Oklahoma 2022: Tulsa area legislative races

Senate District 2: Open seat currently held by Republican Marty Quinn.

Ally Seifried (pronounced SIGH-fred), 29, won the Republican runoff with the help of dark-money smears targeting her opponent Jarrin Jackson, a West Point graduate and Afghanistan combat veteran. Seifried has raised $343,288.66 and spent $250,497.47 as of October 24, 2022, with support from dozens of PACs and lobbyists, a max $2,900 contribution from the Cherokee Nation, $1,000 contributions each from George Kaiser and his son Philip. Seifried is a client of Fount Holland's CAMP.

Democrat nominee Jennifer Esau, 48, has been a teacher for 22 years, is a board member of the leftist Oklahoma Education Association, is head of the Claremore Classroom Teachers' Association, and has raised just under $55,000.

Ally Seifried seems like a nice person, but she's fallen in with a bad political crowd. I'd be reluctant to add another member to the majority caucus who arrives at the Capitol already tightly bound to lobbyists and special interests.

Senate District 34:

The lobbyists and PACs are backing incumbent Democrat and former teacher J. J. Dossett, 38, who has raised $145,151.88.

Dana Prieto, 65, has raised $26,512.87 in mainly small donations. Prieto has been endorsed by OCPAC, Tulsa Area Republican Assembly, Oklahomans for Health and Parental Rights, and many other conservative leaders. Prieto grew up in western New York state, but came to Oklahoma in 1991 to attend Rhema Bible College, and subsequently launched a successful small business helping other businesses establish a presence on the internet. During Prieto's previous run for State Senate, prior to redistricting, Sen. Tom Coburn wrote, "Dana [Prieto] is a constitutionalist who will use conservative principles to reform Oklahoma government. He believes Taxpayers deserve effectiveness, transparency, efficiency and accountability in state services. He will work hard to limit government to core functions. If we do that, we can cut the cost of government."

What Tom Coburn said. Dana Prieto would be a great conservative addition to the state legislature.

House District 9: Four-term incumbent Mark Lepak, 65, chairman of the House Banking, Financial Services and Pensions Committee, is one of the few area GOP legislators facing a general election challenge. He has raised $86,568.04, but has only spent $13,418.17, with the bulk of that going to CAMP. To his credit, Lepak's campaign committee has contributed to Gov. Stitt's re-election campaign, Ryan Walters's campaign for State Superintendent of Schools, Brad Banks's race for the open House 70 seat, and Paul Hassink's challenge in House 79. Lepak's conservative score for this session was 73, giving him a lifetime average of 67. In 2019, two bills that he co-authored, a pro-life bill and a bill protecting free speech on university campuses, were on the list of key votes for that year's conservative ratings.

Lepak's opponent, Ann Marie Kennedy, 63, has raised only $627.76. Originally from New Jersey, Kennedy works as a field representative for the U. S. Census Bureau and calls himself transgender. Kennedy's Facebook page applauds the idea of tribal governments setting up anti-COVID-19 checkpoints on highways and complains of a lack of support from the Oklahoma Democrat Party.

House District 66: An open seat, because incumbent Republican Jadine Nollan has reached her 12-year term limit.

Republican Clay Staires, 57, has served as a public school teacher and coach, director of Shepherd's Fold Ranch near Avant, and as an Avant school board member. For the past 10 years, Staires has trained company and organization leaders to build their teams and attract and retain good employees. Staires is the brother-in-law of State Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready and son of the founders of Shepherd's Fold Ranch near Avant. Staires has raised $96,937.55, including $8,700 from the Osage Nation, and $800 from Chick-Fil-A franchisee Arthur Greeno. Staires has been endorsed by OK2A, OKHPR, and other conservative groups.

The Democrat nominee is Sand Springs veterinarian James David Rankin, 63, who has raised $20,762.55, mostly from his own pocket. Rankin calls himself a "purposefully different kind of Democrat," believes abortion should be illegal except in cases of rape or incest or if the mother's life is in jeopardy, supports gun rights, and says he is "seeking to serve first to honor God and secondly to offer a moderate voice in this extremely polarized political climate of 2022."

Clay Staires is the clear conservative choice in House 66.

House District 70: Three-term incumbent Republican Carol Bush chose not to run for re-election. There was no primary in either party.

The Democrat nominee is former Tulsa School Board member Suzanne Schreiber, 49, who is a senior program officer for the George Kaiser Family Foundation, helping that organization use billions in assets as leverage with elected officials to shift Tulsa to the left. While Schreiber is trying to depict herself as a non-partisan moderate, her funding and associations show that she will stand with leftists against conservative Oklahoma values and with corporate and union interests against the interests of ordinary Oklahomans. Schreiber is targeting young Republican women with pro-abortion mail pieces, and she is resolutely opposed to putting good schools within reach of all Oklahomans regardless of income and zip code.

Schreiber has raised $258,993.44, including max $2,900 donations from the Cherokee Nation, from former Democrat congressman Brad Carson and his wife, George Kaiser, Philip Kaiser (George's son), Miranda Kaiser (Philip's wife), Frederic Dorwart (attorney to the Kaiser empire), lobbyist Margaret Erling, Sue Ann Arnall (ex-wife of Harold Hamm, who has used her billion-dollar divorce settlement to push for unleashing criminals to victimize more people, and who voted to ban ICE from the Oklahoma County jail), and Sara Schreiber, national executive director of America Votes, an organization seeking to undermine election security measures and "advance progressive power and causes." She also received $2,000 from former Mayor Kathy Taylor, $1,750 from failed Tulsa Public Schools superintendent Deborah "Cruella" Gist, $1,000 from GKFF executive director Kenny Levit, and $400 from former Oklahoma U. S. Senator Fred Harris.

Republican nominee Brad Banks, 39, is a civil engineer and the married father of four young children. He served in the US Marine Corps for five years, serving in the Western Pacific with 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, and then in Marine Security Guard Batallion in Lagos, Nigeria, and at the US embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark. After his honorable discharge as a sergeant, he obtained a degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Texas-San Antonio, working in infrastructure design and management. From 2013 to 2018, Banks was Manager of Operations for the City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa. He worked with legislators to pass bills that would facilitate ground transportation of cargo coming to or from barges at the port. He is now in private practice with his civil engineering firm, Bridgewater Engineering, and his construction firm, Eagle Eye Construction, which specializes in concrete, drainage, grading, and fencing work. Banks has raised $39,110.01, mainly from small donors, but has financial support from OKHPR, the Oklahoma Republican House Committee, incumbent state representatives, including Speaker Charles McCall. Banks has been is strongly pro-life, supportive of the right to keep and bear arms, and opposed to medical mandates and oppressive lockdowns. Banks has been endorsed by OK2A and OKHPR.

Brad Banks is the clear choice for conservatives, as well as anyone concerned about the increasing entanglement of the leftist aims of GKFF with state and local government.

House District 71: Two-term incumbent Democrat and angry leftist Denise Brewer announced in February that she would not be running for re-election.

Democrat Amanda Swope is yet another creature of the non-profit world. (You rarely find a Democrat candidate that has held a private-sector job where you must keep customers satisfied in order to stay in business.) Swope "began her career in nonprofit management as a Development Director fundraising and grant writing for social services organizations, Tulsa CARES and Iron Gate. After she received her Masters of Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma, Amanda began working at the Muscogee Nation as a Self-Governance Analyst negotiating federal compacts and identifying areas of sovereignty expansion. Today, she remains employed with her Tribe as the Tribal Juvenile Justice Program Director committed to reimagining the future of justice in Oklahoma and Indian Country.... She's served on multiple diversity, equity and inclusion committees, and police advisory councils." "Sovereignty expansion" means more power to tribal governments who are unaccountable to the vast majority of people who live within their alleged "sovereign" domain. If elected, will she represent all of her constituents, or will she be representing the interests of a tribal government that only a handful of her constituents can vote for or against?

Swope is a former chairman of the Tulsa County Democrat Party. Her social media accounts show her to be as far left as any national Democrat. She has raised $66,603.43, with major donations from the American Federation of Teachers union, the Cherokee Nation, Democrat former mayor Susan Savage, Democrat mega-donor George Krumme, and Council-suer Burt Holmes.

Undoubtedly, Swope would have even more money if she needed it, but... here is a strange, as Paul Harvey used to say. Republican Mike Masters ran a very competitive race two years ago against angry Leftist ex-news anchor Denise Brewer, receiving nearly 46% of the vote. He announced his intention to run again this year, and other potential GOP candidates stood aside.

And then Masters did nothing. He continued to file quarterly ethics reports under his 2020 campaign committee, even though state law requires a new committee to be established for each election cycle, but that committee has not raised or spent any money since the first quarter of 2021. Two-thirds of the money Masters's campaign spent last cycle, $21,294.70 out of $30,089.90, went to Fount Holland's Campaign Advocacy Management Professionals (CAMP). Masters's 2022 campaign committee was not registered with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission until October 24, 2022, and as of that date had raised $1,500 ($500 from American Bank & Trust president Frazier Henke and $1,000 from Eleanor Wilkerson, founder of the National Women's Prayer and Voting Army) and spent $498.16 on yard signs.

Nevertheless, given the far-left leanings of Amanda Swope, House District 71 voters should vote for Republican Michael Masters. If he is unwilling or unable to serve, we'll have a special election and maybe this time, potential candidates won't hold back.

House District 79:

Two-term incumbent Democrat Melissa Provenzano narrowly won the open seat in 2018 because RINOs preferred a Leftist in the seat than principled conservative Dan Hicks. For the 2022 election, Provenzano has raised $188,494.05. Provenzano is funded by George Kaiser, George's son Philip Kaiser, former Democrat mayors Kathy Taylor and Susan Savage, tribal governments (who want power without accountability), including the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, disgraced former Democrat Gov. David Walters, teachers' unions, numerous lobbyists and PACs. I was surprised to see Republican pollster Pat McFerron on the contributors list for a leftist Democrat legislator.

Republican challenger Paul Hassink is an electrical engineer with degrees from Georgia Tech and Purdue and has special concern for the security and resilience of Oklahoma's power grid. Hassink was the consensus choice of the Tulsa 9/12 project, Tulsa Area Republican Assembly, and Tulsa County Republican Men's Club. He won a tough primary against two former elected officials. Hassink has raised $83,538.65, mainly from Republican activists and small donors, but he also has the support of the Republican State House Committee. Hassink has the endorsement of OK2A and OKHPR -- Provenzano has F grades from both of those organizations.

Republican Paul Hassink's background in engineering and his consistent conservative principles will make him a great asset for Oklahomans in the Legislature.