LINCOLN – The Nebraska Republican Party is asking a Lancaster County court to protect Gov. Pete Ricketts from a subpoena in a civil case filed by former Legislature candidate and fellow Republican Janet Palmtag.

Palmtag’s attorney David Domina is asking for Ricketts’ testimony in a case where Palmtag claims the Nebraska Republican Party published false statements about her out of malice.

Palmtag claims the existence of a recorded statement where Ricketts told Party Chairman Dan Welch to go after Ms. Palmtag “hard” during the election because she chose to run against the candidate Ricketts had appointed.”

State Sen. Julie Slama defeated Palmtag to retain her seat. Palmtag’s suit alleges that in the process, the Republican Party damaged Palmtag’s reputation, caused emotional distress and caused $500,000 in losses for her real estate business.

The Republican Party’s answer to Palmtag’s allegations says they maintain the truthfulness of campaign material and deny any actual malice toward Palmtag.

The party says Palmtag was a public figure and mailers contained protected speech on a matter of public concern.

The Republican Party added  the law firm Husch Blackwell to the case and objected to the subpoena in December.

The Republican Party says  Palmtag can not show how Ricketts possesses information she seeks under the court’s rules of discovery and contends that the subpoena could be an attempt to create unnecessary embarrassment.