Election 2020: BatesLine ballot card

Polls are open today until 7 p.m. The Oklahoma State Election Board's online voter tool will let you know where to vote and will show you a sample of the ballot you'll see.

Click the link above to download a printable ballot card listing the candidates I'm recommending and (if in the district) voting for in the Oklahoma general election and City of Tulsa runoff on November 3, 2020. Below I'll add more detailed information on issues and candidates. (This entry will change as I decide to add more detail, link previous articles, or discuss additional races between now and election day. The entry is post-dated to keep it at the top.) Please note that the rows on the chart are alternately shaded and unshaded for readability. The presence or absence of shading has no other significance.

This is an unusually early version of the BatesLine ballot card in response to many requests from people who are voting absentee by mail and want to be sure their ballot has plenty of time to arrive. Below is a summary of my recommendations; I will elaborate on them in later entries. I hope to have a formatted printable ballot card in the near future.

Below you'll find some links to websites I found helpful in learning about candidates, their values, backgrounds, and political opinions.

When in doubt, I look at campaign contributions, which often tell a story about a candidate's ideological leanings or close ties with local power brokers. Campaign expenditures can be telling, too: Certain consulting firms have strong associations with the pay-to-play culture that makes our Republican supermajority legislature more crony-infested than conservative. Then there are principled conservative consultants; their presence on a campaign team is always a hopeful indication that the candidate is also a principled conservative.

The presidential election leads the ballot, and Oklahomans have six choices this year -- Democrat, Libertarian, Republican, and three independents -- more than in all the years I've been voting. U. S. Sen. Jim Inhofe is up for re-election against a teleprompter reader, a perennial Libertarian candidate, and two independents. All five congressmen have challengers; the race to watch is District 5, where State Sen. Stephanie Bice hopes to reclaim the traditionally Republican seat from Pelosi Democrat Kendra Horn, the surprise winner in 2018. (Before Horn's win, the seat had been in GOP hands since John Jarman's party switch in 1975.)

The only statewide state office on the ballot in presidential years is a seat on the Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner, which has six year terms. This year, Republican incumbent and former House Speaker Todd Hiett is being challenged by Libertarian Todd Hagopian; no Democrat filed for the seat. All 101 State House seats and the odd-numbered State Senate seats are up for election in presidential years, but many of these races have already been settled in the primary or runoff.

There are two state questions, 805 and 814. SQ 805 is a constitutional amendment that would help career criminals get back to work by reducing the amount of time these repeat offenders could spend in prison and releasing some currently incarcerated career criminals early. SQ 814 is also a constitutional amendment that would divert revenue from the tobacco lawsuit settlement to pay for the unwise Obamacare Medicaid expansion (SQ 802) that was narrowly approved in June.

All 77 counties have four offices up for reelection in presidential years: District 2 County Commissioner, County Clerk, County Court Clerk, County Sheriff. In Tulsa County, Sheriff Vince Regalado and County Clerk Michael Willis were re-elected without opposition. County Court Clerk Don Newberry won a primary rematch in June and has no general election opponent. Republican Josh Turley, Ph.D., is challenging longtime incumbent Democratic County Commissioner Karen Keith.

There are retention votes for three state supreme court justices, two judges on the court of criminal appeals, and three judges on the court of civil appeals. These are yes-no votes, unlike the district judge elections that occur in gubernatorial election years. If "no" prevails -- and it never has -- a vacancy would be created that would be filled by the governor's selection via the judicial nomination process.

The City of Tulsa has runoff elections for three of the nine city council seats. (The auditor and councilors in Districts 2 and 8 won re-election unopposed; the mayor and councilors in Districts 1, 2, 4, and 9 were re-elected by receiving greater than 50% of the vote in the August 25 election, which is a shame.)

MY RECOMMENDATIONS:

As a general rule, I support the Republican candidate, and I'm not aware of any race in which I would counsel otherwise. The nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court demonstrates one critical reason for retaining Republican control of the White House. In foreign policy, we want to keep an administration that has brought Arab states into normal, peaceful relations with Israel, acknowledged Jerusalem as Israel's capital, brokered peace between Serbia and Kosovo, pushed our NATO partners to shoulder their fair share of the financial burden of protecting Europe, and stood firm for better trade deals between the US and the world.

Re-electing Jim Inhofe and the four GOP congressmen, and taking back the 5th Congressional District are essential for regaining Republican control of the House (and booting Nancy Pelosi from the Speaker's chair) and retaining Republican control of the Senate, which in turn is crucial for ongoing efforts to appoint constitutionalists to the Federal courts.

In the Oklahoma Legislature, notwithstanding my disappointment at the Republican RINO leadership, it still is better, generally, to choose Republicans over Democrats. Electing Democrats only seems to encourage the RINOs to raise our taxes. Here in Tulsa County, all of the Republicans deserve your support, particularly:

Senate 35: Cheryl Baber (R)
Senate 37: Cody Rogers (R)
Senate 39: Dave Rader (R)
House 11: Wendi Stearman (R)
House 30: Mark Lawson (R)
House 71: Mark Masters (R)
House 79: Margie Alfonso (R)

Tulsa County Commission District 2: Josh Turley (R). Turley served as a crime scene investigator for the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office and then creating the first risk management program for TCSO, which succeeded in reducing car accidents involving deputies and tort claim payouts, and independently developed policies and procedures to be used by smaller sheriff's offices and county jails to improve performance and minimize risk. Turley wants Tulsa County to follow an open data policy -- by default, data used and generated by county officials would automatically be made available to the public, without the need for an open records request. Turley would be an advocate for transparency in Tulsa County government. Incumbent Karen Keith's consistent votes to waive competitive bidding on bond issues is bad for Tulsa County taxpayers, as is her neglect of rural county roads. More detail here.

State Questions:

SQ 805: No. This constitutional amendment would make it easier for career criminals, including those currently incarcerated, to get out of prison and resume their careers.
SQ 814: Yes (with hesitation). This would mitigate the narrow, foolish approval of SQ 802 by dedicating tobacco settlement money (currently spent very poorly) to cover the cost of Medicaid expansion. My hesitation is that Sen. Nathan Dahm opposed this when it was before the legislature.

On October 30, 2020, I spoke with Jeremie Poplin, filling in for Pat Campbell on Talk Radio 1170 KFAQ, about both State Questions. Click the link to listen.

Judicial retention:

Appointing governors and party affiliation are noted in parentheses. An asterisk indicates that trustworthy conservative commentators disagree with me on those judges.

Supreme Court Justice Matthew John Kane IV (Stitt, R, 2019): Yes (enthusiastically)
Supreme Court Justice Tom Colbert (Henry, D, 2004): No
Supreme Court Justice Richard B. Darby (Fallin, R, 2018): Yes (cautiously)
Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Robert L. Hudson (Fallin, R, 2015): No*
Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Gary L. Lumpkin (Bellmon, R, 1989): No*
Court of Civil Appeals Judge Jane P. Wiseman (Henry, D, 2005): No (emphatically)
Court of Civil Appeals Judge Deborah B. Barnes (Henry, D, 2008): No
Court of Civil Appeals Judge Keith Rapp (Nigh, D, 1984): No

UPDATE 2020/10/28: I've moved my detailed analysis of 2020 judicial retention questions to a separate page and expanded it. I've also modified my stance regarding Justice Darby.

Tulsa City Council:

I support replacing all of the City Councilors, except Cass Fahler in District 5. In each race on the November ballot, a registered Republican is running against a registered Democrat.

Tulsa Council District 5: Cass Fahler (R). At a time when law enforcement is under attack, we need a strong advocate for law and order on the council.
Tulsa Council District 6: Christian Bengel (R).
Tulsa Council District 7: Justin Van Kirk (R).

MORE INFORMATION:

Here are some blogs, endorsement lists, candidate questionnaires, and sources of information for your consideration.

• Talk Radio 1170 Pat Campbell podcast archive
• Sheridan Church's Tulsa Town Hall candidate forum (includes several council candidates in the runoff
• iVoterGuide: Candidate responses to a detailed questionnaire written from a conservative Christian point-of-view
• Muskogee Politico news, questionnaires, and analysis
• Steve Fair and Georgia Wiliams, longtime SW Oklahoma conservative activists, weigh in on judicial retention and state questions
• Oklahomans for Life candidate surveys
• Oklahoma Constitution newspaper's Oklahoma State Senate ratings and Oklahoma State House ratings.
• NRA-PVF endorsements and grades
• Oklahomans for Public Education 2020 voter guide: This is a kind of reverse-psychology voter guide. The red apple next to a candidate's name probably means he or she supports higher taxes, no reduction in school administrative bloat, and no meaningful educational choice for our children and their parents. You should treat a yellow warning triangle as a gold medal -- this is likely a candidate who will defend taxpayers' interests and work for school choice and educational efficiency.

TIP JAR: If you appreciate the many hours of research that went into this guide and into the rest of my election coverage, and if you'd like to help keep this site online, you can contribute to BatesLine's upkeep via PayPal. In addition to keeping me caffeinated, donated funds pay for web hosting, subscriptions, and paid databases I use for research. Many thanks.

Published on 2020/10/08, postdated to stay at the top through election day. Printable ballot card published on 2020/10/17. Updated to reflect a change in my views on Supreme Court Justice Richard Darby.