Greg Childers has successfully won the Republican nomination for Oklahoma Senate District 43, the seat vacated by Jim Reynolds.
Childers won 907 to 646 against Theresa Nelson. He will now face off with Democrat nominee, Kenneth Meadors, in a general election scheduled for October 11.
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Former State Representative Kenneth Corn has decided not to run for Oklahoma’s 2nd District congressional seat. Corn’s Tuesday evening press release stated, ”after much soul searching and because of pressing personal matters brought on by the heart-breaking death of my mother only days ago, I have decided that I will not be a candidate for the 2nd Congressional District seat being vacated by Dan Boren.
“My concern for the people and the future of Eastern Oklahoma remains. I am deeply worried about the adolescent behavior of both parties in Congress and I am angered that the privileged few in America and corporations continue to be favored in Washington while common folks in places like Oklahoma suffer.
“Previously I had (indicated) I would likely be a candidate and that was very true. However, my mother’s passing has changed my needs and the needs of my family, and I know that the needs of my house far outreach the importance of a seat in the House.”
With Brad Carson also withdrawing his candidacy, one has to wonder, will the Democrat Party find a viable candidate?
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Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District Seat, being vacated by Congressman Dan Boren, will undoubtedly be one of the closest watched elections on the ballot. Oklahoma now has another candidate to consider. After a failed bid for governor, former State Senator Randy Brogdon plans to challenge State Representative George Faught and businessman, Markwayne Mullin, for the now open congressional seat.
Others rumored to be considering enterin
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Elected in 2010 to represent Oklahoma’s House District 1, Representative Rusty Farley passed away Monday after suffering a pulmonary aneurysm. Farley’s funeral will be held Friday, July 8 at 2:00 pm. The funeral will take place in the Haworth High School Auditorium.
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State Representative George Faught has officially left the race for Speaker of the House. Faught is now pursuing Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District seat being vacated by Congressman Dan Boren. Faught stepping aside leaves two men, Representative Jeff Hickman and Representative TW Shannon, vying to be the next Speaker of the House.
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Texas Republican Governor, Rick Perry, has for years denied interest in running for President. As of late, his tune seems to have changed. Perry has been traveling across the US, making stops in Los Angeles, New York, and New Orleans. This Saturday his presentation to 2,000 people in New Orleans sounded much like a stump speech.
“This administration in Washington that’s in power now clearly believes that government is not only the answer to every need, but it’s the most qualified to make the most central decisions for every American in every area,” Perry said. He referred to Obama’s approach to the ecomony as “an affront to every freedom – loving American and a threat to every private sector job in this country.”
Perry continued stating, “I stand before you today as a disciplined, conservative Texan, a committed Republican, and a proud American, united with you in the desire to restore our nation and revive the American dream.”
Governor Perry seems to be facing a lot of pressure to enter the Presidential race. This continued as he exited the New Orleans convention with the 2,000 attendees on their feet chanting, “Run – Rick - Run”.
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Republican Representative, Paul Wesselhoft, initially filed for open Senate District 43 on Monday. Wednesday Rep. Wesselhoft withdrew from the race, leaving Democrats Larry Foster and Kenneth Meador as well as Republicans Greg Childers and Theresa as the contenders. The primary election is set for August 9, with a general election October 11.
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The Oklahoma Election Board has removed 124,975 voters from the rolls. In Oklahoma voter registration for Republicans is rapidly increasing. Which makes the loss of 56,091 voters an even more crushing blow to the Oklahoma Democrats. Current registration totals are as follows: Republican – 815,445; Democrat – 947,060; Independent – 220,527. As history shows, it never appears this way at the polls.
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Local activists continue to boil over the Jerome Ersland verdict. Mr. Ersland was sentenced to life in prison after shooting a man who was robbing his pharmacy. Rumor has it, gathering signatures for the recall of David Prater is being considered. Developing…….
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It was announced today that Rep. Dan Boren will not be seeking a fourth term. Known for being a conservative Democrat who was easily reelected, this announcement shocked many and has everyone wondering what affect this will have on the political landscape. The question being posed now is, who will replace this Muskogee Democrat? Former State Senator, Kenneth Corn (D – Poteau) and former Congressman Brad Carson (D-Claremore) have already declared interest in the newly open seat. Candidates from the Republican side have been a little slower to publicly declaring their interest. However, two names circulating are State Senator Josh Brecheen (R-Coalgate) as well as Representative George Faught (R-Muskogee).
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I have sold OkiePundit to a friend of mine who is still considering what to do with the site. Since I have been occupied with other business, I have not been able to keep up the blog since the elections. I’m sure the new owner will do something good here.
In our last piece of news, the Republican Party got some extraordinary news this evening when Oklahoma Democrats elected Wallace Collins State Party Chair. They now have as their chair someone who has twice been convicted of libeling political opponents, both Republican and Democrat.
To top it off, they couldn’t seem to run their election correctly. More votes were cast than delegates registered according to this post at DemoOkie. Imagine that. Democrats getting more votes than actual voters!
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Mike Morgan, a Democrat and former State Senate leader, has been indicted on bribery, extortion, and corruption charges by federal prosecutors. The Oklahoman reports Morgan allegedly received over $400,000 in illegal payments while he was in office. Federal officials also allege Morgan and two associates conspired to influence legislation on behalf of two companies who gave the Democrat payments in return.
Read The Oklahoman’s report here.
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Congressman Dan Boren criticized President Obama for being indecisive and slow in his Libya policy.
“The President waited too long to make this decision, and still has not clearly defined an exit strategy. My biggest concern is the possibility of mission creep. Having said that, I do support the efforts being made to build a strong international coalition that we did not really see with regard to Iraq. I believe that the best approach would be a balanced, multi-lateral, and multi-faceted one in which the international coalition uses all of the extensive tools available, such as economic sanctions and a no-fly zone. I do not support an open-ended conflict that includes tens of thousands of boots on the ground.”
Efforts to build a strong international coalition that we didn’t see with regard to Iraq, huh?
Maybe Boren suffers from memory loss, but everyone who remembers the run-up to the Iraq War knows President Bush spent months upon months consulting with allies, NATO, and the United Nations before the invasion. Obama didn’t even consult Congress before launching this war from a foreign nation. Bush’s coalition was also much larger and cohesive than anything Obama has assembled.
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Michael Baker of The Oklahoman really needs to do a better job. Today he posted on his NewsOK blog, slamming critics of the paper who claimed The Oklahoman held back the Harry Coates affair story. In his silly furor he takes aim at Okie Pundit and other blogs that reported on the affair several months ago. But in doing so, he let his anger at the criticism blind him to the entire point of what Okie Pundit and many of the other blogs posted.
OP never reported “multiple well-placed sources” told us about Senator Coates’s affair or that we were reporting an unverified rumor that an affair was going on. Baker said we were just reporting “gossip” and innuendo; no, Baker should read a little more closely. We said we had multiple well-placed sources confirm that the Tulsa World was holding the story until after the primary election. There’s a big difference there, buddy. We called out a specific media outlet that had all the information on the story, but decided to withhold it instead of cause trouble for Coates right before an election in which he was facing tougher than expected opposition. Coates just happens to be friends with many at the World.
We weren’t even really interested in the actual affair, nor were we focused on the contract in dispute. And we didn’t need sources or rumors to tell us about the affair. As we mentioned in the original post, the affair was an “open secret.” Every single sentient human being at the State Capitol knew about it and knew it had been going on. For Baker or the Oklahoma to act as if they were simply waiting for verification of the affair is laughable; everyone knew about it. Atwood and her ex-husband talked about it; so did Coates’s wife.
Also hilarious, though unintentionally so, is Baker’s anger that we didn’t identify our sources. Yes, that’s right, a newspaper guy is angry sources weren’t identified. We apologize: we forgot newspapers NEVER protect their source’s identity.
The point, again for Baker, was that the Tulsa World held onto a story to protect a politician. To paraphrase John Boehner, don’t feed us this ”real journalism” chickencrap. Real journalists wouldn’t have taken six months to verify something most people with a phone and a brain could confirm in two days, and they certainly wouldn’t have held onto a story relevant to voters until after an election.
So let’s be honest here: As a general rule, whenever a newspaper uses excuses for being beaten on a story like “we were verifying information” or “blogs/competitors don’t reveal sources,” you can be nearly 100% sure that they are making excuses for their shoddy and slow-witted reporting failure.
Oh, you’re not anonymous? Good for you. You still failed.
And these guys wonder why old media is dying?
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We’ll be on vacation for a while, but we just wanted to mention one more thing.
M. Scott Carter of the Journal Record is probably one of the worst prognosticators in the entire Western hemisphere. We might be able to include a third of the Eastern hemisphere, too, but we won’t got that far yet.
It’s been well documented how that genius told us Oklahoma’s economy was collapsing and we were on the brink of catastrophe. It’s also been well documented how utterly wrong and stupid he was on that. As far as we know, he never retracted that.
Earlier this year when we were making our election predictions, Carter got pissy about our rating of House District 45 as a Lean Republican Takeover. He said Wallace Collins, the Democrat incumbent is always doubted by people like us, but always ekes it out. Collins is one of Carter’s buddies and Carter actually think Collins was a good Representative (yes, like those who believe in fairies, those people exist). Well, Collins got beat by Republican Aaron Stiles after Collins campaign spent the last two months solely focused on attacking Stiles. Anyway, the Lean GOP Takeover was correct and now Collins is out of a job.
Just another instance where Carter holds himself in high esteem and believes he knows better than the professionals (e.g., economists and political experts). And now yet another instance were this Carter’s arrogance proves wrong and dumb. In addition to being a biased reporter who writes articles favorable to friends (Collins) and let’s his political beliefs get in the way of objective analysis, we can now testify the guy is personally a bonafide jack wagon.
The Journal Record actually pays him to write.
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We have the police reports and it doesn’t look good for Wallace Collins and his supporter.
Meet Travis Livsey. He’s a father, a worker, and a man in a “complicated” relationship according to his Facebook profile. Besides the tattoos, on first glance he seems to be a pretty typical person.
But he’s not.
Mr. Livsey is a Wallace Collins supporter and he is at the center of what is one of the dirtiest, most outrageous tricks played in an Oklahoma political campaign this year.
Last weekend, voters in Norman’s House District 45 received a mail piece from Democrat Representative Wallace Collins. That piece accuses Republican challenger Aaron Stiles of threatening to shoot Mr. Livsey’s daughter in 2008. Stiles emphatically denies the accusation and police reports confirm the allegation is “unfounded.” Indeed, the truth is radically different from what Collins has portrayed.
Okie Pundit was able to obtain and review the police reports related to the incidents. Those reports reveal Wallace Collins and Travis Livsey have engaged in a stunning smear campaign against Mr. Stiles based on an allegation they know to be false, while omitting crucial information.
Those police reports and interviews with those involved show the following: In late June 2008, Mr. Stiles was headed home to get ready for a day of campaigning. Upon arriving on his street, Stiles noticed he was being followed by a man in a truck. When Stiles pulled into his driveway, the man in the truck got out and started yelling in an aggressive manner at Stiles. The man was angry that Stiles had passed him on a residential street while he was pulled to the side of the road. That man was later identified as Travis Livsey.
Mr. Stiles, claiming he had never seen the man before, asked him to leave his property. At that point, Livsey became enraged and started to approach Stiles. Stiles, who is about 5’8” according to the police report, withdrew to his house as the larger Livsey followed him, pounded on the door, and attempted to forcibly enter the residence. Stiles was forced to hold the door shut and yelled to Livsey that he had a gun in the house and if Livsey did not immediately leave his property, his wife would call the police. At that point, Livsey left the scene.
Stiles immediately called the police then followed Livsey to determine where he lived. It was determined Livsey lived in the same neighborhood.
The police responded soon thereafter and interviewed Stiles. A neighbor of Stiles came over, corroborated Stiles’s story, and testified that he and other neighbors had previously had issues with Mr. Livsey, who is known to them as a violent man.
Police then located Livsey and interviewed him. Livsey, at that point realizing he was in trouble, made up a story about Stiles threatening to shoot his daughter–a daughter Stiles says he didn’t even know existed. The police report itself indicates Livsey’s accusation was investigated and was determined to be “Unfounded.”
Livsey, however, was arrested by the police for trespassing and attempted assault and battery.
After being arrested, we believe Livsey wanted retribution against Stiles and so he “leaked” his accusation to Wallace Collins, who then used it for political purposes in debates and mail pieces.
Okie Pundit decided to look into Livsey’s background to see what else we could find. We learned he was married at age 20 to his then-17 year old girlfriend in 1999, and that he has been sued by his landlord for failure to pay rent.
More importantly, his Facebook profile confirms he has a violent side. On April 25th, he posted a status update that says: “it sure make for a intrestin afternoon when u swing a 18 inch crowbar at tha niebors dog, and proceed to tell them ur gunna kill it next time.” (sic).
Additionally, in two posts, Livsey claims he is a racist and proud of it. A status update on September 9th says: “am I a racist??yes, I am,I don’t care if you are white, black purple or orange..if you are here to hurt me, my family or country than yea call me a racist!!” (sic). Another says, ” Yes!!!! I am a racist against those who are here to hurt me,my family or my country!!” (sic).
His Facebook pictures show him displaying his several guns. In one picture, his young daughter is shown holding what appears to be a shotgun. We blurred out her face.
This, friends, is who Wallace Collins is using to defame Aaron Stiles. Everything indicates Livsey is a violent man and a Wallace Collins supporter who was arrested for trying to break into Stiles’s home. Collins who usually wins or loses his elections by a very slim margin is obviously desperate, resorting to the use of unfounded claims by a person who might be unstable. Once again, we’d like to remind our readers that Wallace Collins has been ordered to pay two previous political opponents (one Republican, one Democrat) tens of thousands of dollars in damages after two separate juries found him guilty of defaming them. Indeed, he had his wages garnished and had to mortgage his home to pay the damages.
After this, how can anyone trust anything Wallace Collins says? The man is an embarrassment to our civil society and to Democrats statewide.
Wallace Collins and his buddies better get ready.
This is the man who is at the center of the allegations Wallace Collins is spreading about his opponent Aaron Stiles.
We investigated the allegations and you’re about to find out what really happened.
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Democrat Jim Priest, running for Attorney General against Republican Scott Pruitt, has taken up the attack that Pruitt is in the pockets of business, not the people. To prove this he is promoting the charts posted below. Take a look at those charts and tell us who you think actually represents Oklahomans best? The person who receives 53% of his campaign cash from lawyers or the person who receives contributions from from several different sectors of society and a diverse set of professions?
Note: the numbers depicted in the chart are NOT necessarily from corporations or industry PACs, as Priest is trying to mislead you into believing. When Priest says Pruitt received 16% from “Finance” that actually means much of those contributions came from individuals who list a financial job on their contribution records. Thus, if Jim Smith works in the energy industry as a simple geological researcher and he donates $100 to a candidate, Priest would try to make it seem as if the energy industry donated that $100 to that candidate rather than individual Jim Smith.
But as long as Priest is broaching the subject, take a look at his campaign finance records. Besides the fact that he is clearly beholden to lawyers, what special interests do you see in his report? He has received thousands upon thousands from teachers unions and labor unions like the NEA and AFL-CIO. Is that who Jim Priest thinks represents Oklahomans?
If were judging a candidate based solely on campaign contributions, we’d rather go with the candidate who garners the most support from a large swaths of society and the state, not the candidate who is clearly beholden to a single profession and unions.
(Click on images to see larger version.)
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Campaign records show Emily Virgin, the 23 year old Democrat running for Norman’s House District 44, opened a campaign account and accepted thousands of dollars from contributors before she even lived in the House district and was eligible to run. The revelation comes at a time when Virgin’s campaign has been under pressure as her opponent and several residents question her experience, ties to the district, and the role of her wealthy father, attorney Blake Virgin.
According to her campaign filings, Virgin, a student at OU School of Law, created her campaign organization and began fundraising while she lived in neighboring House District 45. Ethics reports indicate her official campaign was created on September 25th, 2009.
On that date, and prior to her moving into the HD 44, she lived in a house she owned on Frost Lane in HD 45. County Assessor records show she bought that home from her father for $25,000 less than the assessed value.
Virgin’s father bought a house in District 44 on September 11, 2009, which Ms. Virgin moved into in October. According to Ms. Virgin, she is now leasing her home in HD 45 to tenants and is buying the house in HD 44 from her father, who has used his business connections to raise tens of thousands in campaign contributions for his daughter. Virgin’s campaign was registered at the address of her father’s law firm at 404 Peters Ave.
During the Democrat primary both her opponents questioned Virgin’s ties to the district, noting she had moved there just to run for the office at the urging of her father. Her Republican opponent, Kent Hunt, also sent out a campaign mail piece last week showing she has lived in the district for only one year, which prompted a response from Virgin’s campaign. The response was the same mail piece she sent out in the Democrat primary when Democrat Tom Kovach sent a mail piece blasting Virgin for moving into the district to run for the seat. Virgin won the primary without a run-off.
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You know election season is hitting fever pitch when people start arguing about a parking spot. It’s even worse when that parking spot “belongs” to an entitled, arrogant football donor with a dumb name like Penny Cupp.
Such was the case on Saturday during the OSU homecoming game. Apparently a volunteer for Mary Fallin’s campaign parked in a donor’s parking spot after being directed by security to do so. That donor, the fantastically-named Penny Cupp, later arrived to the game and proceeded to make an utter ass out of herself.
Security tracked down the volunteer and asked her to move the car, which she promptly attempted to do. Ms. Cupp was so outraged by the atrocity she had just suffered, she “got in the face” of the volunteer, ”yelled very loud,” and together with her band of privileged lunatics wrote anti-Fallin messages on the car with lipstick.
She then has the gall to tell a reporter “nobody was hostile.”
My favorite part, however: Cupp says the volunteer parking in her spot is just like a burglar breaking into her house. Yes, Ms. Cupp, it’s exactly the same. We’re sure you felt your life was endangered and that your antique map of Uruguay was about to hit the black market.
Cupp found Fallin at the game and told her what happened. Fallin repeatedly apologized, but according to Cupp she didn’t even ask about the spoiled food!
Let me repeat that: SHE DIDN’T EVEN ASK ABOUT THE SPOILED FOOD! Can we start the impeachment proceedings against Fallin please? If I was Fallin and this happened to my volunteer, I’d tell Cupp to throw herself in the lake.
Sounds like Ms. Cupp, a 68 year old resident of Edmond, needs to get back on her medication, lay off the pre-game alcohol, and chill out.
The real mystery is this: Why did Penny Cupp bring this to the media’s attention? Did she truly think she would come off looking like a martyr here? Friends, there are some truly crazy people in the world. Penny Cupp is one of them.
