LaFortune out?
It's been the guess of many a Republican insider that Tulsa Mayor Bill LaFortune would end up not seeking re-election. For one thing, it fits the pattern of his career to date. He was appointed to fill a vacancy as District Attorney, but didn't even finish out the term, much less seek re-election, instead taking a position with a private law firm. LaFortune has alienated most of his Republican party base and had very weak re-elect numbers in recent polls. For an incumbent, less than 50% support in your own party is a political death sentence. You will either lose the primary, or if you survive, the lack of an enthusiastic base will kill you in the general. (See Bush, George H. W., 1992 re-election campaign of.) There had been rumors of problems raising campaign funds and spending funds unwisely. And there were rumors that high-ranking Republican officials have been working for the better part of a year to find him a Bush administration sinecure, to give him a face-saving exit.
Rusty Goodman, a Democrat political activist who runs the okdemocrat message board, posted tonight that he had heard that a position in the Southwest Power Administration has been secured for LaFortune. SWPA is headquartered in Tulsa.
If true, it will be fascinating to watch how things shake out in the race to replace him.
Subscribe to this blog's feed:
Wow, if true, then I consider this great news.
Now if he'll just make his announcement not to run.
If true, the Good-Old-Boy-Cartel are doing much gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands on whether to push/pull Tulsa County Commish Randi Miller into the race for Mayor and leave County Residents to the tender mercies of Commissioner Dirty Bob Dick and his thuggish sidekick Dilbert Collins;
Or, else put all their chips on Don "The Cork" McCorkle with his extensive cake-crumb trail leading back to the $40,000,000 tax-payer financed Great Plains Airlines feeding frenzy perpetrated by the Cartel.
We'll probably know by the end of next week: Municipal Office filing period.......
Did I mention that Don "The Cork" McCorkle was on the BOARD OF DIRECTORS of Great Plains Airlines, before the company crashed in Bankruptcy, burning over $40,000,000 in taxpayer dollars?
And, that his Legislative authorship of the Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program has transferred $100,000,000's of Oklahoma taxpayer's dollars in the cause of Corporate WELFARE, paying companies to hire people that they were planning on hiring anyway?
How GENEROUS!
Bet he's humming "Hey, Big Spender, SPEND a little Time with me!"