John Wright for Tulsa County Assessor

This has been a busy spring, and that's a handy excuse for my lateness in writing about the upcoming 2018 Oklahoma primary, but the real reason has been a general disillusionment with politics and politicians and a dismay at cultural trends beyond politics. I'm having a hard time even wanting to care about elections; this from the guy who, as a 10-year-old, had the Tulsa Tribune's list of candidates for the 1974 Oklahoma elections pinned to his bedroom bulletin board. But as citizens in a republic, we are the sovereigns. We have the power to determine who will write our laws, who will carry them out, who will interpret them, and we have a divine obligation to exercise our sovereignty with wisdom.

To shake my political writer's block, I'm starting my 2018 Oklahoma primary coverage with those candidates whom I wholeheartedly support. First on the list is John Wright.

Tulsa County Assessor Ken Yazel is retiring after 16 years in the office. Tulsa County Republicans should elect John Wright, Yazel's chief deputy, to succeed him. No one is better prepared than John Wright, in both temperament and professional experience, to serve as our County Assessor.

During his 12-year service in the legislature, Wright was a consistent vote for conservative policies across the board. His voting record earned him a lifetime score of 91% on the Oklahoma Constitution Conservative Index. He was a leader in the Oklahoma House, serving as chairman of the Republican caucus and chairman of the House Administrative Rules and Agency Oversight Committee.

For the last seven years, John Wright has served in the Tulsa County Assessor's office on the executive staff. He has personally been involved with interviewing, selecting, and training over 40% of the County Assessor's office staff, is an Accredited Member of the International Association of Assessing Officials, and has over 500 hours of professional development education related to assessment of real property. As Chief Deputy Assessor, Wright has spoken to dozens of groups about property taxes, the assessment process, how to qualify for valuation freezes and homestead exemptions, the property owner's right to appeal an assessment, and other topics related to the County Assessor's office. John Wright is the only candidate with the depth of experience and knowledge to run the County Assessor's office from day one at a high standard of excellence and efficiency.

If by some fluke another candidate were to win the seat, they'd have to hire John Wright to actually run the assessor's office to have any hope of succeeding in the job.

Because of his careful attention to rules and his commitment to fair play and protecting the rights of all participants, John Wright has often been selected to preside over or serve as parliamentarian for state and county Republican conventions. GOP meetings can be emotionally fraught battles of faction against faction, but I've never heard anyone from any faction complain that John Wright played favorites.

And not playing favorites is one of the key responsibilities of the County Assessor. Under Ken Yazel's leadership, the Tulsa County Assessor's Office has led the state in professionalizing and systematizing the process of assigning a market value to every property in the county every four years. The Tulsa County Assessor's Office has consistently been at the top of the statewide table for compliance with the law. Sometimes that commitment to fairness and the law has meant angering powerful individuals and institutions by assessing their properties in accordance with state law. But if some don't pay the taxes they owe under the law, the rest of us have to pay higher property taxes for general obligation bond issues.

I have frequently expressed my appreciation for Ken Yazel's leadership on these pages. Yazel pioneered making his office's records of Tulsa County property accessible 24/7 online. Yazel has been a consistent voice against government waste and was often the lone county official to oppose tax increases. Yazel has been a consistent advocate for budgeting every penny under the control of county officials and agencies, despite the resistance of his fellow county elected officials. Despite their very different demeanors, John Wright and Ken Yazel share a commitment to budget transparency, efficiency, limited government, and public accessibility to public information. With John Wright replacing Ken Yazel, taxpayers will still have a strong and effective advocate on the Tulsa County Budget Board.

John Wright has been endorsed by outgoing Tulsa County Assessor Ken Yazel and by assessors in other counties who worked with Wright in the County Assessor's Association. Retired Woods County Assessor Monica Schmidt writes:

John Wright had just begun working in the Tulsa County Assessor's Office, while I was serving as the President of the County Assessors Association of Oklahoma. He had an immediate impact on our Association. His assistance and willingness to share his expertise, along with his ability to quickly learn the laws and procedures regarding the County Assessor's office, provided the Association and me an invaluable resource. Even though I was an assessor serving and representing a smaller county, I appreciated and benefited from Mr. Wright's wisdom and assistance by his sharing of his expertise.

I believe John Wright would make Tulsa County a great and respectable County Assessor.

Current Washington County Assessor Todd Mathes writes:

I met John Wright more than seven years ago and in the time since that first encounter, I have come to know a man who conducts his daily business with the utmost integrity and performs those duties with both humbleness and grace. His unwavering core beliefs guide him on his unparalleled path.

John has gone above and beyond the normal protocol to learn the "ins and outs" of the assessment industry, taking hours of advanced instruction to ready himself for this important calling. Since assuming his current role on the executive staff of the outgoing Tulsa County Assessor, John has positioned himself to become the next assessor for Tulsa County.

In my professional opinion, John Wright is the most qualified person to assume the duties of Tulsa County Assessor and will serve the constituents of Tulsa County in a fair and unwavering manner. As the long-time assessor of Tulsa's neighboring county to the north, I am confident that John Wright will uphold and more than fulfill the duties of the office of Tulsa County Assessor!

Wade Patterson, retired Garfield County Assessor who has known Wright since his time in the legislature, says, "I believe that John Wright is an unequaled and clear choice to serve as Tulsa County Assessor."

Only Republicans filed for the seat, so the next Tulsa County Assessor will be chosen in the June Republican primary or, if no one gets a majority in June, the August runoff. John Wright's opponents in the Republican primary are Byron Burke, who served in the county assessor's office under Democrat Assessor Wilson Glass for four years in the mid-1970s, Dominik Ting, a real estate appraiser in the County Assessor's office with a background in Information Technology, and political consultant and insurance salesman Darren Gantz.

Gantz disappointed me in recent years and lost my trust as he assisted the efforts of the Leftist-founded and Leftist-funded National Popular Vote movement to make inroads among grassroots conservative activists. You may recall that NPV (which would have given Oklahoma's electoral votes to Hillary Clinton, had it passed) passed the State Senate in 2014, but was blocked in the House after an outcry by grassroots activists. Several state senators later recanted their support. Gantz's efforts were aimed at undermining grassroots opposition to this scheme to bypass the Constitution's Electoral College, so that the next time lobbyists tried to push NPV through the Legislature, legislators wouldn't be deterred by constituent backlash. Even if he had the requisite expertise to serve as County Assessor, I still wouldn't trust Darren Gantz with the office. (Click this link for more about why Gantz's efforts were so dangerous.)

Thankfully, Tulsa County Republicans don't have to compromise. We can elect a County Assessor who has the experience, integrity, and good judgment to serve us well. That man is John Wright.