Kermit Brashear (born March 16, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer from

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

. He was a member of the unicameral

Nebraska Legislature The Nebraska Legislature (also called the Unicameral) is the legislative branch, legislature of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The Legislature meets at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska, Lincoln. With 49 members, known as "senators ...

from 1995 to 2007, and he served as its speaker from 2005 to 2007. __NOTOC__

Personal life

Brashear was born in

Crawford, Nebraska Crawford is a city in Dawes County, Nebraska, Dawes County, Nebraska, United States, in the Great Plains region. The population was 997 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It was incorporated in 1886 and was named for the late Captain ...

. He graduated from Crawford High School in 1962,

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

in 1966 and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Law in 1969. He received an honorary doctorate from Concordia University Nebraska (LL.D., h.c.) in 1983. Now retired, he was admitted to practice law in

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, and

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. He was a partner in Nelson & Harding (1969-1988), Heron, Burchette, Ruckert & Rothwell (1989), Brashear & Ginn (1990-2004) and Brashear LLP (2004-2017), all in Omaha, Nebraska. He was a member of the Board of Directors of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. In 2009-10 he attracted attention and controversy for his role in selling

KFUO-FM KLJY (99.1 MHz) is a commercial-free, listener-supported FM radio station licensed to Clayton, Missouri, and serving Greater St. Louis. It is owned by Gateway Creative Broadcasting, and broadcasts a Christian Contemporary radio format know ...

, the LCMS-owned classical music station in St. Louis, Missouri; as a member of the board, he pushed for selling the station and his law firm handled all the negotiations and closing of the sale.

State Legislature

He was elected in 1994 to represent the 4th Legislative District in the Nebraska Legislature and reelected in 1998 and 2002. He served as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee from 1997 to 2005 and served at various times on the Appropriations, Banking, Commerce & Insurance, and Education Committees, as well as on the Committee on Committees. He was also an

ex officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by r ...

member of the rules committee and a nonvoting member of the Intergovernmental Cooperation committee because of his status as Speaker. Because Nebraska voters passed Initiative Measure 415 in 2001 limiting state senators to two terms after 2001, he was unable run for reelection in 2006. Pete Pirsch replaced him as the 4th District's state senator after the 2006 legislative election.

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brashear, Kermit 1944 births Living people University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Republican Party Nebraska state senators Nebraska lawyers Nebraska politicians convicted of crimes People from Crawford, Nebraska Speakers of the Nebraska Legislature 20th-century members of the Nebraska Legislature 21st-century members of the Nebraska Legislature 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers