Sandra K. Scofield

In 1990, Republican Congresswoman Virginia D. Smith declined to seek re-election to an eighth term in the 3rd district, which included most of western Nebraska. Scofield announced that she would run to succeed Smith,^[9] and defeated attorney Scott Sidwell, the former chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, in the Democratic primary, winning 57 percent of the vote.^[10] In the general election, she faced Bill Barrett, the Republican nominee and the speaker of the Nebraska Legislature. Barrett ultimately defeated Scofield by a narrow margin, despite the district's history of voting for Republican candidates,^[11] winning 51 percent of the vote to Scofield's 49 percent.^[10]

After the election of Democrat Ben Nelson as Governor in 1990 Nebraska gubernatorial election, he named Scofield as his chief of staff, and she resigned from the legislature in 1991 to serve in his administration.^[12] In 1992, she stepped down as chief of staff and was appointed by Nelson to serve as a special assistant to the Office of Planning and Budget, overseeing the Budget Office and the Policy Research Office.^[13] In 1993, Nelson appointed her as the project director of the Nebraska Statewide Systemic Initiative, an initiative to improve math and science education in the state.^[14] Scofield married her successor in the state legislature, Bob Wickersham, in 1995.^[15] She was appointed the director of the Nebraska Rural Initiative for the University of Nebraska system in 2002.^[16]