Michael,

I saw the debate and got some feedback from other Ben Faulk supporters. Without exception, they feel that LaFortune did himself more harm than good. When LaFortune asked the question about Kathy Taylor's company, she hit it out of the park and made him look like a ridiculous fool who hasn't got the first clue about how business works.

My wife had a very negative reaction to some of LaFortune's new attack ads against Kathy Taylor. My wife's exact words were, "the ads are nasty and make LaFortune look like a jerk." I appears that LaFortune's attack ads have backfired and are alienating the women's vote. The man seems very deparate!

Looks to me like the Titanic is sinking and Chris Medlock, Terry Simonson, John Sullivan, Jim Inhofe, and the Tulsa Couty Republican Party have all decided to go down with the ship. I hope that, in the end, you and Michael DelGiorno will swim to a life boat.

Tuesday, April 4, 2006, is Independence Day! Come join those of us who will be voting for the conservative independent, Ben Faulk.

Dan Hicks

Is it me, or is Tulsa County GOP is not doing a very good job with its ground game and not getting out the vote? I'm getting the impression from local Republicans that the local leadership that's been in charge for a long time has ossified. Maybe Inhofe and his friends are part of the problem. It's hard to move nimbly when you turn monolithic.

I have gotten personal calls and recorded calls to vote for LaFortune and some to vote for Kathy
Taylor.

I do think Kathy Taylor will definitely win, and if she does, I do hope she can keep all the MANY street potholes repaired, improve the streets by making someone clean up all of the mess when someone has a traffic accident instead of leaving it in the street for months, improve
the police dept., bring in excellent companies
that offer a lot better paying jobs.

We'll see if she can help Tulsa. I wonder if she will do a talent search to replace Sam Roop?

W., the current chairman and vice chairman have only been in office since March 2005. The chairman, Jerry Buchanan, first got involved in politics when he ran in the special House District 67 election in January '04. The vice chairman, Joy Pittman Mohorovicic, became involved sometime in '03; at least that's when I first remember meeting her. Most of the members of the executive committee have only been on for a few years, although there are a few old-timers.

Dan, I know how disappointed you are in LaFortune, but at least he took up the zoo display issue. Kathy Taylor will not give you the time of day.

Michael,

I think we can learn something about polls from this mayoral race. The big question is always: Where will the undecided vote go on election day?

During the republican primary there was a sizable percentage of voters still undecided only days before the election. I spoke with the gentleman who created the Oklahoma Poll and was told that in an election where there is a well known candidate like Bill LaFortune, voter usually make up there mind early if they plan to vote for the incumbent. The fact that so many were still undecided means that they don't particularly care for the incumbent and the greater majority should break for the challengers. This is exactly what happened.

In the race between Kathy Taylor and LaFortune there is a slightly smaller percentage of undecided voters and they seem to be mostly republicans. Again, they are probably undecided because they have a problem with the incumbent. Conventional wisdom would suggest that a majority of them will still break in favor of the challenger in spite of party loyalty. Barring a miracle, it looks like Kathy Taylor is our next mayor.

The lesson the republican party should take from this experience is how damaging it was to tolerate the liberal policies of Bill LaFortune (Vision 2025 TAX, etc.) simply because he has an "R" next to his name. The partie's "leadership" (or lack thereof) has done irreparable damage by not taking a conservative stand.

Dan Hicks

If she and her husband have a gift of turning bankrupt companies into a lucrative company that employees a generous number and pays them at an average of almost $60,000/yr. it will be interesting to see if Kathy has that ability with more than only the businesses her husband was involved/interested in.

As we see the Vision plan had too many seats at the table and LaFortune was influenced by many of those seats. Remember the Tulsa World pushed the Vision plan heavily. You won't see the Lortons risking their own money to spend $183 million to build one arena. The Lortons got what they wanted from it and now are blasting LaFortune in Tulsa World cartoons, Ken Neal editorials, and the other staff writers (p.j.) The Tulsa World used LaFortune and when it came to the Great Plains or any other financial delicate matter they blast anyone if the Lortons or Tulsa World gets their name muddy.

As far as Vanguard isn't it too early (less than 3 yrs) to say how good the company is? 2.5 years is not long enough to prove itself.

The company that actually took over ANC from bankruptcy (July 2003), Cerberus Capital Management, sunk millions into it and to the debtors providing a few years of safety.

Has anyone actually seen a paper that shows Lobeck as anything more than just the CEO of Vanguard? He was appointed by Cerberus.
This can be found on bankrupt . com

Good point. Has anyone seen how the financing was done with Lobeck's company and when set the company up in Oklahoma, how much money in Oklahoma
actual tax credits did Lobeck get?

Remember the problem with tax credits with the
Great Plains Airlines? (that's now bankrupt)
At first Great Plains Airlines was pushed as very good
by the Tulsa World. With their investment, of course they are going to push the Great Plains "investment" with all of the money they invested. Did the Tulsa World also get
tax credits of any kind of any kind of investments in Oklahoma -- has anyone ever investigated the Lorton family or the Tulsa World
investments in the last several years on what
they may have received in tax credits?

Could the Tulsa World or Lortons have used a loophole to profit at taxpayers expense of any kind?

Since investors can be very sneaky and dishonest
with tax credits, the Legislature passed a measure
stating that tax credits could not be issued on borrowed money.

By forming a "new" company and giving that entity
the borrowed money, the new company at least on paper did not have any debt, although both companies could have the same investors who end up with the same tax credits.

Again, I wonder how the financing was set up with Vanguard?