general election.

Though Hughes, a semi-retired construction worker, won't advance to the November election, he hopes discussion of the issues he brought up will continue. He believes immigration, cutting state spending and water issues are all "huge issues."

He also challenged Utter and Shoemaker to take on the tough issue of what to do with the Hastings Regional Center and health topics.

He said he hoped they had the "knowledge and the courage" to discuss the difficult issues.

"I didn't enter this not to survive," he said. "We're celebrating the campaign tonight and the campaign workers. If I don't go forward (now), I will be resurrected in four years."

Hughes believes he connected with rural voters and opened doors for their views.

"It's changed the scenery a lot," he said. "We're here to serve Nebraska. It's not about me; it's about them.”