Oklahoma Politics: October 2004 Archives

I've volunteered to report on Oklahoma's election results for The Command Post 2004 Presidential Election blog. Bloggers from all 50 states and around the world will be posting as results come in on election night. Unlike many blogs, the content on The Command Post is intended to be "just the facts" -- no commentary. While the mainstream media is just talking about the Presidential race, you'll find a lot of depth on The Command Post -- congressional races, battles for control of state legislatures, important referenda. Expect to read not just who is leading in Florida and Ohio, but which counties the results are coming from and which counties haven't been heard from yet.

I'm planning to focus on the Senate race, the battle for the State Legislature, and the State Questions. You'll find my first entry right here.

SoonerPoll.com has Coburn up by 9 points in their latest poll, with big gains in the metro areas.

SoonerPoll.com also conducted polls in 17 competitive State House districts, surveying 300 voters in each for a margin of error of +/- 4.4%. The 17 seats are currently held by 15 Democrats and 2 Republicans. Republicans are leading in 8 seats, Democrats in 9, for a gain of 6 and a majority of 54.

Of the 17, only two show a lead outside the margin of error -- incumbent Democrat Al Lindley in District 93 in Oklahoma City leads by 4.5%, and in Tulsa's District 71 Dan Sullivan leads incumbent Democrat Roy McClain by 6.2%.

The other Tulsa-area seats polled were District 10, where Steve Martin (R) is leading the wife of the incumbent by 2.1%, District 30, where Brian Bingman (R) leads with 2.8%, District 12, where Mark Wofford (R) trails by 1.2%, and District 78, where David Schaffer (R) trails by 2.1%.

Keith Gaddie has some comments on the pollsters who poll Oklahoma over at SoonerPolitics.com.

A live televised forum about Oklahoma's state questions will be aired on KOKI Fox 23 (Tulsa Cable channel 5) tonight from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Don't know if it will be aired anywhere in Oklahoma City. If you'd like to attend in person, doors open at 7 p.m. at the Fox 23 studios at 26th and Memorial (where Oertle's used to be, if you're old enough to remember, or where Burlington Coat Factory used to be, if you're not).

Here's how I'm voting:

705: NO
706: NO
707: Still undecided
708: YES
711: YES
712: NO
713: NO
714: YES
715: YES

Syndicated columnist Terence Jeffrey writes today about the efforts of House Republicans, led by Tulsa Congressman John Sullivan, to increase immigration enforcement in parts of the country that are far from the nation's borders. Why does it matter? Here's Jeffrey's lead paragraph:

Were terrorists to sneak across our border today and need a place to hide, a rational analysis of U.S. immigration enforcement would point them toward Tulsa, Okla. There is little chance the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would look for them there.

The U.S. government rarely enforces immigration laws in Tulsa -- even though the government says there are tens of thousands of illegal aliens in Oklahoma. This could begin changing, however, if House Republicans get their way in ongoing negotiations with the Senate over the final language of the intelligence reform bill being crafted in response to the 9/11 Commission report.

The bill would double the number of Border Patrol agents from 10,000 to 20,000, triple the number of ICE investigations officers from 2,000 to 6,000, guarantee at least three new ICE agents in every state, and give the Department of Homeland Security more authority to quickly deport illegals from countries other than Mexico.

Sullivan is pushing specifically for agents for Tulsa, following two incidents in which van loads of illegal aliens had to be released because no ICE agents were available and there was nowhere that the suspected illegals could be detained while waiting for the agents. Although Sullivan had succeeded in tripling the number of ICE agents in Oklahoma from two to six, there still wasn't coverage in Tulsa when the latest incident occurred last month:

Just before midnight on Sept. 21, police from the Tulsa suburb of Catoosa stopped a truck for speeding on Interstate 44. There were 18 people on board, including teen-agers. Only two had valid identification. The others were suspected of being illegal aliens. One was arrested for possessing a substance thought to be cocaine. ICE told the police to let the rest go.

The Tulsa World reported: "Because no holding facility was available, [ICE regional spokesman Carl] Rusnok said, the individuals would have had to stay out on the road for several more hours before an agent could arrive at the scene. 'That's just geography,' he said."

More than three years after Sept. 11, 2001, Tulsa, Okla. -- in the heart of the heartland -- remains beyond the perimeter of U.S. immigration enforcement.

So John Sullivan has a bill that specifically requires the stationing of ICE agents in Tulsa. The ability to control our borders is crucial to our national security. If illegals get beyond our borders -- not tough, given the length of our borders -- we've got to be able to deal with them anywhere in the country we may find them. It's good to know that we have a Congressman in Tulsa who understands the importance of the issue.

To no one's surprise, Little Boy Brad Carson has already broken his pledge to stop his negative attack ads. He's again trying to muddy the waters on the abortion issue with a radio ad saying that Tom Coburn's trying to hide his record on abortion. This ad is a clear desperation move as Carson's campaign slips downward. It is part of what appears to be a nationwide effort to confuse pro-life voters as to who really stands with them on their motivating issue. (See my earlier entries here and here on Chris Matthews' wild claim on "Hardball" that President Bush isn't really pro-life.)

Carson's radio ad has a heartbeat sound in the background, and features a very familiar voice telling a series of what are probably half-truths at best, worded to make it sound like Tom Coburn is out taking a machete to every pregnant woman in Oklahoma. The heartbeat stops after this line: "Tom Coburn is the only person in this race who has personally committed abortions."

The ad is not from an independent organization. It's paid for by Carson for Senate, Inc., and is tagged with Brad Carson's personal approval.

This is low-down and dirty. Brad Carson has a legislative record and a personal commitment to legal abortion. Tom Coburn is an eloquent defender of the unborn and has the legislative record to back up his words. Here is the factsheet from National Right to Life comparing the records of Carson and Coburn on the sanctity of human life. As an obstetrician, Coburn has twice had to perform surgeries to save a pregnant woman's life due to an ectopic pregnancy.

Here's what the Coburn campaign says about the radio ad:

Radio ads with the "approved by Brad Carson" tagline have been running across the state calling Dr. Coburn an abortionist, despite Carson's pledge that voters would hear no more negative attacks from his campaign. Senator Don Nickles has said that Brad Carson is running a campaign of "character assassination" that is "a new low in Oklahoma politics" - and this confirms it.

"Does Brad Carson have any shame at all?" asked Coburn spokesman John Hart. "He lied to all of Oklahoma by saying repeatedly - both in the debate last night and in television ads - that he would end his negative personal attacks. Instead he has found a new low, smearing a family physician with a 100 percent pro-life record in Congress."

Dr. Tom Coburn has been endorsed by Oklahoma Right to Life and National Right to Life in the Senate race, because of his strong pro-life record. He has been a family doctor, helping women and children in Oklahoma, for almost 20 years. In the course of those many years, it was twice necessary to end a pregnancy. In those cases, the mother's heart and lungs had failed, and both mother and child were about to die. So, Dr. Coburn did what he had to do to save the life of the mother.

Dr. Coburn grieved for those lost children, and agonized over their deaths. "Those were heartbreaking, heartbreaking decisions," said Dr. Coburn. "But I think if you asked those women today, they would tell you that they are happy to be alive."

soonerpolitics.com has the ad linked on the right side of the home page. soonerpolitics.com proprietor Keith Gaddie had this to say when a Carson push-poll tried to get the same message out in August:

To equate the termination of an ectopic pregnancy with an elective abortion is at best ignorant, at worst politics at its most-mean-spirited and guttural.

So Dr. Tom Coburn did not perform abortions. He terminated two nonviable pregnancies of the sort that constitute a grave threat to the life of the expectant mother.

Here's a link to my entry at that time, and here's a link to soonerpolitics.com August content which includes the above quote.

Carson's radio ad cites the Republican National Committee for Life as if they opposed Tom Coburn or considered him not pro-life. In fact, their political action committee endorsed Coburn in the primary and describes Coburn as "unconditionally pro-life".

Brad Carson is a lying weasel. Even if you are pro-choice, do you really want a lying weasel representing you in the U.S. Senate?

(By the way, if anyone knows the name of the voice talent on the Carson ad, please drop me a line at blog at batesline.com -- replace the "at" with the @ sign. Someone who would prostitute his God-given vocal talents in the service of lies deserves to be named and shamed.)

The Tulsa County Republican Party is sponsoring a showing of the documentary "Stolen Honor" tonight at 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm. Each showing will last an hour -- only 100 seats will be available at each showing, so come early. The documentary is about John Kerry's slanderous testimony before the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971, and its impact on the veterans whose honor he besmirched.

The film will be shown at the Circle 2, on Lewis Avenue, between Admiral Blvd and 2nd St. Admission is free; donations to the Tulsa County Republican Party are requested.

By the way, the Circle 2 is the first phase of the restoration of the Circle Cinema, the last pre-1960s theatre still standing in Tulsa. The Circle 2 has already begun showing a schedule of independent and classic films, continuing in the tradition of the Westby Cinema (and the Williams Center Cinema before it).

Whether or not your name is Hamp, if you're a supporter of Tom Coburn, your help is requested to put stamps on a mailing, if you have any time available until midnight tonight and from 9 to midnight tomorrow. This is the perfect political activity for shy persons. This is a task that older children and teenagers can do, too. Report for duty at Creative Printing and Mailing, 7041 East 15th Street -- between Memorial and Sheridan. (For you Tulsa old-timers, that's in Burtek's old facility.)

UPDATE: Even a four-year old can help: Katherine is very proud to say that she put on 101 stamps to "help President Bush."

A childish misunderstanding? No. Sending Tom Coburn to the Senate will help President Bush accomplish his agenda. Voting for liberal Democrat Brad Carson would deliver control of the Senate to the Democrats and hurt the President's ability to pursue his policies.

So go by Creative Printing and stamp mail, go by Coburn HQ at 61st & Memorial to make calls, or go by the GOP's campaign center at 52nd & Harvard (in front of Mardel's) to make calls. No need to call ahead -- just drop in. Let's help the President by turning out the vote for Tom Coburn.

Leadership Tulsa is sponsoring this event. Ken Neal of the Whirled's editorial page will be one of the panelists, which ought to be unintentionally entertaining. It looks like LT has done a good job of acheiving balance -- Forrest Claunch is the leader of the opposition on the gaming issues, and Mike Thornbrugh has been outspoken in opposition to the tobacco tax hike. Here's the press release:

Leadership Tulsa Hosts State Questions Forum on Lottery, Gaming and Tobacco Tax

Leadership Tulsa will host an informational forum focusing on three of the nine state questions scheduled to appear on the November 2 general election ballot – SQ 705/706 on the education lottery, SQ 712 on the State Tribal Gaming Act and SQ 713 on the tobacco tax. The event will be held Tuesday, October 26 from 5:30pm to 7pm at the Tulsa Technology Center Lemley Campus at 35th and Memorial. It is free and open to the public.

Panelists include David Blatt, the Director of Public Policy for the Community Action Project, Mike Thornbrugh of the QuikTrip Corporation, David Stewart of the Cherokee Nation Enterprises, Ken Neal of the Tulsa World, Forrest Claunch of Oklahomans for Good Government and Pat Hall with the educational lottery campaign. Leadership Tulsa member and business consultant, Gary Richetto, will moderate the event.

“We had a tremendous turn out for the gubernatorial forum we hosted a couple of years ago,” explained Isabell Estes, current chair for the Leadership Tulsa board. “This forum, like all our programs, provides information on trends and issues that affect our community in an environment that encourages questions and thoughtful discussion.”

For more information, contact the Leadership Tulsa office at (918) 477-7079. The event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not necessary.

Wendy Thomas
Executive Director
Leadership Tulsa
wendy@leadershiptulsa.org
918-477-7080

Now on the home page, SoonerPolitics.com has links to the latest Wilson Research poll of Oklahoma voters on the presidential and senate races and the most controversial state questions. Coburn is still up by three, but Coburn and Carson each lost a point to voice-hearing Independent Shiela Bilyeu. Follow that link to SoonerPolitics.com to see what Dr. Stones has to say about the poll.

And then follow this link to read Clayton Cramer on what the plus or minus margin of error is all about; and he's got a link to a poll "explainer" on CNN's website that he found helpful. The explainer doesn't mention the 95% confidence level, which means there's a one-in-twenty chance that the Wilson poll is wrong beyond the margin of error.

Coburn needs your help -- Tulsans call 627-5702 to find out what you can do.

On SoonerPolitics.com, OU PoliSci professor Keith Gaddie reviews the Tulsa Whirled's latest poll in the Oklahoma US Senate race (which shows Democrat Brad Carson up by 6%) and calls attention to the poll's lack of any screening for likely voters:

Registered voter surveys always favor Democratic candidates, but they are not reflective of turnout. Consumer Logic has not used any sort of likely voter screen (which have been discussed on this site before), not even a screening question that asks about the certainty with which a respondent will vote. A similar survey, taken more recently by SurveyUSA and using such a screening question, illustrates the problem inherent in the World’s poll: Tom Coburn has a seven-point lead among “certain” voters, while Brad Carson leads among voters who are only “probably” going to vote. And SUSA had weeded out the unlikely voters, who are still included in the World poll of registered voters.

We are in an uncertain political environment with regard to turnout. But, Consumer Logic and the Tulsa media who sponsored this poll owe it to their readers to address these issues, because they do not create an accurate picture of the polling environment, nor do they communicate the greater predictive error inherent in their unscreened, registered voter survey.

Gaddie also comments on the Oklahoman's endorsement of Tom Coburn:

Should Dr. Coburn prevail, his incumbency is impeded by a divisive, negative campaign waged by his opponent and his supporters. His trademark forthrightness and consistency has been called into question. His independence and lack of beholding to other interests are diminished. He will have won in no small part because other conservatives– most notably the NRSC and the Club for Growth, the Oklahoma City GOP organization (most notably Ernest Istook’s people), the GOP congressional delegation, and the Bush family – carried water for his campaign financially, politically, and organizationally at the grassroots. Left to his own devices, Tom Coburn would probably be outspent and losing right now. He is in this race due to an exceptional conservative effort on his behalf.

Senator Tom Coburn, like other politicians, will find he is beholden to the interests and organizations who contributed to his success. And, this will likely lead to demands that he change his political style, as the Oklahoman astutely suggests when its editorial board observes that “If elected, it's imperative that Coburn adopt a spirit of collaboration, particularly with fellow Sen. Jim Inhofe, that sometimes eluded him during his six years in the House.”

To the extent that Coburn is beholden to these groups, it will serve to reinforce his strength of character and independence. The people who have lined up to help Tom Coburn win this election did so because of who he is, not because they believe they could mold him into something different. The reason Club for Growth made his election its number one priority is because he has a record of standing firm on the Club's issues of economic freedom and smaller government. Any supporter who believes he's going to call in some favors once Coburn is in the Senate hasn't bothered to read his book or study his record.

Although his consistency and forthrightness have been questioned, the "questions" against him have been shown to be bogus. There are encouraging signs that Oklahomans are finally seeing through the distortions coming from Brad Carson's campaign. It only helps Coburn that a major donor to Carson's campaign -- the attorney who defended Coburn in that sterilization lawsuit -- is coming forward to challenge the half-truths and outright lies coming from Carson and his supporters. From a recent e-mail from Tom Coburn:

Let me close by mentioning a hero. Walter Haskins is the lawyer who represented me thirteen years ago when I was the defendant in a frivolous lawsuit based on untruthful claims. He does not agree with me politically; in fact, he and his wife contributed the maximum amount allowed by law to Brad Carson's campaign. When he saw me attacked in the media in early September about that very lawsuit, he told Brad Carson the facts that I had done nothing wrong and that the case had been quite properly thrown out of court. But when Mr. Carson went ahead and put a million dollars of his campaign funds behind television advertisements intended to destroy my character with those same false charges, Mr. Haskins stepped forward publicly to tell reporters that the claims in those commercials are false and that Brad Carson knew it. Now Mr. Haskins has made a commercial for us that you will probably be seeing over the next few days. Walt Haskins has come to my defense on his own initiative, at his own expense, and against his own political preferences, because truth matters to him. I am overwhelmed by the courage and integrity of this good man, and I will remember it the rest of my life.

You can see the ad here.

And to help the Coburn campaign in this final week, call them in Tulsa at 294-8352 or call the Tulsa County Republican Party at 627-5702.

I've been meaning for a while to write about the numerous state questions on the ballot in Oklahoma this November. The state election board has the complete text (PDF) that will appear on the ballot.

(You can see a brief analysis of all the state questions by the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs here on their website.)

Let's warm up with a couple of the simple ones, having to do with property tax.

There are many, many opportunities over the next 10 days to help your favorite candidates connect with the voters. With all due respect to my readers in other parties, my hope is to see the reelection of George W. Bush, the election of Tom Coburn, and the Republican rescue of our State House and Senate from nearly 100 years of continuous misrule by the other party. There's a great opportunity today to help, right here in Tulsa.

This afternoon at 1:00, come to 52nd & Harvard, to the little office building in front of Mardel's. Food will be provided, and you'll be helping to deliver campaign literature supporting all Republican candidates to every Republican house in Tulsa County. The morning shift, which started at 9, is already out on the streets.

Then between now and through election day, there are plenty of opportunities to help, almost 24/7, whenever you can, for as long as you are able, and doing whatever you feel comfortable doing. Call Republican headquarters at 627-5702 and tell them you're reporting for duty.

The new KWTV Wilson Research poll is out, and it shows that the Presidential race in Oklahoma has narrowed from 30 points to 12 in just one week, while in the Senate race, Carson's lead over Coburn remains at 2 points.

18 points is a lot of movement for one week and that got me to dig a little further. There's a question asking what political label the respondent would give to himself -- liberal, moderate, or conservative, and if liberal or conserative, whether very or somewhat. The previous two weeks, the liberal number was at 12%; this week it's at 17%. The previous two weeks, the conservative percentage was 48% then 50%; this week it's 44%. What's more, the very conservative number had been at 23% and 24%, then dropped this week to 18%. (Moderate numbers stayed about the same all three weeks -- 34, 33, 31.)

Either we had a seismic shift in Oklahoma politics, with the whole political spectrum shifting six points to the left, or more likely, this poll is an outlier. When you take a random sample, the results most of the time will be representative of the larger population, within the margin of error, but there's always a chance (about 1 in 20) that you will get unlucky and pick an utterly unrepresentative sample. If that is the case with this week's Wilson poll, and in fact the real presidential numbers are closer to last week's, it makes you wonder what the real Coburn-Carson numbers are, if a liberal-skewed sample has them nearly tied.

The Tulsa Whirled editorial board apparently will do and say anything to make sure that Little Boy Brad Carson is elected to the Senate so that the Senate will be controlled again by the liberal Democrats.

The latest lie is in today's lead editorial:

Carson has received an A-plus rating from Americans For Better Immigration, a strong immigration watchdog lobby....

Coburn, on the other hand, voted against or worked against measures that would have made it harder to hire illegal immigrants. He received a D-plus rating from Americans for Better Immigration.

So I visited the website of Americans for Better Immigration (ABI) to see who this group is. Just because the Whirled says this group is a strong immigration watchdog lobby doesn't mean that's necessarily so.

I was surprised to see that they were completely wrong about the ratings Coburn and Carson received. While it's technically true that Carson received "an A+" and Coburn received "a D+" among the nine individual category grades, the editorial creates the impression that those are the candidates' overall scores. In fact, they both got B+ overall. The ABI gave Democrat Brad Carson a B+ overall, with an F- in one category for his support for amnesty for illegal aliens. The ABI also gave Republican Tom Coburn a career B+, including an A+ for opposing amnesty. You can visit each page and there's a link for more details about what each one supported and opposed. Both Carson and Coburn received six A+s in various categories.

ABI appears to oppose all immigration, including the immigration of the sort of bright, skilled, and energetic people that have helped fuel our nation's high tech sector. That's an area where Tom Coburn disagrees with the ABI, and I think Coburn is right. I know that our company has benefited from the expertise and innovation of highly-talented foreign-born engineers.

But the main thing to notice is that the Whirledlings took a press release from Brad Carson's campaign and ran it as their editorial opinion without doing their own factchecking. This appears to be a common practice for them -- at least one of the editorial writers has won an award from an organization for doing nothing more than rewriting their press releases into editorials.

UPDATE: Charles G. Hill has read the editorial and expresses his amazement.

It's interesting to see a familiar political race through someone else's eyes. Dawn Summers takes a commendable interest in politics beyond the Hudson. She watched Sunday's "Meet the Press" debate between Tom Coburn and Little Boy Brad Carson and has a few interesting observations (hat tip to Karol for alerting me to this):

This weekend I watched Tim Russert moderate a debate between the Senate candidates from Oklahoma. Evidently, farming and roads are all the rage. Interestingly enough, the Democrat wanted to let viewers know that he supported the the Patriot Act, the prescription drug bill and the President's tax cuts.

While the Republican criticized the prescription drug bill because it would provide benefits to the wealthiest members of society who didn't need it, remained concerned about the Patriot Act because he didn't like sacrificing liberty for security and regarded the ballooning budget deficit as no less than stealing from our grandchildren.

Huh.

So, in Oklahoma, Republicans are called Democrats -- sort of middle-America's "le Big Mac," as it were.

Well, not exactly. In Little Boy Brad, you've got a liberal Democrat who knows he must pretend to be a conservative if he's going to get elected in this very conservative state. He's going as far as he can to distance himself from the Democratic ticket without technically lying about his stands on the issues.

In Dr. Coburn you've got a conservative who supports the Patriot Act but shares conservative and libertarian concerns about potential abuses, a conservative who supports government help for those who need it, but opposes fiscal irresponsibility for the burden it places on generations to come. That position, during his six years in Congress, sometimes put him at odds with Republican appropriators, who wanted to continue the time honored Democrat practice of trying to bribe the voters with their own tax dollars. Before he decided to run for Senate, Coburn wrote a no-holds-barred book about the budget battles of the last half of the 1990s, and how congressional careerism works against fiscal restraint.

Dawn continues:

Just got a push-poll from the Carson campaign -- officially it was from "WC Research" and the guy claimed to be calling from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, but caller ID showed all zeroes. The two push-poll claims, which were only read if you said you were a Coburn voter and might possibly change your mind, were that Tom Coburn voted to cut Meals on Wheels and voted to cut pay for the military and to cut veterans benefits. I asked for the roll call numbers for these despicable votes, and the guy claimed to have no idea what I was talking about. I asked him if he was a Christian, and he said no. Then I asked him if he had a conscience, and told him if his superiors couldn't give him the date and roll call numbers of those votes, then they were asking him to lie and slander. He said he was only doing what he was told. I said that's what the Germans in Nazi Germany said -- we were just following orders.

I saw Brad Carson on "Meet the Press" this morning. Tim Russert called him on several of the outlandish lies and half-truths that he has been telling about Tom Coburn. Little Boy Brad just brazened it out, demonstrating a Clintonian ability to persist shamelessly in a lie. Carson even tried to peddle the old lie that Coburn called the people of Oklahoma City "crapheads". (Coburn called the legislative leadership "crapheads" for policies that hurt Oklahoma businesses. He referred to Oklahoma City as you might refer to Washington, as a figure of speech for the government in that place. Carson, who claims to be an intelligent little boy, willfully chooses to misunderstand.)

Whether it's the Cockroach Caucus here in Tulsa, or the likes of Brad Carson, these liars smear dedicated public servants, using their echo chamber in publications like the Tulsa Whirled, which has its own hidden agenda.

The only way to stop it is to make sure they lose.

I've heard some complaints from people who have called an office of the Coburn for Senate campaign to volunteer, and instead of being plugged in immediately with something to do, they either found the office closed, left a message and never got a return call, or were told there wasn't anything for them to do.

If that was ever the case, it is no longer.

The Coburn campaign needs your help over the next week and a half on the phones. Specifically:

Tonight and for the next 7 days at Coburn's Tulsa HQ in Eton Square (8321 E. 61st, between Jason's Deli and Atlantic Sea Grill), from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. to make phone calls to voters. You'll be told who to call and what to say, so it's easy. You'll be getting an inside look at the campaign and how Oklahoma voters are responding to it. Most of all you'll be helping elect a great man who will be a leader and an agent of positive change in the U. S. Senate.

RSVP to the Coburn office by phone at 294-8352.

Having been a candidate, I know how hard it can be to organize and make the best use of people who volunteer for the campaign, so that the campaign gets the most benefit for their efforts and the volunteers have a satisfying experience and a desire to do even more. In my 2002 City Council race, Jerry Riley was my campaign manager, and he did a great job of volunteer coordination -- in fact, I met someone Wednesday night, someone I had never met in person, but who had volunteered for my campaign, who told me how impressed he was with Jerry's professionalism and organization. Terri Cleveland and Susan Hill are another couple of experienced campaign managers here in Tulsa who do a great job of lining up volunteers and putting them to work, allowing the candidates to focus on meeting the voters. This aspect of the campaign is often overlooked by campaign consultants focused on mailers and ad buys, but it's often the difference between victory and defeat.