Russ Karpisek
Russ Karpisek (born July 20, 1966) is a politician from the U.S. state of Nebraska. He served in the Nebraska Legislature from 2007 to 2015. Early life and career Karpisek was born on July 20, 1966, in Friend, Nebraska, and graduated from Wilber-Clatonia High School in 1984. In 1989, he graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with a B.S. in business administration. After college, he returned to his hometown of Wilber, where he took over his grandmother's business, Karpisek's Meat Market. He served as mayor of Wilber from 1994 to 2006. Legislature Elections In 2006, Karpisek challenged incumbent Jeanne Combs for the 32nd District seat in the Nebraska legislature. The district, in the southeastern part of the state, then consisted of Fillmore, Jefferson, Saline, and Thayer counties. In the nonpartisan primary, Combs, a Republican, won 50.1% of the vote; Democrat Karpisek won 43.3%; and George Shada, an independent and a college student from Fairbury, won 6.6%. Shada was eliminated from the race; Combs and Karpisek, as the top two vote-getters, were to move on to the general election. Less than two weeks after the primary, Combs, a registered nurse, announced that she had been offered a significant advance in her