November 2024 Archives

A collection of quotes from pro- and anti-Trump voices. First, from Trump supporters:

Arngrimr notes that if the Left had gotten their way with National Popular Vote, Trump would have won 520-18.

This tyranny of the majority has served them well in the states where they took control, but the US Constitution and its balanced system prevented them from destroying it outright. In an attempt to circumvent the Constitution, the initiative of the National Popular Vote Act was born. Their stated goal: "The National Popular Vote law will guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia."

All 18 states that have approved the NPV compact went for the Democratic nominee this year, with the exception of one congressional district in Maine. The map would've been red except for Virginia, New Hampshire, and one congressional district in Nebraska. But NPV isn't triggered until states representing at least 270 electoral votes approve it.

Julie Neidlinger is very happy, and she wants to enjoy her joy:

I don't often feel joy as I am a sort of introverted downer person. I have had moments of joy where my face won't stop grinning...

It's not the same as joy that comes through faith.

It might be closer to happiness but on a high-octane level. It's a coursing, shocking feeling. Senses and ideas are all overwhelmed, and experience is so much more than the expectation that the mind is short-circuited.

I have so much excitement flowing through me that I don't know how to process it. I am absolutely unused to feeling this up, this hopeful, this surprised, this gobsmacked. I have, apparently, learned to function in a world of disappointment and down-ness....

I know Jesus is on the throne, I know he's my Savior, I know God sets up leaders and takes them down, I know Trump isn't perfect, I know there could be some crazy stuff ahead and things won't go as we think. I know Jesus comes first, not our nation, and making our nation great again can't happen without people turning to God.

I know. I do.

But let me have some joy, unapologetically, without a lecture.

Let me be ecstatic without tempering it with caveats.

The strange masochistic tendency of modern Evangelical Christians to turn a win of any sort into an admonishment to downplay it is strange to me. Let this Gen-Xer have her good day before we get back to low-key "whatevs" business. A joyless life is like solitary confinement, and today's little taste of joy won't last very long. So let me have it.

Thanks.

In-person absentee (early) voting will be available at in every county from Wednesday, October 30, through Friday, November 1, 2022 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Saturday, November 2, 2022, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. In most counties, this will be at the County Election Board office or county courthouse; here is the full list of absentee-in-person voting sites. Eight counties have two or more absentee-in-person sites (Cleveland County has 4):

• Canadian County: Canadian Valley Technology Center Cowan Campus, Yukon; El Reno Public Safety Center
• Cleveland County: MNTC South Penn Campus, OKC; Moore Public Library; Noble Public Library; Sooner Mall
• Oklahoma County: Election Board; MAC Center, Edmond
• Osage County: Election Board; First Baptist Church, Skiatook (West Rogers Campus)
• Rogers County: Election Board; Central Baptist Church in Owasso
• Tulsa County: Election Board, 555 N. Denver; Remote Voting Location, 12000 East Skelly Drive
• Wagoner County: First Baptist Church, Wagoner; NSU-BA, Broken Arrow

CHANGES in Tulsa County early voting

The Tulsa County Election Board has established a new early voting site in east Tulsa, at 12000 East Skelly Drive, on the south-east service road of I-44, east of 11th & Garnett. This is a larger building with more parking and easier access, better able to accommodate large numbers of early voters.

Tulsa County Election Board secretary Gwen Freeman urges early voters to make use of the new facility. The current HQ at 555 N. Denver will be open for early voting, but parking will be occupied by precinct workers preparing for election day as well as absentee-by-mail voters handing in their ballots in person (which can be done ONLY at the County Election Board). In years past, early voters have had to park in the surrounding neighborhood, walk a distance to the election board, and then queue around the parking lot, out in the weather.

After the new year, the Election Board will relocate to 12000 E. Skelly Drive. Old timers will know this as the Lowrance Electronics plant, home of the Fish LO-K-TOR. The building opened in 1970 and was doubled in size in 1972 (once they found matching brick). It now has over 100,000 sq. ft. of floor space, almost five times larger than the Marina-style Safeway, built in 1964, that has housed the election board since 1996.

Precinct polls will be open Tuesday, November 5, 2024, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

In addition to the general election for federal, statewide, legislative, and county offices, runoffs for mayor of Tulsa and three Tulsa City Council seats. There are two state questions on the ballot, and twelve appellate judges (three Supreme Court, three Court of Criminal Appeals, six Court of Civil Appeals) are up for retention. Here is the complete list of ballot items, sorted by county.

NOTE: Precinct boundaries, voting locations, and district boundaries have changed, in some cases dramatically since the last presidential election in 2020. Enter your name and date of birth on the Oklahoma State Election Board's online voter portal and you will see your precinct location and your sample ballot.

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 general election and City of Tulsa runoff election on November 5, 2024. Click the hyperlink on the office to see detailed information on that race and its 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.)

As I post this, I'm still unsure about several races, and there are other races I had planned to write about in detail, but time is short, people are voting, and many have asked for a summary of my recommendations.

City of Tulsa:

Mayor: Karen Keith (D)
Council District 2: Stephanie Reisdorph (R)
Council District 7: Eddie Huff (R)
Council District 9: Jayme Fowler (R)

City of Tulsa elections are officially non-partisan, and marking a straight-party vote doesn't cover these races. Party affiliations do not appear on the ballot; above are the voter registrations of the candidates. Conservatives have a Hobson's choice in the Mayor's race between two liberal Democrats; above is what I believe to be the least bad choice. We need southeast Tulsa voters to elect Eddie Huff, to defeat the left-wing incumbent, in order to have even the beginnings of a conservative voice at City Hall.

Statewide:

Corporation Commissioner: Chad Williams (L)
SQ 833 (Public Improvement Districts): NO
SQ 834 (Only citizens are qualified electors): YES

Federal:

Whatever our disappointments with some of the Republican candidates this year, winning control of Congress requires us to elect as many Republicans as possible. Better still, we have the opportunity to re-elect two solid conservatives in Kevin Hern and Josh Brecheen. No Senate races this year, and Frank Lucas was re-elected in the primary because only Republicans filed in the 3rd District.

1st Congressional District: Kevin Hern (R)
2nd Congressional District: Josh Brecheen (R)
4th Congressional District: Tom Cole (R)
5th Congressional District: Stephanie Bice (R)

State Legislature:

State Senate 3: Julie McIntosh (R)
State Senate 7: Warren Hamilton (R)
State Senate 15: Lisa Standridge (R)
State Senate 21: Randy Grellner (R)
State Senate 25: Brian Guthrie (R)
State Senate 33: Christie Gillespie (R)
State Senate 35: Dean Martin (R)
State Senate 37: Aaron Reinhardt (R)
State Senate 39: Dave Rader (R)
State Senate 43: Kendall Sacchieri (R)
State Senate 46: Charles Barton (R)
State Senate 47: Kelly E. Hines (R)

State House 1: Victoria Lawhorn (L)
State House 12: Mark Chapman (R)
State House 20: Jonathan Wilk (R)
State House 34: Andrew Muchmore (R)
State House 39: Richard Prawdzienski (L)
State House 41: Denise Crosswhite Hader (R)
State House 43: Jay Steagall (R)
State House 45: Matt Watson (R)
State House 46: Alex Torvi (R)
State House 64: Rande Worthen (R)
State House 66: Clay Staires (R)
State House 70: Brad Banks (R)
State House 79: Paul Hassink (R)
State House 83: Eric Roberts (R)
State House 86: David Hardin (R)
State House 87: Dave Schnittger (R)
State House 88: Bobby McCollum (I)
State House 90: Emily Gise (R)
State House 94: Suzanne Jobe (R)
State House 95: Max Wolfley (R)
State House 98: Gabe Woolley (R)
State House 100: Marilyn Stark (R)

No endorsement in House 4, 16, 26, 37, 38, 62, 63, 74, 84, 85, where a GOP incumbent has failing grades from the Oklahoma Constitution newspaper and/or OCPA, and yet the alternative is unappealing.

County:

Tulsa County Clerk: Michael Willis (R)
Tulsa County Commissioner District 2: Lonnie Sims (R)

Judicial Retention

In parentheses are party of voter registration, age, and appointing governor. Nigh and Henry are Democrats, Keating, Fallin, and Stitt are Republicans. An asterisk* indicates that other conservative voices disagree with my conclusion on that judge.

Supreme Court retention:

Noma Gurich (R, 72, Henry): NO
Yvonne Kauger (I, 87, Nigh): NO
James Edmondson (D, 79, Henry): NO

Court of Criminal Appeals retention:

William J. Musseman (R, 52, Stitt): YES
Scott Rowland (R, 60, Fallin): YES*
David B. Lewis (R, 66, Henry): NO

Court of Civil Appeals retention:

James R. Huber (R, 56, Stitt): YES
Timothy J. Downing (R, 45, Stitt): YES
Thomas E. Prince (R, 67, Stitt): YES
Robert D. Bell (R, 57, Henry): YES*
E. Bay Mitchell III (R, 70, Keating): YES
Brian Jack Goree (R, 60, Fallin): YES*

MORE INFORMATION:

OFFICIAL INFORMATION:

• Oklahoma State Election Board
• Tulsa County Election Board
• Oklahoma Ethics Commission Guardian campaign finance database
• City of Tulsa campaign contribution reports

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 endorsements and recommendations
• Muskogee Politico on the judicial retention ballot
• Steve Fair
• Oklahoma Constitution Index: Scores incumbent legislators on voting record
• OCPA legislative scorecard
• OCPA judicial scorecard
• 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) general election voter guide
• OCPAC Action: Judicial retention and state question recommendations
• Oklahoma Values Coalition

ANTI-CONSERVATIVE VOICES:

The Left is getting cagier about hiding its endorsements from conservatives, particularly in non-partisan races, but Blue Voter Guide will show you which candidates have received endorsements from leftist organizations -- follow that link and enter your zip code. Monroe Nichols has a lot of them. (Blue Voter Guide includes the Tulsa World editorial board as a leftist endorser.) Other negative indicators that will show up in campaign finance reports and social media:

• Oklahoma Public Employees Association: State government employees union can be counted on to support bigger, less-efficient government and higher taxes
• 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.
• Gun Sense Voter is an anti-2nd-Amendment voter rating
• Run for Something "is working with hundreds of young diverse progressives running for local office for the first time."

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.

Published 2024/10/28 and post-dated to remain at the top of the blog through election day.

Posted on the Monergism Facebook page last week and reposted here with their permission:

What do Christians mean when they say that people need to be "saved"?

Do we mean that people need simply to modify their behavior and obey God's law? It would be great if it were that simple, but that is not what we mean (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16).

Instead, we mean that human beings are prisoners, captives, and slaves to their idols, to their own lusts, to the world's system, and to the devil (Romans 6:16-18; John 8:34; 1 John 2:15-16). We cannot extract ourselves from these things because, like those who have Stockholm syndrome, we have fallen in love with our captors--loving those things which harm us most (John 3:19). Though we vaguely recognize that something is wrong in the world and within human nature, we tend to shrug it off, suppress or ignore it, and willingly fall under the illusion that we live in freedom (Romans 1:18-19; Romans 1:28). We cling to the falsehood of human progress, imagining that human ingenuity will somehow deliver us from ourselves and our problems (Jeremiah 17:5-6).

Pridefully, we hold to the idea that we are something and can do something to make things right. But we cannot escape our captivity on our own. No wisdom, plan, power, understanding, or technology can release us (1 Corinthians 1:20-21; Romans 7:18). The problem runs far too deep in us for that (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 7:23-24). Like the Hebrews in Egypt, we are slaves who need rescue. The tyranny of our idols and lusts is too powerful for nature to conquer. We need redemption from outside ourselves (Isaiah 43:11; Titus 3:5-6).

So, salvation is not about behavior modification (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are too entangled in the web of our own making to escape (Proverbs 5:22). We first need supernatural intervention by One like us who can break the bonds and lead us out of slavery (Hebrews 2:14-15; John 8:36). Then, and only then, after being freed from our captors, are we free to do right, to love mercy, to do justly, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8; Galatians 5:1).

But those who ally themselves with the tyranny of sin, like the Egyptians, will experience the fullness of God's wrath, which is ultimately what we need to be saved from (Romans 1:18; Colossians 3:5-6; John 3:36).

Final Thought:

In biblical terms, salvation is holistic: it rescues us from sin's power, our deserved judgment, and our rebellion against God. Romans 2:6-16 tells us that God's holy justice is exact and impartial, dealing with each person according to their works. This is a heavy reminder that none of us can stand before God on the basis of our own merit (Romans 3:23). Without grace, we would face judgment, not acceptance (Romans 6:23). Salvation, therefore, is God's gracious intervention that transfers us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His Son (Colossians 1:13), a rescue beyond human effort or wisdom. Through Christ, God provides what we cannot: a righteousness that meets His perfect standard and redeems us from the bondage of sin into true freedom (John 8:36).