Oklahoma Election 2012: July 2012 Archives

Ken Walker, one of the candidates in the runoff for House District 70, skipped a Tulsa Republican Club forum for runoff candidates last Friday and refuses to participate in any debate or forum hosted by the League of Women Voters. The winner of the August 28 runoff will take the open seat, currently held by Ron Peters, who has hit term limits.

Daniel went to the lion's den, but apparently Ken Walker won't speak to a friendly audience or take questions from the stridently neutral LWV.

Below is a news release from Shane Saunders, Walker's opponent in the HD 70 race. 2012 shows disturbing signs of being the year of the amateur in Oklahoma politics. All you have to do to win a Republican primary is to look appropriately somber and concerned and avoid having any taint of political involvement. Having concrete opinions on issues, wanting to pass legislation to undo bad laws and regulations, voting on a regular basis, showing up and answering questions at a candidate forum -- evidently all of these attributes make you a "typical politician" and not to be trusted.

WALKER TO VOTERS: YOU DON'T MATTER

House District 70 Candidate rejects public scrutiny

Tulsa, OK- Demonstrating his refusal to support the basic principle that the best government is the one that listens to its people, Candidate Ken Walker is refusing to appear before voters to discuss the issues important to them.

According to Connie Siebold with the League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Tulsa (LWV), Ken Walker today refused to participate in any debate or forum hosted by the LWV, an organization that has sponsored countless debates and candidate forums in Oklahoma.

Walker also insulted the Tulsa Republican Club by failing to appear at a runoff candidate forum last Friday. This long standing conservative Republican club would have been a great opportunity for Walker to explain his views on the issues.

"Clearly Ken Walker has something to hide," said Shane Saunders, a conservative Republican running for the House District 70 seat, "He won't discuss the issues that matter to conservatives and he won't give conservative Republicans the respect they deserve to hear their views."

"If Walker can't explain his own views to a friendly audience," Saunders said, "how can he fight for conservative Republican views in the state legislature?"

"Our campaign has always operated on the principle that, in order to truly be a representative, you have to be open and engaged with the people on the issues that matter," Saunders said. "Our campaign will debate, discuss, visit or otherwise interact with any interested voter or organization anytime, anywhere."

"I know exactly where I stand on the issues and I enjoy sharing my vision to lead Oklahoma," Saunders said, "It is a shame that Ken Walker doesn't think enough of the people to do the same."

It's been a very busy, very productive week for me. It just hasn't been productive at all here on BatesLine. One urgent project at work turned into three, plus some urgent tasks at home. The family stayed plenty busy with Vacation Bible School at church (with the theme of Babylon from the book of Daniel -- the six year old is convinced it should be pronounced "Baby-Lawn").

Despite the busy-ness, I did watch and tweet about the 2nd Congressional District debate, sponsored by Rogers State University and moderated by Lt. Gov Todd Lamb, between Republican runoff candidates George Faught and Markwayne Mullin. I was amazed to hear Mullin respond to a question about the legislation he would introduce by saying we don't need more legislation. I guess he missed the civics class where they explained that you have to pass legislation in order to eliminate bad laws. Maybe someone should give Mullin a copy of the Schoolhouse Rock DVD -- a little remedial education for the carpetbagging would-be federal legislator who doesn't want to legislate.

(Mullin's criticism was funny, too, since we just had a primary campaign in the 1st District was criticized for not introducing lots and lots of legislation and getting it passed.)

Not only did Faught dominate the debate, he had a prime timeslot for a radio interview with Sean Hannity a couple of days later.

Here's a collection of links from the 2nd District campaign this week:

Oklahoma 2nd Congressional District Debate on Vimeo

Sean Hannity interviews George Faught

George Faught press release on the debate and his interview with Sean Hannity

The MullinFacts.com website has some interesting info. Although Markwayne Mullin claims an Adair County address as his residence for the purpose of running for Congress, Mullin claims a house valued at over $500,000 in Wagoner County -- in the 1st Congressional District -- as his homestead for the purpose of a break on his taxes. Here's a direct link to the Wagoner County Assessor's office showing Mullin's ownership and homestead exemption.

Another fascinating piece of info: Mullin set up a campaign committee to run for State Labor Commissioner in 2010, then decided not to make the race. He's hardly the political babe-in-the-woods he appears to be.

Finally, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has targeted this race to retain the seat for their party in the battle for a majority in the House, calls both Republican candidates "severely flawed." You can guess what they named as Mullin's flaws -- the ATF raid on his place of business and the FEC controversy over his business advertising.

George Faught's flaws in the eyes of the Democrats? Faught supports the conservative budget plan for cutting the deficit and putting America on the road to cutting its debt, and Faught is endorsed by Mike Huckabee. Those may be severe flaws to a liberal Washington Democrat, but they're positive attributes for conservative eastern Oklahomans of all parties.