McDonald: The system became 'part of me'
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By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star
The dream belonged to her husband, Rick McDonald, when they married in January 1999.
It was his lifelong goal to be a state senator.
She had never dared dream such a thing, with no political experience or state government knowledge. In fact, it never even entered the mind of the small-town mother of four.
But two years into their marriage — a regrettably short time — Vickie McDonald found herself agreeing to take on her dying husband’s dream.
Seven-plus years later, as term limits end the job he sent her to Lincoln to do, she has grown to love it.
“I truly enjoyed the system. And it became part of me,” she told fellow senators on the last day of the 2008 session. “It is the most exciting and greatest experience I’ve ever had in my whole life.”
When she married Rick McDonald, she said she’d do everything she could to help him fulfill his dream, even — without any political experience — run his north central Nebraska campaign in District 41, which touches all or part of nine counties.
And so she worked by his side, keeping his social calendar, organizing newspaper and television ads, becoming his sounding board on issues.
Melissa Griffith, the daughter who lives in Phillips, said her mom has always been organized. So running a campaign came somewhat naturally.
Rick’s passion for politics really rubbed off on her mother, she said.
“They were like gum and shoe, always together, campaigning together,” she said. “She saw the hunger and passion Rick had and she grew to have the same passion.”
In spring 2000, he came in second among four candidates in the primary election, losing by 110 votes to Errol Wells.
Then came a long, hot summer of campaigning, working hard every night in a close race. Rick McDonald got run down and developed a cough. Doctor’s could find nothing wrong.
Then as the summer ended, one doctor looked closer.
Rick McDonald was diagnosed with an aggressive form of kidney cancer.
Still, they continued working on his dream, even amid trips to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, surgery and treatments. And in the November general election, Rick McDonald beat his opponent by 83 votes and took the seat in January 2001.
Seven months later, he died.
He had told his wife, as his life was ebbing, that he wanted her to take his place, to finish his term. That he would ask Gov. Mike Johanns to appoint her.
She protested.
She had been a stay-at-home mom until her kids went to school, then worked as a receptionist for a mortgage company and later as an appraiser at Farm Bureau. She knew nothing about being a senator, nothing about politics or political parties. She had no law degree.
She had no business being in the Legislature.
“I didn’t think I was worthy to be a state senator,” she said.
The Legislature has enough attorneys, he countered.
You know as much as anybody needs to know. You’ve lived the life.
Her high school had been forced to consolidate, so she knew about that hot topic.
She was born and reared on a farm, and she knew the struggles of people in agriculture.
She was divorced after 26 years of marriage and understood, trying to get by on a minimum-wage job.
You have what it takes to be a true citizen legislator because you’ve been there. You understand it.
In August 2001, Johanns appointed Vickie McDonald to fill her husband’s term, and she prepared to pack up and go to Lincoln.
After a couple of special legislative sessions and a regular session, she found herself facing a primary election in 2002, putting 7,000 to 10,000 miles on her car, filling up with gas sometimes twice a day.
“I lived in the district. That was my life, that was my family, that was my salvation. ... There was no reason for me to go home, so I was at everything,” she said.
For that race, recently retired Ord Sen. Jerry Schmitt, who served District 41 from 1993 to 2001, gave up plans for fishing to challenge her. She more than doubled his vote total in the primary and then raked in 8,275 votes to his 4,792 in the general election.
During her career, Vickie McDonald chaired the General Affairs Committee, was vice chairwoman of the Performance Audit Committee and served on the Executive Board and Judiciary Committee.
She sponsored bills on absentee ballots, a cancer drug repository, problem gamblers assistance funding, regulation of salvia, a hallucinogenic herb, and provisions relating to animal abuse and dangerous dogs.
“I truly believe that it was God’s wishes that I be here,” she said a week after the 2008 session ended. “In my life, there’s always been that window of opportunity and I’ve been able to see that window. So I don’t worry about what’s going to happen.”
McDonald, a Republican, never looked at her job as political.
Her first year, Johanns asked her not to support an override on a tax bill he had vetoed.
“I said ... ‘I thank you greatly for appointing me, but it’s my district that has to keep me here, will keep me here.’ I said, ‘I just believe that I have to do what I have to do, and I think I have to vote to override you.’”
Many in her district, she knew, would rather see sales and income taxes raised than property taxes.
“I don’t have to answer to any party. I answer to my district, totally,” she said. “They are the most important part of my voting, and that’s all I care about.”
In 2006, in her second term, McDonald married Larry Harnisch, a man who used to teach with Rick McDonald. His wife had died of bacterial meningitis the day of her retirement party.
Harnisch retired from his career as a superintendent last year, and the couple has decided to move to Lincoln.
“I’m hoping that I will have the opportunity to still serve in some capacity and represent my district or my constituents or rural Nebraska the best way I can,” she said. “Because I truly think that, unfortunately, they get the short end of the stick.”
In the meantime, she is keeping busy until her term expires in January. In the past couple of weeks, she has attended a Homeland Security task force meeting in Washington, D.C., and has spoken at a compulsive gambling conference in Seattle.
Griffith said she knows her mother isn’t ready to give up politics.
“She actually feels and knows what Nebraskans need,” she said. “She’s done very well.”
Vickie McDonald will hate to see the last day come.
“I’m not done doing what I love to do, and I would do it for no pay at all. ... I basically found myself. I can honestly say that.”
Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.
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