Okie Pundit

Norman Watch: HD 44 and HD 45

March 9 2010 by Dr. Havel in Oklahoma Politics, State Legislature, Uncategorized |No Comments

Norman is set to have two bruising battles for state house this year. In House District 44, an open seat has officially drawn two into the race, both on the Democrat side. Emily Virgin and Isaiah McCaslin, both OU students, first announced their candidacy months ago. We have been hearing rumors that David Perry, former Cleveland County Democrat Chair, and Tom Kovach, a Norman City Councilman will join the race. As of now, we know of no Republican entering the race.

Looking at the campaign finance reports reveals some very interesting stuff. First, Isaiah McCaslin reports about -$35 on hand. Yes, that’s negative $35. All his contributions have been in-kind, ranging from web design to $400 worth of pizza. He has had no monetary contributions to date. Emily Virgin, on the other hand, appears unnaturally well off financially. For a first year OU law student who has no political experience, it’s somewhat surprising to see she’s raised nearly $35,000 so far. That includes a $7,200 contribution from herself–undoubtedly given to her by her father, Blake Virgin. Mr. Virgin made the maximum contribution.

Candidate Virgin shows she has hired long-time Democrat consultant Fenilda Rambo, who was recently a consultant in Norman’s highly negative mayoral campaign. So right now we have two OU students with opposite financial fortunes duking it out. Which begs the question: why hasn’t a Republican jumped in the race?

In House District 45, Representative Wallace Collins will be taking on either James Harvey or Aaron Stiles. Stiles was the GOP nominee in 2008 and lost to Collins by fewer than 1,000 votes. Harvey, a local patent attorney, has never run for office. Neither Stiles nor Harvey have filed campaign finance reports.

Whoever is the GOP nominee can expect a tough fight from the always hard campaigner, Wallace Collins. Collins shows nearly $25,000 left in his 2008 campaign account, which can be rolled over to 2010. Among his contributors are David Boren, Cal Hobson, Jalal Faranzeh, and the husband of Norman’s Mayor Cindy Rosenthal. Among his expenditures are nearly $2,000 for cell phone service and $3,500 to his wife, Pat Collins.

House District 46 is not discussed here because Rep. Scott Martin will either not draw an opponent or will draw an opponent who poses the threat of a roly poly.

Next Up: OKC Watch

Fruits of the Stimulus, Part 492

March 5 2010 by Dr. Havel in Economy |No Comments

The jobs report for February came out today and it showed that the economy gained 95,000 jobs, just like the White House said it would. We now know that when the White House tells us something about spending and economics, we can believe it without reservation. Like, for instance, their promise that the unemployment rate would stay under 8% if we passed the trillion dollar plus stimulus package.

Wait…what? Oh. Apparently, the economy actually lost 36,000 jobs and the unemployment rate is at 9.7%.

Update….Silver Tongue Genius Harry Reid: Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good.

Tom Coburn trounces Brad Henry in matchup

March 2 2010 by Dr. Havel in Uncategorized |No Comments

Unless Tom Coburn is caught with a dead girl or a live boy, he’s unbeatable.

OKC Mayor Election on Tuesday

February 28 2010 by Dr. Havel in Uncategorized |No Comments

Oklahoma City sets out to elect their mayor on Tuesday and it doesn’t look like it will be a serious race, with Mick Cornett a heavy favorite to win. And by “heavy favorite,” we mean a certainty.

After all, his opponent’s answers in a Gazette survey show just how insignificant his candidacy is. Our favorite answer:

On his public service experience: “None. I was mayor of “SimCity” once, I think.”

Probable attempt at humor? Yes. Humorous? No.

Veritas in vino: Randy Brogdon’s flip-flop

February 21 2010 by Bill the Butcher in Good government, Oklahoma Politics, State Legislature |No Comments

Last week a Senate committee defeated Senate Joint Resolution 62, which would have allowed voters to decide if grocery stores in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties could sell wine and high-point beer. The measure was defeated 5 to 4. State Senator and gubernatorial candidate Randy Brogdon voted against SJR 62.

The Tulsa World writes, “Brogdon said he thought the measure was discriminatory because it was limited to Oklahoma and Tulsa counties. Regardless, he said, he would have voted against it because he favors the current system.”

Despite campaigning as a candidate that will protect our liberty, Brogdon favors a system in which the state government forbids some businesses from selling wine and beer, but allows others to do so. And he voted to maintain this system on the basis of opposing discrimination.

His weak attempt to defend this anti-liberty position is further complicated by a glaring hypocrisy. In 2007, Brogdon voted for Senate Bill 661, which “would allow cities with more than 300,000 residents to sponsor charter schools.” Furthermore, “A law that’s already in effect allows a local school board to sponsor a charter school in counties where there are more than 500,000 people.”

Randy Brogdon voted to allow only Oklahoma City and Tulsa to sponsor charter schools, but voted against allowing only Oklahoma and Tulsa counties from having wine sold in grocery stores because to do so would be discriminatory.

This raises a number of questions we would like Randy Brogdon to answer for Oklahomans.

1. How does he claim to favor limited government, yet support the government using the force of law to limit businesses from competing in the wine market?

2. How does he claim to favor liberty, yet support the government limiting the personal liberty of those that would like to purchase wine or high-point beer with the rest of their groceries?

3. Does he think the laws regarding charter schools – the original 1999 act allowing charter schools in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties, and the bill he voted for in 2007 – are discriminatory?

3a. If yes, why did he vote for a “discriminatory” law in one case, but not the other? Does Brogdon oppose the existence of the current charter schools?

3b. If no, then how can SJR 62 be discriminatory when it is nearly identical?

Let’s see if Brogdon will answer these questions and tell Oklahomans the truth about his views on liberty and limited government.

Sunny Oklahoma

February 18 2010 by Dr. Havel in Oklahoma |No Comments

We just returned from vacation and we’re glad to see 1) the sun in Oklahoma is out, 2) McCarville’s re-directing ads have disappeared, 3) a budget agreement has been made at the State Legislature, and 4) Oklahoma state races are starting to pick up steam. This is going to be a long 2010.

McCarville Ads Make Us Go Insane

February 14 2010 by Dr. Havel in Pop Culture |No Comments

McCarville Report, I love you. I really do. I check you many times a day. But if you automatically redirect my web browser to another dumb advertisement for snake oil of one kind or another without my permission, I may punch a hole in my monitor. And if my monitor is broken then I won’t be able to check your site until I get it fixed.

Your ad revenue can’t be so large and important to be worth annoying the ever living hell out of your visitors.

Obama Admin Wants To Track Cell Phones

February 11 2010 by Dr. Havel in Good government |1 Comment

The Obama Administration is arguing that warrantless tracking of Americans’ personal cell phones is legally permitted because Americans enjoy “no reasonable expectation of privacy” in their whereabouts.

Anxiously awaiting liberal outrage that would occur if George W. Bush were president….

Jeff Cloud Drops House Bid

February 10 2010 by Dr. Havel in Congress |3 Comments

Sources confirm Republican Jeff Cloud has dropped his bid to become the next Congressman from Oklahoma District 5. The reasons are not yet clear, but an announcement is expected soon. Fundraising may have been an issue. Cloud’s most recent ethics report showed a respectable cash intake, but he was still well behind Kevin Calvey and Mike Thompson. With Cloud’s departure, Thompson, Calvey, Johnny Roy, Rick Flanigan* and James Lankford are the only candidates in the Republican primary. As of yet, no Democrats have entered the race.

Update 11:14 pm: Jeff Cloud has confirmed his exit from the race with a press release on his website. Cloud cites a health condition and an impending surgery as the reason for his exit. We wish Commissioner Cloud a speedy recovery.

*We apologize to Mr. Rick Flanigan, who we accidentally left off the list of candidates vying for the GOP nomination. We were under the mistaken impression that Mr. Flanigan had dropped out. He has not.

Did Wallace Collins Pull Strings to Keep His Son Out of Jail?

February 9 2010 by Dr. Havel in Good government, State Legislature |No Comments

Some Norman residents are questioning the uncharacteristic leniency extended to Representative Wallace Collins’s son, Ryan Collins, during criminal proceedings involving a DUI conviction and probation violation. According to one Norman resident who is familiar with the situation, Ryan Collins should have been charged and jailed for violating the terms of his probation stemming from a 2008 DUI conviction. The situation caught the eye of several people due to the well-earned reputation the City of Norman and Cleveland County for showing very little leniency on criminal complaints dealing with alcohol. Furthermore, given the fact that Wallace Collins was directly involved and the prosecutor and judge are known big-time Democrats, it raised additional suspicion.

On February 13, 2008, Wallace’s son waived his right to jury trial and pleaded guilty on charges resulting from a DUI arrest. Wallace was the bondsman for his son. Mr. Collins received a deferred sentence and was placed on two years probation. Part of the terms of his probation was that he not violate any city, state, or federal laws. The end of the two years would be February 2010.

Almost exactly one year into his two year probation, in February 2009, Mr. Collins was again arrested, this time for public intoxication. Once again, Wallace was his bail bondsman. Given that Collins was still on probation, he should have been charged with violating the terms of his probation and sent to jail, just like any other citizen. According to several Norman attorneys, it is unheard of for the city to show any leniency in such intoxication crimes and pass on a probation violation. Yet, somehow the charges were dismissed. Now this could have been because there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute or it could be because Wallace used some political connections to get his son off. We only mention this second possibility because we discovered in the court records that Mr. Collins was actually fined and ordered to pay costs relating to his arrest. He was even required to pay the state for the time he spent in jail.

According to our source, “When the State dismisses a charge because they don’t think they have the evidence or because they were wrong, they will just dismiss it with Costs to the State. They will merely write this on a Court Minute and file it and it is done. In this case, the State dismissed with Costs to the Defendant. For this to happen, the Defendant would have to agree to it and the judge would have to sign the order. Even though the charges were dismissed, the Defendant is still being punished because he is still paying a fine. The state just can’t dismiss an action and say, “You’re gonna pay for this.””

Making the political connection argument even more plausible are the other players in the case. First, the prosecuting attorney was Jeff Virgin, a Democrat donor and brother of current House District 44 Democrat candidate Emily Virgin. If Emily Virgin is to be successful as a candidate, she will need a lot of political clout behind her, given her sparse public service record and lack of any tangible experience. Second, the case was assigned to Judge Rod Ring. Judge Ring is widely known around Norman for his pronounced liberal leanings and his support of local Democrat candidates. He is also being considered as a replacement for Judge Hetherington’s seat.

We’ll keep an eye on this case and continue to investigate what is going on here, but we suspect that the fact a politically-connected person got off on a charge a regular person in Norman wouldn’t have is no surprise to people familiar with Norman politics, inside the courthouse and outside.

This isn’t the first time the Collins family has been in trouble with the law. Wallace Collins himself was found guilty by two separate juries of libeling his opponents during his 1996 campaign and ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars to his Democrat primary opponent and Republican general election opponent.

Oklahoma Senate Panel Passes Additional Term Limits Measure

February 9 2010 by Dr. Havel in Good government |No Comments

Senate Bill 1597, authored by State Senator Gary Stanislawski, passed a divided General Government Committee by a vote of 5-4. The bill would place term limits on members of boards and commissions. Members would be able to serve a maximum of 12 years per board or commission. Currently, only state legislators and the governor are subject to term limits. Voters will decide in November whether to place term limits on other statewide elected offices.

Hecox Withdraws from Race After DUI Revelations

February 8 2010 by Dr. Havel in OkiePundit, Oklahoma Politics |No Comments

NewsOK is reporting that Matthew Hecox is withdrawing from the House District 44 Democrat primary just a day before he was set to appear in court on a charge stemming from his DUI arrest on New Year’s Eve.

Hecox cited “personal reasons” as the reason for his withdraw. The revelation that he was arrested for driving under the influence and that he only recently registered as a Democrat was first reported here on Okie Pundit. Numerous news organizations picked up the story, creating pressure on Hecox to explain himself or bow out.

With Hecox out, Emily Virgin and Isaiah McCaslin remain as the only two declared candidates in the race. Like Hecox, both are OU students.

Majority of Democrats View Socialism Positively

February 5 2010 by Dr. Havel in Political Ideology, Presidential politics |Comments Off

Remember when Democrats and defenders of President Obama flipped out when Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives claimed Obama was a socialist? They said it was “hate speech” and motivated by racism. They and media outlets like MSNBC and CNN scoffed at the notion and ridiculed those who said it. Personally, I was glad to finally see so many liberals repulsed by the accusation of being associated with socialism–something they were full, proud defenders of not too long ago.

Well, without expounding on the veracity of the socialist claims against Mr. Obama, we now have information from Gallup that perhaps Obama’s defenders were protesting a little too much. Indeed, they were probably just recoiling because their messiah was under attack and felt the need to defend him, rather than because the accusations were false or disgraceful.

Yesterday Gallup Poll reported that a majority (53%) of Democrats have a “positive” view of socialism and 61% of liberals viewed socialism positively. This isn’t really a surprise to those of us who know the Democrat Party’s past, but it does make us wonder why they were so offended when their party’s leader was accused of holding views a majority of them view positively.

On a separate note, the poll showed 17% of Republicans viewed socialism positively, including 20% of conservatives. Who are these people? We’re willing to bet that those 17 and 20% don’t even know what Republicanism, conservatism, or socialism is. In all likelihood they’re probably just–to be blunt– idiots. How else to explain the contradiction? This just proves there is always a set number of fools in any ideology or party who will believe or say anything.

Dan Boren Votes to Increase National Debt Limit

February 4 2010 by Dr. Havel in Budget and taxes, Congress, Economy |2 Comments

Dan Boren, who fancies himself a fiscally conservative Democrat, just voted with his Democrat colleagues to raise the national debt limit by a record $1.9 trillion. If the raise in the limit passes the Senate, the Democrats will have raised the national debt ceiling to a staggering $14.3 trillion, which is close to 100% of our GDP and $45,000 per every person living in the United States.

37 Democrats voted “No.” All but three Republican members voted “No.” Those three were not present during the vote. The federal government now borrows 40 percent of every dollar it spends.

Democrat Bill To Teach Bible in Public Schools Advances

February 3 2010 by Dr. Havel in Education |1 Comment

Democrat Senator Tom Ivester wants the Bible taught in public schools. And today his effort to make that a reality has passed one hurdle. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education approved Ivester’s bill that would allow schools to offer an elective course on the Bible. According to Ivester, the courses would focus on the historical context of the book.

My question is this: why would any Christian (or any religious person) want the Bible (or any holy book) taught in our public schools by teachers who are likely incompetent on the subject? This is a contradiction I’ve never understood from advocates of more religious instruction in our public schools. We recognize our public school system is an unmitigated failure in many respects, including teacher subject competency, yet we want them to provide instruction to our children on an important aspect of our culture we acknowledge few (if any) teachers would be competent to provide. Perhaps religious instruction is best left to the experts–in church.

Fruits of the Stimulus: Feds Revise Data to Show Additional 840,000 Jobs Lost

February 3 2010 by Dr. Havel in Economy |Comments Off

This is interesting. Apparently the federal government is issuing a report “revising” the US employment data to show that 840,000 additional jobs have been lost, thereby revealing a dramatically worse labor environment than previously reported.

Of course this is bad news for President Obama and the Democrats whose stimulus package has decisively failed to stimulate anything but our national debt and government payroll. But this is even worse for the nation and the people currently seeking jobs. The nation is hurting right now and Mr. Obama and his party are focusing on raising taxes, increasing the federal payroll, and enacting a budget with an enormous $1.3 trillion deficit. One can only hope that the approaching reality of November 2010 will scare them out of their government-induced stupor.

Reuters: Middle Class Faces Tax Increases Under Obama

February 2 2010 by Dr. Havel in Budget and taxes, Economy |1 Comment

Obama made many pledges on the campaign trail in 2008 and in the beginning stages of his presidency. These included prohibiting lobbyists from serving in his administration, enacting a net spending cut, closing Guantanamo Bay by January 2010, and open and transparent health care negotiations. All of those pledges have been violated. And now we can add another one to the list: Obama’s famous pledge to ensure the middle class will not see a tax increase during his administration.

Reuters explores a slew of upcoming tax increases set to hit America’s middle class and hit them hard. These so-called Backdoor tax increases include a jump in the personal income tax rate, an increase in the tax on dividends and capital gains, and the elimination of several tax credits and deductions lower income American can take advantage of.

With the economy showing signs of a nascent recovery, these tax increases have the potential to send us right back into a recession by killing jobs and investment in the economy. As has been noted many times on this site, Obama promised us an unemployment ceiling of 8% if Congress passed his Stimulus package. It’s now at 10% and shows no signs of abating. The budget deficit has skyrocketed and the national debt has increased to an all time high. Obama can break all the promises he wants, but if he expects Americans to trust him, he’ll have to keep at least one of his major pledges to the voters that helped elect him.

Gallup Shows Major Increases for GOP

February 2 2010 by Dr. Havel in Oklahoma Politics |Comments Off

The Gallup Organization released their annual study of party affiliation by state and found the Democrats’ advantage slipping in all but a few states. Nationwide, Democrats accounted for 49% of registered voters, while Republicans accounted for 41%.

Democrat losses, and GOP gains, were strongest in Ohio, Hawaii, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Montana, and Maine. Montana actually flipped from Democrat advantage to GOP advantage. In Oklahoma, the Democrats started 2009 with a 6 point advantage, but by the end of the year that had slipped dramatically to a 1 point advantage. According to information from the State Election Board, Democrat registration dropped below 1 million (999,855) for the first time and GOP registration shot up by more than 20,000 to 813,000.

Only seven states showed gains for Democrats. They were all modest, ranging from 1 to 4 points, and came mostly from solid GOP-voting states like Utah and Nebraska.

One major caveat: these numbers are based on registration, not actual voting patterns. For example, Gallup lists Oklahoma as being a “competitive” state due to the nearly even registration numbers, but no one believes that to be true. We haven’t voted for a Democrat presidential contender since Lyndon Johnson and our Congressional delegation is solidly and safely Republican. Gallup only arrives at this conclusion because Democrats still hold a party registration advantage, albeit an increasingly tigthening one. Thus, the competitive categorization is meaningless here. This applies to other states as well, such as Texas and Kansas.

Taking this into account, the GOP advantage is actually larger than what Gallup makes it out to be, as more conservative Democrats and Independents will vote for the GOP candidate.

County Republican Chairman Alleges Violation of Constitution

February 1 2010 by Dr. Havel in Good government, Oklahoma Politics |Comments Off

Cleveland County Republican Party Chairman Bobby Cleveland is accusing state legislators of violating a Constitutional prohibition against giving public funds to private organizations.

On his blog, That’s Just Bob, Cleveland alleges that Republican leaders in the State Legislature are wrongly circumventing the law by appropriating state dollars to ACOG, which then takes that money and gives it to private companies and organizations such as the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas and the Jim Thorpe Association. If the state were to give these organizations the money directly, it would violate the state constitution. Cleveland believes their actions are similar to money laundering and asks why legislators are trying to hide the transactions through a third-party group.

Cleveland further alleges that certain legislators told him that Speaker Chris Benge threatened their committee assignments if they voted against the appropriations.

Still No Democrats in OK 5

February 1 2010 by Dr. Havel in Congress, Oklahoma Politics |Comments Off

Via McCarville we see the latest campaign finance reports indicate a brewing primary battle with at least four well-funded candidates.

Mike Thompson has raised the most with $571,000. Following Thompson is Kevin Calvey with $419,000. James Lankford and Jeff Cloud had smaller, but still respectable receipts of $130,000 and $175,000 respectively.

All of the candidates are Republicans. Which still leaves us wondering, “Where are all the Democrats?” Time is ticking and Democrats still haven’t been able to find a credible challenger. Last we heard, rumors were that Jim Roth or Andrew Rice would jump in the race, but that seems unlikely now. Democrats stand little chance of taking District 5 in this political environment and neither Roth nor Rice want to add consecutive losses to their political resume.