By Dave Schroeder

NET Television is airing a special program this week on 1968 Presidential politics in Nebraska. It's called "68: The Year Nebraska Mattered". Senior Producer Bill Kelly says that 1968 was the last time that Nebraska played a significant role in the presidential election process. He said that all the major candidates descended on Nebraska for about a month-long period heading into what was called the "May All-Star Primary" at the time. He says that many Nebraska still have many memories to this day about being involved in those campaigns.

Among the events was the American Party convention in Omaha under which George Wallace was a presidential candidate. Kelly said it ended up being a "chair-throwing, almost riot when demonstrators who felt strongly about Wallaces's segregationist views disrupted the convention and it ended up spilling out into the streets". He says passions were really high about civil rights and the war in Vietnam

He adds that people who lived along the Union Pacific corridor across Nebraska may have some strong memories of Robert Kennedy's whistle-stop tour across the state. Other footage includes the Presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and Richard Nixon while they were in Nebraska.

The program will air on Wednesday, May 7, at 8 p.m. CT on NET1. The program repeats Thursday, May 8, at 7 p.m. CT on NET2 and at 9 p.m. CT on NET1, as well as Friday, May 9, at 5 p.m. CT and Monday, May 12, at 7 p.m. CT on NET2.

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