Oklahoma Politics: February 2004 Archives

A professor at the University of Akron, of all places, has a list of current Oklahoma Representatives and Senators and when they will be term-limited, sorted by year when their time is up, and by party.

State Rep. Pam Peterson was on KFAQ this morning explaining the problems with SB 553, the bill that would legalize real casino gambling at Indian casinos and allow horse tracks to offer more limited gambling of the sort currently on offer at Indian bingo halls. Beyond the negative impact on the state, the the compact would run for 15 years, leaving no opportunity before that time for the state legislature to fix any unintended consequences. It still leaves the horse tracks at a competitive disadvantage to the Indian casinos. The state will only be paid by the Indians on a percentage of revenues from new games. Education will not see much money from this, and the legislature is likely to reduce school funding from the general fund to compensate for any gains they make from casino revenues. Because Oklahoma is not a tourist destination, it's estimated that 70% of the revenues will come from our own citizens.

I hear that the OEA is lobbying for this bill. It's a shame that an organization that claims to be devoted to education is pushing an industry dependent on mathematical ignorance.

Beyond the morality and the social effects of gambling, this looks like the usual Oklahoma legislative stitch-up, like the legalization of pari-mutuel betting, which placed restrictions on who could open a track and when they could race, all for the benefit of the DeBartolo family, who owned Remington Park in OKC.

If you're going to open the state up to casino gambling, just repeal the prohibitions against games of chance, and let anyone who wants to open a casino do so. Regulate the industry only to the extent necessary to ensure that the rules of the game are followed -- no loaded dice or stacked decks. SB 553 will only allow certain favored groups and individuals to get in on the act, and since the legislative leaders are in control of who will get in on the act, you can bet they will be richly rewarded by these favored few once they leave office.

That photo of Larry Adair in the Whirled has him wearing the expression of the cat who ate the canary, as if he's figured out how to cash in on this legislative racket, how to convert power to money, and there's nothing you can do to stop him.

There's a key vote on casino gambling (SB 553) in the State House of Representatives this morning. The Whirled is reporting a survey of Tulsa area representatives. Below are the names and addresses of those who said they were undecided or didn't respond to the survey. All but Lucky Lamons are Republicans.

UPDATE: A reader forwards a response from Sue Tibbs that she is voting no. I suspect that Adkins and Liotta are also "no" votes as well. As for Lucky Lamons, I don't have a sense one way or the other, but if you hear anything definite from him or the others, let me know (blog at batesline dot com) and I will make the appropriate adjustments.

By the way, please note that Rep. Ron Peterson (as opposed to Ron Peters) of Broken Arrow is listed in the Whirled as a "no" vote, as is Rep. Pam Peterson (no relation to Ron).

Undecided:

Chris Hastings (undecided), hastingsch@lsb.state.ok.us

Ron Peters (undecided), petersro@lsb.state.ok.us

Did not respond to survey

Dennis Adkins (did not respond to survey), adkinsda@lsb.state.ok.us

Lucky Lamons (did not respond to survey), lamonslu@lsb.state.ok.us

Mark Liotta (did not respond to survey), liottama@lsb.state.ok.us

In general, to find your state representative, click here. This page includes links to district maps.

Here's the page with an alphabetical list of state representatives, with each rep's e-mail address, direct phone number, and a link to his or her personal information page.

The toll-free number for the State House of Representatives (not the State Senate) is 1-800-522-8502.

For the State Senate: The State Senate homepage is here.

From this page, you can get to a pictorial directory, an alphabetical directory, a directory by district, and maps of districts. From any of those pages, if you click on a senator's name, you'll get his or her direct line, e-mail address, and name of the administrative assistant. The State Senate doesn't have a toll-free phone number.

In general, a State Representative's e-mail is:

<lastname><first-two-letters-of-lastname>@lsb.state.ok.us

So Rep. John Q. Public would be publicjo@lsb.state.ok.us

In general, a State Senator's e-mail is:

<lastname>@lsb.state.ok.us

So Senator Public's e-mail would be public@lsb.state.ok.us

I'm not aware of any exceptions to these rules, but they may exist, so double-check at the above links.