Story by Michael McNutt:
Contributions from executives affiliated with a company interested in buying the state’s workers’ compensation agency, as well as the firm’s political action committee, had no influence on a legislative task force which looked into selling it, the panel’s two co-chairmen said.
The contributions, which total $12,000 each to Sen. Cliff Aldridge and Rep. Dan Sullivan, were made two weeks before a company executive urged the task force to sell CompSource Oklahoma.
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Via McCarville, we learn that the Tulsa World picked up our story on Dan Sullivan and Cliff Aldridge receiving questionable donations from an insurance company that will benefit from legislation Sullivan is carrying this year. Unfortunately, they didn’t credit us.
We’re not credit hogs, but we did do some substantial work to find the connections between the two legislators, NAICO, and NAICO’s subsidiaries, so recognition for that work would be nice. Over the past several years we’ve seen how local blogs must pick up slack for an increasingly incompetent mainstream media establishment. We’ve seen stories broken on McCarville, OKPNS, and other outlets that no one would have ever heard about if not for their work. Then media like the Tulsa World sweep in, run a story, and pretend like they found it all along. Oh well.
Here is the Tusla World story. Be sure to check out the comments section.
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The election to replace Glenn Coffee as the new Oklahoma Senate President Pro Tempore has been thrown into disarray by the threats of four Senate Republicans who are threatening to join the Democrats during the vote. The caucus vote is supposed to occur this coming Monday.
Senators Jim Reynolds, Harry Coates, Jonathan Nichols, and Steve Russell are angry with the caucus’s choice of their colleague Brian Bingman and have vowed to vote against him on the floor unless the election is delayed. Credible sources confirm Bingman has a substantial majority of Republican votes to become President Pro Temp and would be easily elected if the vote were held today.
The other candidates are Brian Crain, Cliff Aldridge, and Harry Coates. With the votes of Russell, Nichols, Reynolds, and himself, Coates has four votes in the caucus. Aldridge and Crain aren’t considered viable.
The sources confirm the four renegades are threatening to join with Democrats to elect Harry Coates President Pro Tempore. Coates has the support of Democrat Charlie Laster, who is likely working with his colleagues to gain support for Coates in the Democrat caucus. With Republicans controlling a 26-22 majority, the switch of the four senators would be enough to elect Coates as long as the Democrats agree to terms. The Democrat caucus is now salivating at the possibility of a Republican civil war and a return to a semblance of power.
The disagreement arises partially due to issues surrounding Senate staff and the recent departure of Fred Morgan. We also know that Jim Reynolds is on the payroll of Harry Coates, which helps explain his intransigence.
The news of the four obstructionist Republican Senators is disappointing for Republicans and conservatives across the state who worked for years to finally win the State Senate. In many ways, this is the behavior you expect out of spoiled children. When they don’t get their way, they throw fits and threaten to run away. They either ignore the consequences of their action or are so myopic they can’t see them.
In this case, if Coates was elected with Democrat support, the Senate would once again be beholden to the Democrat caucus, which will be led by ultra-liberal Andrew Rice. Coates would have to follow the orders of Democrats or risk them withdrawing their support.
We have no horse in this race. We honestly don’t know much about Bingman or Coates, but we’re sure they’re both good people. We have been involved in politics for a long time. In that time, we’ve supported various Republican candidates in primaries. Some we’ve won and some we’ve lost. But not once did we throw a fit when our candidate lost and threaten to support the other side simply because we didn’t get our way.
Of course, for many of us, the involvement of Steve Russell and Jonathan Nichols in this plot is a major disappointment and embarrassment. They were elected in 2008 in the wave that finally brought an end to Democrat control of the State Senate and they are now placing that victory in jeopardy.
Word is both Russell and Nichols have their eyes set on higher office. If they maintain their obstructionist and, as others have put it, “treasonous” stance, they will surely see their hopes of higher office evaporate before their eyes.
Okie Pundit’s unsolicited advice: if you’ve lost, suck it up, boys. Stop acting like children.
Another take from OKPNS here.
Yesterday represented the largest increase in web traffic to Okie Pundit we’ve seen since we took over in December. We received dozens of emails from people wanting more information and from some wanting to provide their own information. Several other Oklahoma political blogs picked up the Dan Sullivan and Cliff Aldridge campaign contribution story and we expect mainstream media outlets to run with it soon.
As our readers know, we are conservatives at Okie Pundit. But that doesn’t mean we won’t call out some of our Republican representatives who claim to be “common sense” conservatives when they author bills that expand government or act in unethical ways, as we believe Sullivan and Aldridge did. We are committed to good, limited government. We will continue investigating these claims and others precisely for that reason, even (especially) if it means people at the capitol are angry with us. Each time an elected official acts in a way that will erode public confidence in their government, that story needs to be told regardless of party or ideological belief.
When Republicans took control of the State House in 2004, a lot of good was accomplished and our state was better off after 100 years of Democrat neglect. But it appears some of our representatives are becoming increasingly complacent and reckless in their new majority power. That’s leading them to become the corrupt social engineers and big government cheerleaders that we thought we rid ourselves of from 2004-2008. Since Republicans took control of the legislature, we’ve seen everything from a ridiculous proposed ban on pitbulls, to absurdly expanding Quality Jobs tax credits to call center jobs, to legislation further prying into the private contracts and dealings of private citizens, and increasing government budget without tangible results (e.g., given the increase in education and health spending and bureaucracy, there is little evidence of commensurate increases in results). We’ve seen this before on the national level, and it doesn’t end well.
Even though we are a modest news and opinion outlet in the realm of established blogs, hopefully Okie Pundit can still help prevent some of the excesses that come with increasing government power.
Okie Pundit is still receiving new information, but this is what we know at this time about contributions made to Representative Dan Sullivan, Assistant Majority Floor Leader, and Senator Cliff Aldridge.
Two Republican legislators accepted a total of $24,000 in campaign contributions over a period of three days in September from an insurance company that stands to gain financially from recommendations made by a task force that studied the possible privatization of Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation system. The Task force on Privatization of CompSource Oklahoma was studying whether to mutualize CompSource or sell it off to a private company.
Representative Dan Sullivan and Senator Cliff Aldridge, the two chairmen of the task force, each accepted $12,000 from the National American Insurance Company (NAICO) while the task force met. Though initially Sullivan and Aldridge ostensibly claimed they could not say whether mutualization or privatization was the best course, by the end of the task force meetings in December both were big proponents of selling the system to a private company. In fact, Sullivan recently filed House Bill 2662, legislation that would require the state to sell CompSource by December 31, 2011.
And suddenly NAICO has emerged as the leading candidate in the politically-charged battle to purchase CompSource.
We believe NAICO engaged in a coordinated effort to funnel money to Sullivan and Aldridge in order to influence the recommendations of the task force and pending legislation.
It appears NAICO used at least three different guises to make the campaign contributions in an effort to make them difficult to track. We know the contributions were given using different company names and political action committees, as well as from employees of the company who listed different company names on their contribution forms. According to his ethics report, Senator Aldridge received $12,000 for his campaign committee, Cliff Aldridge for Senate 2006. All of the contributions were accepted on the same day from the following groups and individuals:
Representative Sullivan also accepted $12,000 to his Friends of Dan Sullivan 2010 campaign committee. These contributions were made on the same day from the following groups and individuals:
We see three different organizations listed here as the employers of the insurance-connected contributors who all just happened to contribute on the exact same day: Chandler USA Inc., NAICO, and National American Life Insurance. And then there is the political action committee, Promoters of Private Enterprise, who’s stated goal is to “promote private awareness of the benefits of freely developed enterprise.” Employees of NAICO interchangeably used “NAICO” and “National American Insurance Company” on the contribution forms, thus making it more difficult complete searches of the ethics reports. Frank Gulley also misspelled NAICO, listing his employer as MAICO. Furthermore, on two different contribution forms, Mark Paden, the Executive noted above, lists his employer as Chandler USA Inc. and National American Insurance Company.
Indeed, this is what really caught our attention: National American Insurance Company lists its address as 1010 Manvel Avenue, Chandler, OK.
Chandler USA Inc. lists its address as 1010 Manvel Avenue, Chandler, OK.
And Promoters of Private Enterprise, the political action committee that maxed out to Sullivan and Aldridge on the same day Chandler USA Inc and NAICO employees donated, lists its address as 1010 Manvel Avenue, Chandler, OK.
All of them are from the exact same address and appear to be run by the same family. While investigating, we also learned that employees of Chandler USA Inc. have NAICO email addresses. In addition to contributing directly to the candidates, Brent LaGere and Mark Paden (along with Tony Gulley) contributed over $10,000 to Promoters of Private Enterprise, which in turn gave the maximum contribution to Sullivan and Aldridge. Lance LaGere was one of the witnesses who appeared before the Task Force to testify in favor of selling the system.
So let’s be clear: there is no distinction between Chandler USA Inc., NAICO, and Promoters of Private Enterprise. They are all the same organization simply using different names and means to disguise their contribution patterns and influence those who have the power to drop current state assets into their pockets.
At OkiePundit, we favor the privatization of the workers’ compensation system because we believe it will be the most efficient system and we do not believe running such a system to be within the realm of state responsibilities. But we do not favor privatizing it through politically and financially duplicitous means, which is what appears to be going on right now.
This situation revives fears of Pay-to-Play at the State Capitol and implicates our entire campaign ethics system. What we have here is a form of bribery that has been done through the legal means of our campaign finance system. A private corporation effectively gave $24,000 to two legislators who had enormous power in deciding the fate of a state-owned system that is potentially very profitable for that corporation.
Why did Sullivan and Aldridge accept these campaign contributions from a company they knew would stand to profit from their decisions specifically related to the task force they were co-chairs of? Why did the company decide to make the contributions in the middle of the task force study? And why did they make the contributions when they knew one of their executives would be testifying about the matter before the task force?
We are still finding additional information, including information that connects Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland and Brad Henry’s brother-in-law to this story. As more details come in, we will keep you informed. This story will be updated as new information is added.
Breaking….Okie Pundit set to release information potentially implicating certain House and Senate Republicans in financial scandal and conflict of interest. Story will reveal how business is conducted at capitol. Stay tuned as OP verifies the information. More…
Story coming this afternoon. Involves member of House Republican leadership. More…
Story questioning campaign contributions to Rep. Dan Sullivan, Assistant Majority Floor Leader, and Senator Cliff Aldridge to be posted at 3:15 CST.
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***We made a big mistake and attributed the bill to Rep. Jason Murphey from Guthrie. The shell bill is actually authored by Rep. Jason Nelson from OKC. We apologize to Mr. Murphey and regret our mistake. The post has been corrected to reflect the true author of the amendatory bill. Furthermore, according to Murphey, the bill is just a shell bill that changes one phrase and is to be used for something related to marriage later in session. We still believe the pertinent points of the post stand, especially in a House controlled by those who claim to be for limited government. Again, we apologize to Mr. Murphey.
According to this website, Rep. Jason Nelson is amending a bill that sends ministers of the Gospel who perform a marriage not recognized by the State of Oklahoma to the Department of Corrections. (Mr. Nelson is not the author of the original bill language–he is merely amending the existing statute). In other words, a minister is punished by a fine and prison time for performing a private religious ceremony intermarrying two same-sex couples.
Yes, friends, this is precisely the scourge we must take off our streets! For too long we have tolerated ministers of the Gospel doing what they believe is religiously right in their very own churches! If we don’t get these people off our streets, imagine the consequences.
Seriously: Not only is this law utterly stupid, it is clearly unconstitutional. Regardless of your views on gay marriage, conservatives should be repulsed by this unnecessary expansion of the state’s police power into religious institutions. Nothing about the statute is conservative. Like Sally Kern’s marriage bill, it is more focused on expanding the state than anything. It is a precursor for future expansions of government into arenas we previously thought completely private. This form of Statism has no place in the conservative movement or in our state legislature.
We know it’s an election year and some at the capitol are busy really pumping up their popularity among the anti-gay crowd, but this is absurd. Perhaps our representatives can spend their time on something more fruitful (pun intended) and, you know, within the state’s constitutional limitations. Here are a few suggestions: the budget, our failing education system, improving the economy, reducing state bureaucracy, or making the tax code fairer. Just pick one.
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“The 2008 elections gave liberals the curse of opportunity, and they have used it to reveal themselves ruinously… The essence of contemporary liberalism is the illiberal conviction that Americans, in their comprehensive incompetence, need minute supervision by government, which liberals believe exists to spare citizens the torture of thinking and choosing.”
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Oklahoma’s unemployment rate falls. State adds 5,000 jobs to tie for 3rd best unemployment rate in the nation. Crash. And. Burn, Scott.
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“I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the Court’s judgment. The Court simply fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers… with scarcely any reason or authority for its action…”
–Justice Byron White, dissenting in Roe v. Wade
January 22, 1973: a date which will live in infamy. It is a date when seven unelected judges unilaterally decided the fate of millions. And it is a date that weakened our nation and our democracy. It embarrassed us, and saddened us. At the very moment in history we were engaged in an epic Cold War with the greatest threat to human dignity the world had ever witnessed, it cheapened our nation’s claim to moral supremacy.
January 22, 2010 marks the 37th anniversary of the most morally and legally aberrant decision in the history of the Supreme Court and our great nation. Like Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson, Roe v. Wade will one day register in the national conscience as an unpardonable embarrassment. Each of these decisions share in common the wholesale rejection of our nation’s founding tenet: that all are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that among them is the right to life.
Such a rejection of our moral and constitutional order has at different points in our history led us to justify claiming fellow humans as property or allowed us to separate our fellow Americans by ruling class and subservient class, yet call them equal. Today the repudiation of our moral principles has led us to something just as sinister, and perhaps even more so. Out of the mysterious “emanations and penumbras” of our Constitution, our highest court crudely fashioned a right for mothers to discard the lives of their unborn children– a right, as Justice William Rehnquist noted in his dissent, that was apparently completely unknown to the drafters of the Constitution.
And so for 37 years millions of unborn children have been subjected to a terror none of us can possibly imagine. Without any protection, without any due process, they were deemed undeserving of life so long as the conveniences and whims of their mothers said so. In many cases, their lives were taken from them in a manner so violent and repulsive that even the least civilized or irreverent among us would suddenly find religion and pray for forgiveness. In others, their lives simply disappeared bereft of dignity.
It wasn’t only the lives of the children that were put at stake. It was also the lives of the mothers who were convinced they had no other choice or were forced into it by their oppressive boyfriends or husbands who would plunge to the greatest depths of immorality to abdicate the most basic human responsibility. It was this latter reason, in part, that the leaders of the original American feminist movement so strongly opposed abortion. They realized abortion gave men a new, tyrannical power over women–one that would be used as an emotional weapon in an effort to continue treating women as property.
We have now gained a greater understanding of the sheer terror and severe depression from which women who have had abortions suffer. They live with it their entire lives, many a shell of their former self. They, too, are victims of Roe v. Wade.
This 37th anniversary of the decision did bring some good news, however. Today hundreds of thousands will march together in the March for Life for the 36th year in a row. Also, a new poll was released showing a growing majority of Americans now view abortion as morally wrong. For that to mean anything, though, will require us to translate that moral sense into action. We must continue gently and patiently changing the hearts and minds of our people, those still unaware of the consequences of abortion. We must support those political candidates brave enough to steadfastly defend the rights of the unborn in our nation’s halls of power. We must help where we can in crisis pregnancy centers, women’s shelters, and orphanages. We must do whatever it takes to soothe the mind of a mother regretful of her decision to abort and we must counsel those who are pregnant and scared. This is what we can do to begin repairing the damage done to our nation’s moral fabric.
Today we remember those who are nameless, but not forgotten.
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Another day, another OU student enters the race for the House District 44 seat currently occupied by Rep. Bill Nations (D-Norman). Last week, Democrats Matthew Hecox and Isaiah McCaslin entered the race, while this week ushers in first-year law student Emily Virgin, also a Democrat. Virgin cited her family’s history in politics as motivation for running.
“When you grow up around something, that’s what you end up loving,” Virgin said. “It’s really what I feel called to do. It’s my passion.”
Her grandfather is George Skinner, a Cleveland County commissioner representing District 3.
The Democrat graduated from OU in 2009 with a degree in political science and is now seeking her law degree at the OU College of Law.
We know Commissioner Skinner may be able to use his political and financial influence to help out his granddaughter, but will she have the time to mount a proper campaign given her education schedule? It’s common knowledge that the first year of law school is the toughest and most time-consuming. How will Virgin be able to get out among the voters and express her ideas and stances on the issues? She’ll also need to better explain her qualifications for this office. She can’t just cite a family history and expect the voters to fall in line.
As reported by Okie Pundit previously, we expect City Councilman Tom Kovach and former Democrat Party Chair David Perry to enter the race. As of now, however, they haven’t and this remains a shockingly weak field of Democrat candidates in what is considered a safe Democrat seat. Given the current state of the political environment, we are watching to see if this becomes a GOP pick up opportunity.
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We joined Twitter today. We are @okiepundit. Woo!
Oh, and there’s a neat little follow icon at the top right of the homepage.
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Earlier this week we posted a story on Representative Tad Jones joining the race for Oklahoma Labor Commissioner. Given his sparse background in labor issues, we were skeptical of his qualifications for the post, so we suggested he explain to the voters why he was qualified and what experience he had in labor issues. We were willing to keep an open mind and get behind him as a candidate if he offered the best solutions and qualifications. Well, it turns out we shouldn’t have been so nice.
It appears Jones’s campaign has already taken the low road in the campaign against his opponent for the GOP nomination, Jason Reese. Today Oklahoma Political News Service posted a ridiculous anonymous tip, undoubtedly from a source within Jones’s campaign, alleging Reese received a loan in violation of state ethics laws from his friend Brett Farley. Farley loaned Reese’s campaign $2,000, which was reported in Reese’s ethics statements. Jones’s campaign attacked Reese, saying this was illegal. In fact, it is not.
We called the Oklahoma Ethics Commission and asked the Executive Director about the issue. She stated that it is absolutely not illegal, nor unethical, to receive a loan from a private individual as long as the loan does not exceed contribution limits. Furthermore, if the candidate repays the loan, the donor may again donate to the candidate as long as the contributions remain under the legal limit. In the case of Farley’s $2,000 loan, it met ever single criteria laid out by the Ethics Commission for being legal and ethical.
Reese’s campaign released a statement responding to the baseless attack and has provided a letter from the Oklahoma Ethics Commission expressly stating the loan was well within the law. The letter, coupled with our call to the Ethics Commission, shows Jones’s campaign launched an allegation that was easily disprovable with a simple two minute phone call. In other words, it is probably one of the shortest lived, dumbest attacks of the campaign season thus far. More importantly, it was an intentional fabrication and distortion of the facts.
The tactic employed here is eerily similar to the hilariously idiotic attack Rob Johnson launched in his primary fight against Dana Murphy for Corporation Commissioner, when Johnson tried to claim Murphy signed her name incorrectly on a single form and tried to get her disqualified from the race. Murphy signed her name “Dana Murphy,” while the filing statement listed her name as “Dana L. Murphy.” That tactic backfired on Johnson in a major way as voters were repulsed by silliness of it. Johnson, the well-funded frontrunner at the time, ended up losing to Murphy.
The architect of that tactic was Fount Holland, a Republican consultant known for using highly negative attacks. And that’s who we believe could be behind this attack on Reese (*see update). Indeed, we believe there are three possibilities here:
1) Tad Jones’s campaign knew the contribution was legal but decided to lie about it anyway, hoping the charge would stick;
2) Jones’s campaign was ignorant of ethics law in Oklahoma, thereby poorly reflecting on his abilities as a political candidate;
3) Jones’s campaign is grasping at straws here, realizing Reese has a major head start on the campaign trail.
None of them reflect well on Tad Jones. We sure wish he would have stuck to discussing the important labor issues facing our state; the voters and the campaigns would have been better served. Jones should immediately apologize to Mr. Reese and disavow any such tactics his consultant may be planning to deploy in the future.
If he doesn’t, we’re forced to ask: what’s next, Tad? Are you going to make fun of Mr. Reese’s truck or dismiss the notion of him shaking hands with the voters (in the cold!)? If you do, just make sure you don’t misspell Oklahoma in a campaign ad or claim Sam Bradford or Billy Sims is a Texas Longhorns fan. You’re already well on your way to becoming Oklahoma’s Martha Coakley.
*Update: Sources confirm that Fount Holland was, in fact, not behind this attack.
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Republican Jim Harvey announced his intention to seek the GOP nomination for House District 45, a seat currently occupied by Democrat Rep. Wallace Collins. Harvey says he is running because he’s concerned about the increasing size of government.
“I have watched as the federal government has increasingly encroached upon matters that are more appropriate for state action. This has complicated efforts in balancing the state budget at a time of decreasing revenue,” Harvey said.
Harvey and his wife organized the first Norman Tea Party last April to provide an outlet for Norman residents frustrated with government spending and corporate bailouts. Though the event was attended by hundreds, it was dominated by a woman playing the keyboard and singing and long, directionless speeches.
Harvey is a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel and a graduate of Oklahoma City University Law School. He now works as a patent attorney in Norman. He is expected to face 2008 GOP nominee Aaron Stiles and party activist Les White.
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Fortune Magazine released their annual list of the 100 best companies in the United States to work for and four of Oklahoma’s top companies made the list. At #20, Devon Energy is rated the best of the Oklahoma companies, followed by Chesapeake Energy (#34), American Fidelity Assurance Co. (#35), and Quicktrip (#41).
Devon and Quicktrip fell several spots from the previous year’s rankings, while Chesapeake improved from #73 and AFAC moved up from #46.
California, Texas and New York lead the list of states with the most “Best to Work For” companies, with 16, 13, and 10 respectively. Oklahoma is tied for 5th with the most companies on the list, joining Massachusetts, Missouri, and New Jersey.
Now the questions for Oklahoma policy makers: how can we attract more top business to the state and how can we provide the type of friendly environment for more home-grown businesses?
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With a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves last night, the OKC Thunder have moved into 7th place in the ultra-competitive Western Conference with a record of 24-18. After only winning 23 games all of last season, the Thunder surpassed that total last night and are on the path to the playoffs.
OKC is only 3.5 games out of first place in the Northwest Division and 1.5 games out of 4th place in the entire Western Conference.
The Thunder continue their away schedule on Friday against the Memphis Grizzlies and then on Saturday versus LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Notable Stats:
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Big name Obama supporter Mort Zuckerman just dropped a rhetorical atomic bomb on president’s governing record, flatly declaring he has done everything wrong.
On Obama’s handling of health care and the economy:
“He’s misjudged the character of the country in his whole approach. There’s the saying, “It’s the economy, stupid.” He didn’t get it. He was determined somehow or other to adopt a whole new agenda. He didn’t address the main issue.
“This health-care plan is going to be a fiscal disaster for the country. Most of the country wanted to deal with costs, not expansion of coverage. This is going to raise costs dramatically.”
On Obama’s broken promise of change:
“In the campaign, he said he would change politics as usual. He did change them. It’s now worse than it was. I’ve now seen the kind of buying off of politicians that I’ve never seen before. It’s politically corrupt and it’s starting at the top. It’s revolting.”
On Obama’s fleeting ability to connect with voters:
“Obama’s ability to connect with voters is what launched him. But what has surprised me is how he has failed to connect with the voters since he’s been in office. He’s had so much overexposure. You have to be selective. He was doing five Sunday shows. How many press conferences? And now people stop listening to him. The fact is he had 49.5 million listeners to first speech on the economy. On Medicare, he had 24 million. He’s lost his audience. He has not rallied public opinion. He has plunged in the polls more than any other political figure since we’ve been using polls. He’s done everything wrong.”
Read the whole thing.
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Oklahoma Republican candidate for governor Mary Fallin issued the following statement last night following Republican Scott Brown’s epic upset in the Massachusetts Senate race:
“Scott Brown’s historic win tonight is yet another sign that voters across America are tired of the kind of policies that put big government first and the interests of the people last. In his short time as president, Barack Obama and other liberals have dramatically increased the national deficit, pursued an unpopular government-takeover of the health care industry and proposed a series of initiatives that ignore the real concerns of working Americans. Tonight’s election should be taken as a sign that voters are looking for principled, conservative alternatives to the old tax and spend, big government policies pushed on us by Washington and liberals around the country. I think 2010 is going to be a great year for the conservative movement, and a difficult one for those politicians who chose to support President Obama and his policies.”
Fallin has consistently voted against Obama’s agenda in Congress, but she will still have to overcome the stigma of being a member of that hated Congress. People aren’t happy right now with incumbents of any stripe. As the campaign progress, we’ll watch closely to see how Fallin is able to remove herself from associations with Washington and tap into the very legitimate anger expressed by an increasingly large number of voters. Equally as important, we will soon need to see specific, fresh ideas from Fallin on how she is going to address the concerns of the working Americans and Oklahomans she refers to in her statement.
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The Daily Oklahoman reports Matthew Hecox, Democrat candidate for Norman’s House District 44, has responded to the revelation made here at Okie Pundit that he was arrested on New Year’s Eve on a DUI complaint. Hecox, an OU student, stated it was an “error in judgment” and that it was “unacceptable.”
Hecox says his arrest will not lead him to drop his campaign. Right now he is facing another OU student, Isaiah McCaslin, for the Democratic nomination.
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