June 2024 Archives

While I reserve the right to change my mind, here are the candidates I am currently inclined to support in the Tulsa general election and Oklahoma runoff election on August 27, 2024.

Between now and the election, I will be keeping an eye out on PAC donations and looking deeper into consulting companies. With so many establishment candidates having lost in the primaries, special-interest PAC money is going to be flowing somewhere, and we'll find out which candidates can resist their siren songs.

Political observers have a 40/5 rule of thumb: A candidate that gets over 40 percent in the primary and has at least a 5 point margin over the second-place candidate is almost certain to win the runoff. There have been exceptions, but it generally holds true. In Senate District 33 (Christi Gillespie 44%, Shelley Gwartney 25%), the first-place finisher could likely win just by turning out her voters in August, while the second-place finisher has to get her own people to the polls, plus those who supported the eliminated candidates, a big hill to climb. House District 32 (Jim Shaw 46%, Kevin Wallace 42%) could go either way by the 40/5 rule, but an incumbent who finishes second in a primary is unlikely to prevail in the runoff.

In Tulsa Council districts 5 and 6, there aren't any candidates I can get excited about, but differences over managing the police department and cooperation with ICE might tip the scales one way or another. In 2 and 9, there are multiple interesting possibilities. In 3, I don't know enough about the two candidates. (UPDATE 2024/07/25: I've added recommendations in Districts 2, 3, 5, 6, and 9. In 5 and 6, it came down to "better than the alternative." Where possible, I'd like to avoid having more councilors who have spent most of their career in the non-profit world.)

Only the Tulsa mayor's race and council districts 2, 7, and 9 will be on the August 27 ballot, because there are three or more candidates. The remaining council districts will be settled on November 5. CORRECTION: All of the council seats will be on the August 27 ballot, and any two-candidate race will be settled then. This is in contrast to school board seats, where the law was changed a few years ago so that a two-candidate race is settled on what used to be the school-board runoff date in April.

In District 4, I got to know Aaron Griffith many years ago in the Midtown Coalition of Neighborhood Associations. He's to my left politically, but he has a thick skin and is willing to endure the slings and arrows to stand up for what he believes is right. Aaron is strongly pro-neighborhood, has been a vocal critic of administrative shenanigans at Tulsa Public Schools, and he supports enforcing our immigration laws.

In District 7, I know Eddie Huff through his years as a conservative radio talk host at KFAQ. Margie Alfonso has been an important contributor to conservative politics over the years, but Eddie is better suited to winning a November runoff and serving, but he'll need enough GOP turnout to force a November runoff.

Chris Cone spoke to a Republican group about his vision for the job and his concerns about District 8. He was very impressive, and it will be good to have someone on the Council who is not beholden to the big foundations, knows something of the real world, and does more than pay lip service to his Christian faith. In District 1, I have not met Angela Chambers in person yet, but I see her very positive posts about life and entrepreneurship, and she seems like she will be a great improvement over the incumbent.

Brent VanNorman switched from the Council District 9 race to the mayor's race, and he looks like the best chance to get a conservative in the mayor's office for the first time since Dick Crawford and Jim Inhofe almost 40 years ago. He has the resources to run a strong race, but he needs to draw enough GOP turnout in the August 27 election to force a November runoff.

Tulsa City Elections:

Mayor: Brent VanNorman
Council District 1: Angela K. Chambers
Council District 2: Aaron Bisogno
Council District 3: Susan Frederick
Council District 4: Aaron Griffith
Council District 5: Karen Gilbert (very reluctantly)
Council District 6: Christian Bengel (unenthusiastically)
Council District 7: Eddie Huff
Council District 8: Chris Cone
Council District 9: Jayme Fowler

Oklahoma runoff:

Senate 3: Julie McIntosh
Senate 15: Lisa Standridge
Senate 33: Undecided
Senate 47: Undecided

House 20: Jonathan Wilk
House 32: Jim Shaw
House 50: Stacy Jo Adams
House 53: Undecided
House 60: Ron Lynch
House 98: Gabe Woolley

Tulsa County Commissioner District 2:

Republican runoff: Melissa Myers
Democrat runoff: Maria Barnes

Polls will be open for in-person voting on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

NOTE: Precinct boundaries, voting locations, and district boundaries have changed significantly since the 2020 elections. Enter your name and date of birth on the Oklahoma State Election Board's online voter portal and you will see where to vote and your sample ballot.

UPDATE: Don't miss my final thoughts on the 2024 Oklahoma Republican Primary.

In response to popular demand, I have assembled the guidance detailed below into a downloadable, printable, single-page PDF.

Here are the candidates I'm recommending and (if in the district) voting for in the Oklahoma Republican primary elections on June 18, 2024. (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.)

As I post this, I'm still unsure about several races, but time is short, people are soon to vote, and many have asked for a summary of my recommendations. My most enthusiastic choices are in bold; in other races, there may be one or two other candidates that would be acceptable, or I simply don't know the endorsed candidate as well as I would like. There are certain incumbents that I'd like to see defeated, but I don't feel comfortable endorsing an opponent at this point. I'll try to fill in TBDs and NOTs before the start of early voting.

One race in particular, SD 33, was a tough choice; I've endorsed each of the three candidates who have run in previous elections (Tim Brooks, Shelley Gwartney, Christi Gillespie), and I've known the fourth, Bill Bickerstaff, for many years and know him as a principled conservative who has been quick to volunteer for other candidates and who has been a key member of the Tulsa Beacon team. I watched the GOP forum, and I believe Brooks is best prepared to be an effective legislator who will follow in the footsteps of Nathan Dahm and Jason Murphey, who won't be lured into the capitol favor factory. But any of the four candidates should be very good legislators.

1st Congressional District: Kevin Hern.
2nd Congressional District: Josh Brecheen renominated without opposition.
3rd Congressional District: NOT Frank Lucas
4th Congressional District: NOT Tom Cole and NOT Paul Bondar
5th Congressional District: Stephanie Bice was renominated without opposition

Corporation Commissioner: Russell Ray

State Senate 1: Micheal Bergstrom
State Senate 17: Shane Jett
State Senate 25: Brian Guthrie
State Senate 29: Wendi Stearman
State Senate 33: Tim Brooks
State Senate 37: Cody Rogers

State House 2: Jim Olsen
State House 10: Chad McCarthy
State House 23: Derrick Hildebrant
State House 25: Robert Burch
State House 28: Danny Williams
State House 38: Marven Goodman
State House 41: Denise Crosswhite Hader
State House 67: Rob Hall
State House 68: Jonathan Grable
State House 79: Paul Hassink
State House 98: Gabe Woolley
State House 100: Marilyn Stark

Tulsa County Commissioner District 2: Melissa Myers

Tulsa County Court Clerk Don Newberry and Sheriff Vic Regalado have been re-elected without opposition. County Clerk Michael Willis was renominated without opposition but will face Democrat Don Nuam in the general election.

MORE INFORMATION:

CANDIDATE FORUMS:

The Republican Party of Tulsa County Facebook page has video of the candidate forums it sponsored:

• Tulsa County Commission District 2
• Senate District 25 (moderated by yours truly)
• Senate District 33
• Senate District 37
• House District 67
• House District 68
• House District 79

OTHER CONSERVATIVE VOICES:

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

• Muskogee Politico news, questionnaires, and analysis
• Muskogee Politico primary picks
• OCPA Legislative Scorecard
• Oklahoma Conservative PAC meeting videos, including candidate speeches
• Oklahoma Constitution Index: Scores incumbent legislators on voting record
• iVoterGuide surveys of Oklahoma statewide, federal, and legislative candidates
• City Elders Tulsa speakers' videos, including candidate speeches
• Oklahomans for Life candidate surveys
• Oklahomans for the 2nd Amendment (OK2A) endorsements
• NRA-PVF endorsements
• Oklahomans for Health and Parental Rights (OKHPR) endorsements

ANTI-CONSERVATIVE VOICES:

Here are some endorsement lists that are negative indicators:

• Oklahomans for Public Education: OPE advocates for higher taxes, opposes school choice, and opposes efforts to keep leftist advocacy out of the classroom. They work to defeat principled Republicans. A yellow warning mark from OPE is a badge of honor for a conservative candidate.
• Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition appears to be just another front for the leftist education establishment. The founder of the group, Erika Wright, opposed State Department of Education rules to keep obscene materials out of public school libraries and to keep parents informed of important mental health matters involving their children.

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 to those generous readers who have already contributed.

Some final thoughts in the wee small hours of election day. Don't forget to have a look at my main election day post with my list of endorsements and links to information from other reliable sources.

Fifty years ago, filing for office happened in early July, with the primary at the end of August and the runoff three weeks later. When the candidate filings for 1974 were printed in the Tulsa Tribune, I cut the list out and pinned it to my bulletin board.

Of 520 candidates statewide who filed for county office this year, 470 are Republican, 43 are Democrat, and 7 are independent. In the 9-county Tulsa-Bartlesville-Muskogee Combined Statistical Area, 62 of the 68 candidates for county office are Republicans. Three Democrats and one independent are running for Tulsa County Commission District 2, and there's one Democrat running for that seat in Pawnee County. I recall that the proportion on my 1974 list was the exact opposite. In July 1974, registered voters numbered 991,928 Democrats, 326,167 Republicans, 19,603 independents, and 3,511 with the American Party.

In 1974, the important electoral battles happened in the Democratic primaries. Today, the real battle for control of the state legislature happens in GOP primaries across the state.

While Oklahoma Republican legislators are generally reliably conservative on social issues, the majority departs from professed Republican platform principles anytime a lobbyist with access to campaign cash strolls past their offices. They may take strong stands on social issues with immediate impact, but they let themselves be rolled by lobbyists fighting the strategic measures that will ensure a conservative future in Oklahoma.

That's why a left-leaning private organization still has legal standing as a gatekeeper to the legal profession and judicial offices in Oklahoma. It's why we can't move public school board elections to a time of year when more voters are apt to be paying attention. It's why the legislative leadership keeps trying to undermine the first effective conservative serving as State Superintendent. These people are happy to use taxpayer dollars to lure businesses without regard to whether the people they bring may turn the state "blue" over time.

Chad McCarthy, who is challenging Judd Strom in House District 10, put together an 8-page newspaper detailing the incumbent's votes for cronyism, higher fees, more spending, more regulation, less transparency, more centralized control by legislative leaders. McCarthy provides bill numbers and a paragraph on each explaining why Strom's vote violates conservative principles. I suspect there's a strong correlation with the key votes tracked by the Oklahoma Constitution newspaper and OCPA Legislative Scorecard, and you'll probably find many of the incumbents who are backed by massive campaign warchests. McCarthy calls these people the Speaker's Lemmings and notes "their love of the Capitol nightlife."

They often wine and dine with lobbyists and other politicians at night, funded on the lobbyists' dime.

This allows the lobbyists to exert sway over the legislator, and it leaves the legislator much less time for actually reading the bills and knowing what they are voting on the next day....

State records show that Strom has attended more than 175 lobbyist-funded events, a sure indicator that he's likely a card-carrying lemming.

This lazy lawmaking results in the enactment of many bad laws, and that's why, as the reader reviews the audit on the following pages of this publication, they will see so many shocking votes that are complete betrayals of our Republican values.

In 2022, Tim Brooks, my pick of four good candidates in the Senate 33 primary this year, created a bullet-point summary of House District 76 incumbent Ross Ford's six years of bad votes at the State Capitol.

The incumbents who are part of the Favor Factory at the State Capitol (and the open-seat candidates seeking to join them) have plenty of PAC money to spend on big color postcards, billboards, robocalls and robotexts, and, more recently, radio and TV ads, telling you how wonderfully conservative they are. There was a time when there were trusted voices on local radio who could dissect these ads and evaluate their claims against the actual record. Those voices are all gone now. (As happy as I am to hear Michael DelGiorno's voice in the mornings on 1300, he doesn't fulfill the need for a local talk radio host; he isn't going to be giving air time to this year's Tulsa City Council elections.)

I have a few handy heuristics for evaluating the veracity of candidates and campaign materials. I'm willing to entertain proof of exceptions, but if any of the following are true, I assume the campaign flyer is shading the truth to mislead or deceive me:

• Has the acronym "CAMP" on the bulk mail permit.
• Was paid for by a dark-money group that has no online information about its founders, leaders, or funders.

And likewise, I make a rebuttable presumption that a candidate is not going to be looking out for our interests and may already be corrupt, or on a slippery slope to that condition, if his campaign finance reports show:

• Large sums of money paid to Campaign Advocacy Management Professionals (CAMP)
• Large contributions from large numbers of special-interest PACs
• Large contributions from tribal governments

As I said, there may be and have been exceptions, but the purpose of a heuristic is to give you a good starting point for further evaluation.

MORE: I've added a last-minute update to my Corporation Commission post, remembering Brian Bingman's betrayal of conservatives on the State Senate's 2014 passage for the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

To quote myself from a few years back:

There's one statewide race that ought to matter more than any other to Oklahoma voters. That's the race for a seat on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC). In addition to overseeing Oklahoma's oil and gas industry, the OCC regulates public utilities like PSO, ONG, and AT&T (formerly Southwestern Bell).

Considering the amount of money at stake in the OCC's decisions on utility rates, the commission is ripe for corruption. And indeed, in the late '80s and early '90s, the FBI investigated bribery allegations involving the OCC. Corporation Commissioner Bob Hopkins, a Democrat, was convicted of bribery and sent to jail, as was utility lobbyist Bill Anderson. The culture of corruption at the OCC was cracked open because, in 1989, a newly-elected commissioner went to Feds when Anderson offered him cash.

That commissioner was Bob Anthony, a man of honesty and fairness. In Anthony, Oklahoma's utility ratepayers have someone who is looking out for their interests. Regulated companies, whether large or small, get a fair shake from Bob Anthony.

Now Bob Anthony has been term-limited after 36 years looking our for the interests of Oklahoma residents and scrutinizing the claims of our monopoly utility companies on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Three Republicans, a Republican-turned-Democrat, and a Libertarian are running to replace him.

I'll refer you to Oklahoma Constitution's thorough story on the race and the candidates and add a few more links and comments.

Bob Anthony has endorsed Russell Ray, a journalist who spent decades covering the energy industry for newspapers and industry publications. He is currently director of communications for the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. Ray shares Anthony's concerns over the way utilities passed costs related to 2021's winter storm on to consumers.

The front-runner in terms of fundraising is PAC-backed Brian Bingman, former State Senate President Pro-Tempore. Bingman ran against Bob Anthony in 2018. His failure (along with Gov. Mary Fallin and leadership in the State House) to use political capital to reform state government and abolish and consolidate obsolete agencies and cut wasteful spending brought the state to the fiscal crisis of 2018. Bingman's backers put up enough money to force Anthony into a runoff, which Anthony won handily. Oklahomans, sadly, must assume that, as a corporation commissioner, Bingman will do what he did in the State Senate -- take care of the lobbyists who got him elected and not the consumers who depend on the Corporation Commission to protect our interests from the monopoly utility companies. It's basic public-choice theory: Concentrated benefits vs. diffuse costs. The companies that stand to make a financial killing from favorable Corporation Commission decisions have an incentive to pour money into the race to get their man elected.

As of the June 3, 2024, pre-primary contributions and expenditures report, Bingman had raised $399,096.21, of which $60,500.66 came from PACs. By contrast, Russell Ray has only raised $1,575.00, all from individuals, and covered another $1,127.50 from his own pocket.

The Oklahoma Constitution story notes that Bingman "was one of the more moderate Republicans in the Legislature with a cumulative average of 59% on the Oklahoma Conservative Index published by the Oklahoma Constitution. He scored only 40% in his final session in 2016." [Link added.] That's a polite way of saying that Bingman bent over backwards for corporate welfare.

OK Energy Today has an informative interview with Russell Ray from April, in which Ray discusses the problem with the OCC becoming an extension of legislative leadership (which, although Ray leaves it unsaid, is owned and operated by lobbyists).

"Quite frankly I think the credibility of the commission is at stake and I think adding another member of the political establishment to the commission will make things only worse."...

Some have suggested the Corporation Commission is becoming a retirement home for former legislative leaders. Chairman Todd Hiett is a former Speaker of the House and commissioner Kim David was the Oklahoma Senate Majority Floor Leader during her last years before being term limited. If Bingman were elected, it would mean three former legislative leaders would make up the commission.

"I am my own man," declared Ray in the interview with OK Energy Today. "I do think the balance between the concerns of consumers and the concerns of business is out of balance. I think right now, the balance favors the business over the consumer--that's not good."

He went on to indicate he believes the Corporation Commisson needs to do a better job of striking the right balance betwen those two concerns and be more fair to both sides.

Russell Ray's deep knowledge of the oil & gas and power industries means he'll be able to ask incisive questions of the businesses who come before the OCC.

Ray spent his career as a journalist who covered oil and gas for the Tulsa World for 8 years and was a business reporter for the Tampa Tribune and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He also spent 9 years as Chairman of POWER- GEN International, which is the sponsor of the largest trade show for the power sector in the world. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of Power Engineering magazine.

Power Engineering is the world's largest business-to-business magazine for the power sector, serving more than 70,000 readers. Ray was responsible for all editorial content, including a regular column he wrote on energy policy, pricing and technology.

Ray was also editor of the Journal Record in Oklahoma City.

"I've written about everything, I've covered everything. I understand the trends in technology, trends in pricing and trends in policy--my point is, I think someone with that kind of knowledge and skillset is more qualified than a career politician."

Ray addresses a threat to public transparency that is backed by the two ex-legislative leaders on the Commission:

"This bill would allow commissioners to meet behind closed doors to talk about public business--I've got a big, big problem with that and every Oklahoman should have a problem with that--the risk for abuse is great."

The candidate raised the question--if HB2367 becomes law, what will stop the legislature and others from doing the same thing for every city council or school board? As written, the bill only applies to the Corporation Commission, but questions have been raised that other three-member agencies might want the same power and lead to more legislative leniency.

"This would set a dangerous precedent for the entire state when it comes to open government."

County Commissions also have only three members. I'd rather see the number of commissioners increased than for them to be exempt from the Open Meetings Law.

You'll want to read the whole article for a discussion of 2021's Winter Storm Uri and the costs that utilities have palmed off on consumers, but here's the pull quote:

"The Commission has passed on billions of dollars in higher fuel costs and higher rate increases to consumers over the last three years I think with little or no scrutiny," he declared on the same day that Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony filed more objections to the one-page audit of PSO's storm costs.

A vote for Brian Bingman is a vote for total regulatory capture. A vote for Russell Ray is a vote for at least one voice on the OCC in favor of public accountability and transparency in the regulation of our utility rates and the oil and gas industry, with a hope for a majority on the side of accountability and transparency after the 2026 election.

UPDATE:

I had forgotten one very significant betrayal of conservative principles by Brian Bingman. In 2014, as Senate President Pro Tempore (leader of that chamber), Bingman allowed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact to reach the floor of the State Senate, but he voted for it, and it passed with considerable Republican support. Under Brian Bingman's misleadership, the Oklahoma Senate was the first Red State legislative chamber to back the Left's plan to let Blue Cities (and their fraud-prone electoral practices) dominate presidential elections.

Justin Hornback, the other Republican in the race to replace Bob Anthony, reached out to me via Facebook, politely asking why I endorsed Russell Ray, despite Hornback receiving the endorsements of OK2A and OKHPR. He certainly would be preferable to Brian Bingman, and Hornback says that he has power generation industry experience as well as oil and gas experience, but I put a lot of stock in Bob Anthony's endorsement.

UPDATE 2024/06/12: Here is the final list of candidates who filed for the 2024 City of Tulsa elections. Happily, every seat is contested except auditor. Nathan Pickard was on the auditor's staff and will do a great job.

The state, county, federal primary is a week earlier this year than 2022, and pre-primary campaign contribution reports were due Monday, and amidst the final week of primary campaigning -- it's the City of Tulsa election filing period, and there's only one day left. Filing ends Wednesday, June 12, 2024, at 5 pm, at the Tulsa County Election Board.

The current list of candidates is on the Tulsa County Election Board website, and I've added it below with party voter registration of each candidate.

Two big news items: Jayme Fowler has decided to run for re-election after all, entering what was a crowded field attracted by what was an open seat, and Cathy (Criswell) Carter has decided not to run for re-election. Mayor, Auditor, District 2, and District 3 are open seats.

District 5 incumbent Grant Miller has not yet filed for re-election, but I'm hoping he will; Karen Gilbert was one of the rubber stamps installed in 2011. I'm happy to see Eddie Huff running in District 7 and Nathan Pickard running for City Auditor.

District 4 foul-mouthed harridan Democrat Laura Bellis really needs an opponent.

UPDATED with final day filings in italics.

MAYOR

CASEY BRADFORD, 32, Republican
KALEB HOOSIER, 34, Republican
JOHN JOLLEY, 62, Independent
KAREN KEITH, 70, Democrat
MONROE NICHOLS, 40, Democrat
PAUL TAY, 61, Independent
BRENT L. VanNORMAN, 64, Republican

COUNCILMEMBER - COUNCIL DISTRICT 1

ANGELA K. CHAMBERS, 53, TULSA
VANESSA HALL-HARPER, 52, Democrat

COUNCILMEMBER - COUNCIL DISTRICT 2

ANTHONY ARCHIE, 36, Republican
AARON L BISOGNO, 37, Republican
W.R. CASEY JR., 58, Democrat
STEPHANIE REISDORPH, 37, Republican
RHENE D RITTER, 54, Republican

COUNCILMEMBER - COUNCIL DISTRICT 3

JACKIE DUTTON, 64, Democrat
SUSAN FREDERICK, 62, Republican

COUNCILMEMBER - COUNCIL DISTRICT 4

LAURA BELLIS, 35, Democrat
AARON GRIFFITH, 49, Independent

COUNCILMEMBER - COUNCIL DISTRICT 5

ALICIA ANDREWS, 57, Democrat
KAREN GILBERT, 55, Republican

COUNCILMEMBER - COUNCIL DISTRICT 6

CHRISTIAN BENGEL, 56, Republican
URIAH I DAVIS, 35, Democrat

COUNCILMEMBER - COUNCIL DISTRICT 7

MARGIE ALFONSO, 89, Republican
EDDIE HUFF, 72, Republican
LORI DECTER WRIGHT, 49, Democrat

COUNCILMEMBER - COUNCIL DISTRICT 8

CHRIS CONE, 38, Republican
PHIL LAKIN, 56, Republican

COUNCILMEMBER - COUNCIL DISTRICT 9

CAROL BUSH, 63, Republican
LeeAnn CROSBY, 40, Democrat
JULIE DUNBAR, 54, Republican
JAYME FOWLER, 65, Republican
MATTHEW NELSON, 39, Independent

CITY AUDITOR

NATHAN PICKARD, 41, independent

Karen Keith is running for Mayor of Tulsa, and seven candidates are running to replace her as Tulsa County Commissioner for District 2, three Republicans, three Democrats, and one independent.

The three Republicans are Tulsa District 2 City Councilor Jeannie Cue (sister of Keith's predecessor Randi Miller), District 68 State Representative Lonnie Sims, and small business owner Melissa Myers. The three Democrats are former Tulsa District 4 City Councilor Maria Barnes, Karen Keith's chief deputy Jim Rea, and public relations agent Sarah Gray. Josh Turley, who was the Republican nominee in 2016 and 2020, is running as an independent this year.

In the Republican primary, I'm voting for Melissa Myers. She is a graduate of Berryhill High School, married with two children, and with her husband and another couple owns Christ Centered Lawn and Landscape. The company provided Christmas lighting this year for the rooflines of Sand Springs' historic downtown buildings.

While all three GOP candidates live within some city's limits, Myers lives in the Prattville section of Sand Springs, the closest of the Republican candidates to the large unincorporated regions of the district, where residents are entirely dependent upon county government for road maintenance and law enforcement.

Myers has been endorsed by Oklahomans for the Second Amendment (OK2A) and Oklahomans for Health and Parental Rights. KRMG's Russell Mills interviewed Melissa Myers in February after she announced her candidacy.

Myers got her political feet wet when she advocated for keeping at least part of the Gilcrease Turnpike free. While she wasn't successful in the effort, it gave her experience in the conflict between local needs and the priorities of government agencies. One of Myers's priorities is transparency in the county commissioner's office and the operations of the budget board.

As a city councilor, Jeannie Cue devotes a great deal of time to being attentive to the needs of the neighborhoods in her district, and I'm sure that would carry over to the County Commission. Where she falls short is as a watchdog.

(Here is Jeannie Cue's interview with KRMG.)

A prime example is when the Tulsa City Council approved federal COVID recovery grant money to fund a sex survey targeting teenagers as young as 15. When I raised the issue at a meeting of the Tulsa Area Republican Assembly where Cue was present, she was very concerned to hear that the survey was being promoted on the Tulsa Parks Facebook page, and she made some phone calls the following day, resulting in the deletion of the Tulsa Parks Facebook post. She was kind enough to follow up with me as well.

Here's the problem: Jeannie Cue was a member of the four-member council committee (with Phil Lakin, Lori Decter Wright, and Vanessa Hall Harper) that "vetted" the non-profit applications, including that of Amplify Tulsa. She had the opportunity to flag this grant as a misuse of public money, particularly money intended to help Tulsans recover from the COVID shutdowns, but there's no indication that she raised an objection. Her shocked reaction when I discussed the grant at the TARA meeting suggests that she didn't exercise due care and attention when it had been before the committee.

When we elect someone to a seat at the table in government, it's reasonable to expect her to use her position to investigate and scrutinize government on our behalf, through the lens of the priorities and values of the voters who elected her. Councilor Cue has demonstrated that she's not very good at that.

The third Republican candidate is State Rep. Lonnie Sims, whose House district covers much of the County Commission district west of the Arkansas River. Sims is the big-money candidate in the race, and he has an abysmal voting record at the State Capitol. In the Oklahoma Constitution's Conservative Index of 10 key votes for the 2023 legislative session, Sims scored 40%, a failing grade, and his career average was 61%, reflecting his support for corporate welfare. (Does a billionaire-owned NBA team really need special tax breaks?) Sims has a lifetime average of 59% on OCPA's Legislative Scorecard, which records Sims's support for the interests of tribal officials over the general public and his backing of bills to undermine Oklahoma's anti-SLAPP law. He's using the same campaign consultants that are supporting Democrat Karen Keith's bid for mayor.

I encourage Democrats in Commission District 2 to vote for Maria Barnes. As a city councilor for four years in my district, Barnes represented the interests of homeowners and neighborhoods over special interests; that's why she was targeted for defeat in 2008 and again in 2011, by means of big money and (in 2011) Dewey Bartlett Jr's gerrymander. I've described her as a neighborhood servant whose years in the trenches with the Kendall-Whittier Neighborhood Association and the Midtown Coalition of Neighborhood Associations shaped her into an effective elected official, a true public servant. Although we disagree on many national political issues, Maria and I share many concerns about the way local government bodies treat their citizens. I appreciate her frankness. She's willing to take a principled stand and not back down under pressure. As a county commissioner, she would not be anyone's fool.

Jim Rea, Karen Keith's chief deputy, bought a house in the district barely in time to meet the six-month residency requirement, and his candidacy was challenged by his Democrat opponents on the basis that ownership alone doesn't constitute residency. The state law defining residence is fairly loose, so the county election board had to allow him to remain on the ballot, but voters may and should take his short tenure in the district into account. Rea's LinkedIn profile indicates that he's only been back in Tulsa for about five years, serving for the last two as Keith's chief deputy.

Sarah Gray's website gives the impression that she's a caring person who doesn't understand the duties and powers of the office she seeks.

BatesLine endorsed Josh Turley during his two attempts to unseat Karen Keith. Turley has a doctorate in organizational leadership, had a distinguished 24-year career at the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, serving as the TCSO's first civilian crime scene investigator and developing the department's first Risk Management program, which succeeded in reducing car accidents involving deputies and tort claim payouts. Turley independently developed policies and procedures to be used by smaller sheriff's offices and county jails to improve performance and minimize risk. As an independent candidate, Turley will not be on the ballot until November.

Here are the campaign finance reports filed by the candidates to date with the Tulsa County Election Board. Note that only Sims and Rea filed the pre-primary contributions and expenditures report that was due yesterday. Cue and Myers filed contributions and expenditures reports covering the first quarter of 2024. Barnes and Gray have yet to file a contributions and expenditures report.

• Jeannie Cue: Statement of Organization, Continuing Report of Contributions
• Melissa Myers: Statement of Organization, Contributions and Expenditures
• Lonnie Sims: Statement of Organization, Contributions and Expenditures
• Maria Barnes: Statement of Organization
• Sarah Gray: Statement of Organization
• Jim Rea: Statement of Organization, Contributions and Expenditures

MORE: Cheryl Wilburg recorded and posted most of the county commissioner debate sponsored by the Tulsa County GOP, after the live feed started having problems.

A replay (with some minor corrections) of an entry from 10 years ago today.

Fifty years ago today, June 8, 1974, there was a massive tornado outbreak and widespread flash flooding in northeastern Oklahoma. 22 tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma, including 5 in Oklahoma County and four in Tulsa County, two of which passed through Tulsa city limits. A long-track supercell killed 12 Drumright residents and two others. For Tulsans who were kids in the '70s, it was the first major weather disaster we had witnessed.

According to the National Weather Service in 2014, it was Tulsa's costliest weather disaster to date and has since been surpassed only by the 1984 Memorial Day Flood and the 1993 Tulsa/Catoosa tornado. Two F3 tornadoes passed through Tulsa's city limits, the second one touching down before the first one had finished with us.

A new ArcGIS story map from the National Weather Service Tulsa office goes into depth on the nearly two dozen tornadoes that plagued the state along with torrential rain and flash floods.

Everyone had heard about an "old Indian legend" that the hills and the bend of the river protected Tulsa from tornadoes. But which Tulsa? The settlement around the Creek Council Oak? The Tulsa of 1918 that didn't extend south beyond 21st Street or east of Lewis? The Tulsa of 1957, when the newly completed expressway connecting the turnpikes was dubbed "Skelly Bypass"? The Tulsa of 1974 reflected the tripling in Tulsa's land area that took place in 1966. All the tornado damage occurred in areas beyond Tulsa's early-day boundaries, and Brookside was the only area within the pre-1966 boundaries that was damaged.

The east Tulsa neighborhoods around 21st and Garnett that were hit were mostly very new at the time. Nearby neighborhoods were hit by another tornado on December 5, 1975. I always thought of the area as a tornado magnet.

It was a Saturday, and Mom had taken me to Oertle's (a locally owned department store at 26th & Memorial, now home to Fox 23 and Cox Media Tulsa) so that I could buy a gerbil. I had wanted a gerbil because I had seen one at school -- I forget whether it had belonged to the teacher or to a classmate. I named her Herbie, after the star of Disney's The Love Bug, because a gerbil's shape reminded me of a Volkswagen Beetle. We came home with Herbie, a plastic Habitrail Deluxe Set (the big cage with the wheel and the tower), and official Habitrail food and litter. (Everything was orange or yellow. It was the '70s.) I seem to recall we were in a hurry to get home because storms had been forecast and the sky looked ominous.

There had already been tornadoes in Oklahoma City earlier in the afternoon. We would have been listening to KRMG on the AM-only radio in our Chevy Kingswood Estate station wagon as we drove home.

Some time after we got home we heard the tornado warning on the radio. Although we lived in Wagoner County, we were in the far northwest corner, in the then-unincorporated Rolling Hills subdivision, so we paid attention when Tulsa County's name was called for a storm.

In our little house at 416 S. 198th East Ave., there was no basement, so taking cover meant that Dad pulled the foam mattress out of the back of the station wagon and the five of us -- Dad, Mom, me, my sister, and our cousin Mandy -- huddled under it in our little hallway. Someone, probably Dad, also opened the windows away from the direction of the storm, in hopes of equalizing pressure and preventing the house from exploding. (That practice is now deprecated.)

Sometime after the storm had passed, my mom's next-to-youngest sister and her husband arrived to pick up their daughter. They had been at the Camelot Hotel for an event and were stuck in traffic on I-44 for hours trying to get to our house.

Mobile phones were practically non-existent. None of the TV stations had radar. I think weather radio existed, but we didn't have one.

Those are my memories of June 8, 1974. What are yours?

MORE:

Mike Smith was a recent college graduate and weekend weatherman for WKY-TV in Oklahoma City (now KFOR). He was on duty at the station from early morning to late at night. He says that June 8, 1974, was the day that TV weather coverage grew up:

The story begins when Dr. John McCarthy, my atmospheric physics professor during my final semester at the University of Oklahoma, had recommended we rethink how we would handle a major tornado outbreak after he returned from investigating the April 3-4, 1974, tornado "Superoutbreak." I was then the weekend meteorologist at WKY-TV (now KFOR) in Oklahoma City. One of the things he urged me to consider was, "When there are multiple tornadoes, forget the severe thunderstorm warnings!" I resolved to do so if I was ever in that situation.

I took John's advice to heart and gave it a lot of thought. There was no way of knowing I would need it just weeks later....

Up to this point, there was nothing particularly unusual about the events of the day. But, it is important to realize how weather was handled on television in that era. Very few stations had meteorologists. The paradigm was weather was the "entertainment" segment of the news. I was from Kansas City where no station had radar, no station had a meteorologist, one station had a cute "weathergirl" (as opposed to a woman meteorologist) and another had a comedian who threw ping-pong balls at the weather map when hail that size was reported. In two other Midwest markets, cartoonists drew cartoons during the weathercast.

WKY televised the world's first actual tornado warning (broadcast by the late Harry Volkman) in 1954 with a staff of meteorologists doing its weather coverage even in that early era.

In the 1970's, it had radar and its weather team were all meteorologists. The chief meteorologist was the legendary Jim Williams and the #2 meteorologist was Larry Brown. Because it was a Saturday, I was the meteorologist on-duty.

He mentions that none of the Tulsa TV stations had weather radar at that time. WKY's radar (just a month old at that point) was far enough away from the OKC NWS radar site that the station was able to spot a hook echo headed toward the NWS that NWS's radar couldn't see because of ground clutter.

In 2014, KJRH spoke to ORU Dean Clarence Boyd, Jr., who was a student on the second floor of an ORU dorm that lost its third floor to the tornado.

Also in 2014, KOTV talked to residents of the Walnut Creek neighborhood, which was damaged by the second Tulsa tornado. One house was damaged by a piece of the ORU administration building from almost a mile away.

Tulsa World has a collection of its photos from the June 8, 1974, tornado aftermath.

TulsaTVMemories.com has a photo of the tornado damage in Brookside north of the KTEW/KVOO studios and the recollections of Michael Evans, who rode out the storm in Tulsa's first and at the time only Arby's at 42nd and Peoria.

I locked the south door and noticed I could no longer see across the street. I turned to lock the north door and out of the corner of my eye saw both picnic tables were airborne. My reaction was to flinch because milliseconds later they pushed through the glass front. I have no idea what happened after that because for about 20 minutes I was unconscious.

Stacy Richardson was on the air on KAKC, in the Trade Winds West at 51st and Peoria, the night of the tornadoes, at least until the power went out for every AM station except one. Sonny Hollingshead remembers tornado damage to Bell's at the Fairgrounds. David Bagsby remembers going to 31st and Mingo to try to rescue a friend stuck in a flash flood. Tulsa also received five inches of rain that night. More Tulsa tornado memories. More Tulsa tornado memories. Even more Tulsa tornado memories. Still more Tulsa tornado memories.

The Tornado Project has a list of all tornadoes touching down in Oklahoma between 1950 and 2012.

MORE: Mark Liotta remembers the sounds and sensations as a tornado passed over his boyhood home at 21st and Mingo. An excerpt:

As the tornado set its sights on our street, surely moving directly over our house, the air was filled with the wind's roar, the impact of debris, and the wailing of air being pulled through the copper stripping that insulated our front door; the tornado was playing our house like a harmonica.

So there we were, 4 terrified kids in the hallway, in the midst of a shredding storm, a mattress on top of us, and our Dad on top of the mattress holding it down with his body, begging God to spare his family. I can't imagine our Dad's terror as we called out to him.

RELATED? The Doctor Who episode of Saturday, June 8, 1974, was the final appearance of the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, and the first, uncredited appearance of Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor.

Here are some excerpts from interesting articles in the Vinita newspaper, the Indian Chieftain, during territorial days. The period from 1866 to 1907, the process that led from collectivism and oligarchy to private ownership and democracy, would be worth a book-length study. And is it still possible to find "bacchanalian debauch" in Wagoner and Muskogee?

Click the links to find the original newspapers on the Oklahoma Historical Society's website.

May 23, 1895, p. 2:

Inexorable Law:

A point has been reached where it is scarcely possible to continue Indian automony [sic] over this or any other Indian reservation. Aside from the expense, not to say utter impossibility, of longer protecting these people as wards of the government from the encroachments of people from the states -- foreigners so far as the Indian citizen is concerned -- the Indian has reached a point where he must be protected from the more avaricious of his own kind. His system of holding land in common is a failure, practically and thoroughly demonstrated. The same thing has eventually happened here that would happen in any civilized community in the world. The big fish eat up the little ones; the more capable of our people have got in possession of the lion's share and a division is the only remedy left.

The only reason that the government has not laid hands on these Indian oligarchies long ago and changed their government into a state is the desire to fulfill certain treaty stipulations made at a time when the conditions were far different from what they are at present.

The Dawes commission comes to the five tribes very much as a surgeon goes to a patient to perform a dangerous operation--an operation that may cost the life of the afflicted. Indeed, it is certain that the operation as suggested by surgeon Dawes will utterly destroy the body politic of these Indian nations. But the surgeons have come for the second time with their instruments, fully determined to perform the operation, notwithstanding the patient is in a high fever and opposed to the knife being applied. But the sick in such cases are not to be consulted very far, so the operation is going on.

Adair Remarks: "A bicyclist passed through town Tuesday en route from St. Louis to Mexico. He made it from St. Louis to Adair in one week's run."

April 23, 1896, p. 3

There is a report on the Cherokee Nation Republican convention at Fort Gibson, which will elect a delegate and an alternate to St. Louis and also 35 delegates to the Indian Territory convention at Muskogee, which will elect two delegates and two alternates for the territory at large.

"Dr. A. W. Foreman will receive in a day or two, from Boston, Mass., a handsome Soda Arc, one of Tuft's latest designs.... Mr. Highwood will conduct the soda water business in a strictly first-class manner and will be prepared to serve all of the latest drinks, besides mead, phosphates, egg drinks, plain sodas, ice cream served with crushed fruits, cherry bounce, water ices, etc., absolutely ice cold."

March 3, 1898, p. 2:

Saloons for Vinita: "The people who leave town because there are no saloons, houses of ill fame, or gambling halls, are a good riddance. The traveling men who prefer to spend their sabbath days in bacchanalian debauch at Wagoner and Muskogee, would not sweeten the atmosphere of Vinita." Proposal to license saloons and issue monthly fines on gamblers and prostitutes.

A Chaotic Condition: "First the laws of the Indians were abolished, and the act solemnly declared: 'That on and after the passage of this act [Curtis Act?] the laws of the various tribes shall not be enforced at law or in equity by the courts of the United States in the Indian Territory.'... About the time the lawyers were laying aside their Cherokee law books as relicts of a bygone age, emmisaries of the United States were sent down to put in force some portions of this very law that 'should not be enforced at law or in equity.'"

Story of Sequoyah: "It is told of Sequoyah that he lived and died a heathen and that when the missionaries employed his alphabet to publish the new testament he said he wished he never invented it."

5 per cent alcohol: "Mist, the decoction shold at wholesale by B. F. Lissauer and dispensed by joint keepers in most all territory towns except Vinita, comes under the ban.... Alcohol, "by volume" was found to the extent of about 5 1/2 per cent and "extract" about 6.... (anything over 2 per cent is prohibited)."