GOP Businessman Named to Replace Sen. Zorinsky

In an appointment she said she knew was “a shocker,” Gov. Kay Orr today named Republican businessman David Karnes, 38, a political unknown, to fill the Senate seat vacated by the death of Democratic Sen. Edward Zorinsky.

Karnes, 38, was one of Orr’s top campaign supporters in 1986. He is a senior vice president of a lumber and grain business and is chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank in Topeka, Kan.

The Republican governor said she knew her decision would “come as a shocker” to many political observers. Karnes’ name had not been among those brought up by political regulars or the media since Zorinsky died Friday night of a heart attack.

“David and his family are what Nebraska is all about,” Orr said at a news conference. “I’m very proud he has accepted my offer.”

The appointment of Karnes gives the Republicans 46 senators and the Democrats 54.

“It was a tough decision to make,” Karnes said. “I’m probably not a politician, I’m just an individual. But she (Orr) feels that I have the capability to do the job that Nebraska needs.”

Karnes, who described himself as a conservative on fiscal affairs and a moderate on other issues, said he plans to run for the seat in 1988.

Political observers had believed Republican Reps. Hal Daub and Doug Bereuter and Omaha attorney Kermit Brashear to be the top candidates for Zorinsky’s seat. All three had told Orr they were interested in the position.

Karnes is senior vice president and general counsel of the Scoular Co. of Omaha, which employs about 450 people and operates more than 50 grain elevators, terminals and merchandising offices in the central and western United States.

He has a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is an Omaha native.

In 1981, Karnes was chosen for a White House fellowship and worked as a special assistant to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Samuel Pierce for a year.