Re-elect Oklahoma Platform Caucus, taxpayers' champions

The Platform Caucus was right. The Platform Caucus, that small group of Oklahoma state representatives and state senators who support the conservative, grassroots-crafted, limited-government platform of the Oklahoma Republican Party, was right to insist that there is and always was enough money coming into the state treasury to fund a raise for teachers without raising taxes. Some rules might have to be changed in order to move the money to where it was most needed, but the State Capitol already had enough of our cash, if only the Legislature and the school boards would work to get that cash to the teachers.

Even the legislative leaders, who refused to work with the Platform Caucus, punished them for not going along with the tax increases, the legislative leaders who teamed with the lobbyists and bureaucrats to insist upon tax increases as the only way to fund teachers' raises, now acknowledge that if the tax increases are overturned by the voters, the money is there even at the old rates. They already have a plan to ensure that the salary increases are funded if the tax increases are repealed. State revenue is at record levels.

Those "pragmatic" legislative leaders got played. They thought if they agreed to tax increases, the teachers would be appeased and would stay in the classroom. But the teachers' groups (if not the individual teachers) always wanted a strike. They wanted chaos, they wanted drama that would focus negative public attention on the legislature, cultivating a "throw the bums out" attitude with the voters that would help elect more leftists, steering Oklahoma into a big left turn -- bigger and more intrusive government generally, hostile to Christianity and traditional values. In Oklahoma, as in Arizona, West Virginia, and many other states that have had teacher walkouts and protests, the Left is using teachers to regain the ground they've lost at the state level across the nation.

In this primary election season, Platform Caucus members are under attack by forces who want to be able to squeeze Oklahoma taxpayers at whim. Beneficiaries of Big Government want to break the constitutional protections that slow down state government's ability to grab more of your money. Well-funded independent expenditure campaigns are targeting these brave, grassroots-backed candidates, depicting them as anti-teacher, even though they all voted for the teacher pay raise.

Platform Caucus members don't play the capitol game. They read legislation before they agree to vote for it. They don't accept meals or game tickets or trinkets from lobbyists. They stand for the ordinary Oklahomans who don't have lobbyists or labor unions or corporate PACs standing for us.

The squishy compromisers hate the Platform Caucus, because the Platform Caucus stalwarts strip away their excuses for capitulating to the lobbyists. The Platform Caucus refusal to play the capitol game exposes the squishes as unprincipled and weak-kneed, and it infuriates them. The lobbyists and the labor unions want more squishes; they want legislators who can be seduced and manipulated.

These are the taxpayers' friends who are on next Tuesday's primary ballot. Some of them are on record as having joined the Platform Caucus; others are perhaps not caucus members, but have consistently the conservative grassroots principles the platform embodies. Every one of them voted in favor of the pay raise for teachers, and every one of them had the guts to vote against unnecessary tax increases. While those are only two votes, they happen to be very representative of the principled strength under pressure that they've displayed on many other issues, and because of that strength, they have been targeted for defeat in the primary by the tax-and-spenders.

House 8: Tom Gann
House 10: Travis Dunlap
House 14: George Faught
House 20: Bobby Cleveland
House 36: Sean Roberts
House 63: Jeff Coody
House 67: Scott McEachin
House 69: Chuck Strohm
House 80: Mike Ritze
House 101: Tess Teague

Senate 4: Mark Dean Allen

I wish I had time to write about each of them individually. They deserve your vote and your support.

As we've often discussed here, public choice theory -- concentrated benefits vs. diffuse costs -- means that there will always be more campaign money coming from the special interests, because they stand to gain a significant return on that investment in the form of tax credits, union dues, contracts, regulatory burdens on potential competitors, etc., and less money available to support those who defend our interests as taxpayers and ordinary citizens.

A legislative district is small enough that grassroots activism can beat big money, but that take volunteers willing to give their time. Even if you don't live in one of their districts, I encourage you to show your appreciation for their courage by volunteering on this final weekend of the campaign -- make calls, knock doors on their behalf. Make contact through the links above and see what you can do to help.

NOTES:

HB 1010XX (tax increases): House votes, Senate votes.
HB1023XX (salary increase for teachers): House votes, Senate votes.

MORE:

George Faught, one of the legislators we should re-elect, is fighting against a last-minute smear campaign regarding his votes on teacher pay and benefits. I've added links to the bills he mentions, all of which passed by near-unanimous majorities.

FACT: George Faught voted for EVERY teacher pay raise since he was elected ( HB1134, 2008; HB1114, 2017; HB1023XX, 2018) FACT: George Faught voted for the budget that included the most money EVER for education (HB3705, 2018; SB1600, 2018) FACT: George Faught fought to make sure that local teachers received bonuses that they rightly deserved (HB1593, 2007) FACT: George Faught voted to stabilize the Teacher Retirement Fund that Democrats had raided and left in peril.

Faught didn't list a specific bill on the last point, but I believe he is referring to HB2132, 2011, the Oklahoma Pension Legislation Actuarial Analysis Act.