FIRED UP – READY TO GO!!!

On Friday I figuratively took the National Committeewoman baton from the able hands of Kathleen Fahey and attended my first meeting of the Democratic National Committee. I think everyone except me had been there for most of the week and was a little tired of cheering, so I was the most enthusiastic responder to Chairman Howard Dean’s remarks. We unanimously acknowledged that the 2008 Democratic Convention had been an undeniable success, thanks to our hosts the City of Denver and the State of Colorado and to the remarkable work of Convention managers and volunteers.

Here’s the cool news: the DNC has certainly noticed that there is at least one electoral vote in Nebraska that could end up in the Obama column, so we can look forward to some high profile attention – and maybe visits – in the next couple of months. All we have to do is keep registering voters – and raising money – to keep that attention.

YES WE CAN !!!

Mark and the girls and I were able to be in Denver for the last day of the 2008 Democratic Convention. What a thrill to:

• meet with the fired-up Nebraska delegation (who almost did not get to cast their votes on Wednesday, but were able to do so right before Hillary Clinton spoke on behalf of the New York delegation to affirm Barck Obama by unanimous acclamation;

• visit the (now empty) Pepsi Center [see our picture] and imagine it filled with the power of dreams (thank you Michelle), unity (thank you Hillary), perspective (thank you Bill) and vision ( thank you Joe);

• walk around Denver, wearing our Obama buttons/hats/t-shirts with impunity;

• be in a stadium with 80,000+ supporters of the next President of the United States, each one yelling and chanting louder than the next; and

• participate in an incredibly important historical event – and one that will define the future of our beloved country.

If you watched the 2008 Democratic Convention on television, you might have missed these moments that were highlights of “being there” for our family:

• observing hundreds of police and security personnel, lurking around every corner in Denver, riding horses – and Segues – and perched on the rooftop of Mile High Stadium;

• sitting within 8 rows of the viewing box where Oprah Winfrey, Kanye West, Mary J. Blige and Forrest Whittaker were sitting to experience the moment [really – you can see the very bad picture to prove it!];

• singing along with Will I Am and John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Sheryl Cow and Stevie Wonder in a beautiful, clear, summer evening in Colorado;

• enjoying the punchline “I want a government that will care as much about Barney Smith as it does about Smith-Barney” – and then chanting “ Barney! Barney! Barney! Barney!” with a stadium-full of enthusiastic Democrats;

• negotiating the logistics of being four people – out of the tens of thousands of people -- taken to the stadium from all parts of Denver – and being picked up after the event in unnumbered, randomly located buses scattered around the unlit grounds of the stadium among the CNN cables and port-a-potties;

• realizing that the evening’s production had been so finely-programmed, that some speakers were specifically scheduled to give the talking-heads time to analyze for the viewing audience and that the stage managers were so efficient we actually got 10 minutes ahead of the prime time coverage for Barack Obama’s acceptance speech; and

• sharing the respectful silence of 80,000+ people listening to Congressman John Lewis, the only surviving speaker at the 1963 March on Washington, sharing his feelings about what the nomination, acceptance, and election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States means to Americans, those who have gone before us and those who will follow.

Democrats in North Platte

I travelled to North Platte last weekend to explain why I want to be the next National Committeewoman for the Nebraska Democratic Party -- and why I will be good at it.

In a much-appreciated show of support, my daughters, Christian and Eleanor, came with me. Here is a picture of the three of us (okay, in Venice, not North Platte, but I like it --and ....

Ellie's review of the North Platte experience. This past weekend, I had the chance to join my mother on a journey to North Platte to attend a meeting of the 3rdCDO. I was excited because, not only did I finally have an excuse to wear my cute new dress, I had the opportunity to see the democratic process in action. While I have always followed politics (it is hard not to in my family), this was the first time I have ever had the chance to see where decisions and policies begin. I was also very excited by the number of Democrats that attended the meeting. I know how hard it can be to travel across the third congressional district (especially when gas costs this much!) so the fact that so many people attended this meeting encouraged me. Surely these individuals represented a greater constituency throughout the district. So, new dress aside, I was very happy that I chose to come with my mother to North Platte. I got to reinvigorate my sense of democratic pride and meet a great bunch of people.

Jane: An Introduction

After being a corporate securities lawyer for 22 years at the Kutak Rock (Omaha), Jane Erdenberger is enjoying her second career as a Social Studies teacher at Omaha North High Magnet School, where she teaches Honors Geography, Ethnic Studies and African American History. She also serves on the school’s Safe, Secure and Disciplined Schools committee, the Black History Month committee and the Scholarship Committee and has been one of the sponsors of the Senior Class for the past three years.

Jane is currently serving as a Senior High representative on the OEA Board. After serving a full three-year term, in the Spring of 2006, she was re-elected for another three years. While on the OEA Board, Jane has been an active member of the PACE Committee, the CAF Board, the Investment Committee and the Finance Committee, and has served on the Minority Affairs Committee and the Special Projects/Public Relations Committee. In those capacities she has participated in legislative lobbying, OPS School Board meetings and forums, and has interviewed school board and Unicameral candidates.

Jane has long been active in politics. She helped manage the campaign of her husband when he ran for the State Board of Education and Douglas County Commissioner and stays in regular contact with her city, county, state and federal representatives. This interest, and experience, makes her an effective advocate for teachers and students where it counts – with people and institutions responsible for making the policy decisions that affect our ability to be successful teachers and professionals working with eager learners.

Jane's husband Mark Hoeger was the Executive Director of the Children's Theater in Omaha for 14 years . He is currently co-owner of an Omaha based film production company. Jane has two daughters. Christian is in her final year of graduate school at Columbia University where she is training to become a counseling psychologist. Eleanor is an anthropology major at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. She just returned from a semester of her senior year studying in Morocco.

KMTV-Omaha News Story

Local news is always looking for a man-bites-dog story. A corporate lawyer who leaves a partnership with one of the largest law firms in the country to become a teacher fits the bill. But Jane was lucky enough to have made a good living before becoming a teacher. The real heroes are the ones who make that sacrifice for their entire careers.

NSEA State Funding Campaign Spots Feature Jane

A couple years ago the Nebraska State Education Association ran a TV campaign to put pressure on the legislature to increase state aid. The campaign produces five 30 second spots. Each one featured a different teacher from across the state. Jane was one of them.

To Her with Love

This is from our annual Christmas family newsletter. My clever husband wrote it as if it is a review of a television show based on my supposedly dramatic life.


The premise of the ABC original was basically Green Acres in reverse. Take a big time successful corporate lawyer and move her not to the country but to the inner city as a high school social studies teacher. The trouble is, after four years it is a little hard to buy the idea that a person would put up with the aggravation, not to mention the loss of income, if it was still an impossible struggle.


Credit the series with allowing Jane Erdenberger’s character to mature from an Oliver Douglas cocky naivete to a genuinely skilled educator. Now we see a teacher who is the master of the classroom no matter what students throw at her. In one episode, Jane discovers that a confiscated cell phone’s wallpaper displays a self-portrait of the young man’s naked manhood. Without a beat she quips, “You must have taken this from a long ways away.” Now we see a teacher who is having fun and making a difference in students’ lives. In a bit of slapstick she and a robust gym teacher lash legs for a pep rally 3-legged race. After two NASCAR-worthy wipeouts, the resulting scrapes and bruises give her a House-like hobble for three episodes. As one student tells another teacher, “You gotta love that lady!”


Having mastered her relationship with her students, the drama now moves outside the classroom. Peeved that the school system does not recognized her J.D. as an advanced degree, Jane decides to get even by pursuing an M.A. in Poli Sci. It is a chance to remind her character what a classroom is like from the other side of the desk and that a student might just have other priorities than the 40 page paper that is due on Tuesday. Needless to say, in the end she gets straight A’s.


In a dramatic storyline, the mother of a failing student makes a serious charge against Jane of racial bias. The accommodating and community-minded principal responds by moving the daughter to another class and refusing Jane a forum with the parent. Prudence and friends tell Jane to drop the matter but she asks, “If she had accused me of molesting her daughter would moving her be acceptable? If I am a racist, why am I still in the classroom?” The unresolved storyline ends with a letter to her union lawyer requesting a formal defense.


Brilliantly, with Jane comfortably and completely committed to her new life, the series seemed to have dropped the whole issue of giving up her former career. But in the final scene of the season, Jane returns to her old law firm for some after-hours photocopying. The office is newly remodeled to tasteful perfection. It now seems a wonderland of marble, leather and modern art masterpieces. As she marvels at the solid oak stalls of the women’s lounge and thinks about the school restroom she shares with 800 teenage girls, it is clear she is questioning, "Did I make the right decision?”