John Milton Wightman (October 2, 1938 – January 5, 2017) was a politician from the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. He served two terms, from 2007 to 2015, in the Nebraska Legislature, representing a district in the central part of the state. Wightman was a member of the Republican Party.
Wightman served several terms on the Lexington city council, amounting to some 20 years; for two of those years, he served as the city's mayor.[4]
In 2006, Wightman ran for the Nebraska legislature from the 36th District, which consisted of parts of Buffalo and Dawson Counties in the south-central part of the state. He was one of two candidates, both Republicans, in the nonpartisan race; the other was Dick Pierce, a farmer and rancher from Miller, then a member of the Buffalo County Board of Supervisors.[5][6] In the May 2006 primary election, Wightman received 4227 of the 7147 votes cast, or 59.1% of the total; Pierce obtained 2920 votes, or 40.9%.[7] Since only two candidates had run in the primary, both moved on to the November general election, which Wightman won with 5623 votes (55.3%) to Pierce's 4552 votes (44.7%).[8]
In 2010, Wightman was unopposed for re-election to the 36th District seat.[9] Based on the 2010 U.S. census, the boundaries of the district were redrawn in 2011; it now consisted of the entirety of Dawson and Custer Counties, and the northern half of Buffalo County.[4][10]
Wightman suffered health problems during his tenure in the Legislature, including several knee replacements, one of which was followed by a persistent infection that forced him to miss part of the 2011 legislative session. In September 2012, he suffered what was described as a "moderate" stroke; later, he stated that he had no memory of the two weeks after the stroke.
Under Nebraska's term-limits law, Wightman was ineligible to run for a third consecutive term in 2014.[11] He was succeeded by Gothenburg banker Matt Williams.[12]
