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2 2 1 H is career in the Unicameral behind him, the former state senator would now turn his attention to the Douglas/Sarpy County learning community. The body, to which Chambers was duly elected, formed after passage of the controversial School District Reform Bill (LB 1046). Chambers was sworn in on January 9, 2009, and at seventy-one years of age, set his hands to improving Omaha’s public schools for all children .1 A day earlier, on January 8, the first day of the 2009 legislative session , senators brought members of their families to observe the swearing-in ceremony and festivities. Brenda Council, North Omaha resident and attorney , had won the legislative seat vacated by Chambers. As Council took the oath of office, the former senator looked on from the rear of the legislative chambers. “It was essential . . . for the constituents in the district I once represented to see [I support] her and the changing of the guard.”2 The most significant news of the day, however, appeared to escape the press. Cynthia Grandberry, Chambers’s legislative aide of thirty-six years, appeared with Council and would work for the new senator in her usual capacity for at least one session. Chambers would continue to influence the legislature, for now, and Council would benefit from Grandberry’s expertise in both the mundane matters of legislative protocol and in weighty deliberations in the interests of the community. Although he had not directly groomed a successor, in the end, Chambers made sure that the power and prestige that belonged to the representative of the Eleventh Legislative District did not perish. Afterword ...

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