Kate Witek

Kate Witek
Nebraska Auditor of Public Accounts
In office January 1999 – January 2007
Governor	Mike Johanns Dave Heineman
Preceded by	John Breslow
Succeeded by	Mike Foley
Member of the Nebraska Legislature from the 31st district
In office January 1993 – January 1999
Preceded by	Jerry Chizek
Succeeded by	Mark Quandahl
Personal details
Political party	Republican (until 2006) Democratic (after 2006)

Kate Witek is a former Nebraska Auditor of Public Accounts, member of the Nebraska Legislature, and candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska. She was first elected Nebraska State Auditor in November 1998 as a Republican. She was reelected in 2002 as a Republican but was defeated in her attempt for a third term in 2006 after switching to the Democratic Party.

Political career and party switch

Witek began her career as a Republican, winning election to the nonpartisan unicameral Nebraska Legislature in November 1992 from District 31 in southwestern Omaha. She was the elected Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor in 1994 and ran as a team with Gene Spence, the unsuccessful Republican candidate for Governor. After the 1994 election the legislature changed the Nebraska Constitution so that the position of Lieutenant Governor became an appointed position instead of an elected position. Witek was reelected to the Legislature in 1996 but resigned from her District 31 seat upon her swearing-in as the first woman Nebraska Auditor of Public Accounts in January 1999. She was reelected State Auditor in 2002.

After running as the Lieutenant Governor candidate with unsuccessful Governor candidate Tom Osborne, Republican Witek decided to switch parties in August 2006, citing concerns about a Republican Party that, in her own words, "...was only looking at controlling all the offices instead of looking at resolving the problems challenging this state."

Witek had initially decided to forgo reelection in 2006, but after she switched parties, the Nebraska Democratic Party nominated her as their candidate for Auditor at their State Convention in Grand Island, Nebraska.

Private life

Kate Witek has been married to Charles Witek for 30+ years.

See also

• List of American politicians who switched parties in office