Tulsa Election 2018: August 2018 Archives
In-person absentee voting will be available at your County Election Board office on Thursday, August 23, 2018, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Friday, August 24, 2018, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Saturday, August 25, 2018, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tulsa County will also have in-person absentee voting at Hardesty Regional Library near 91st & Memorial in south Tulsa, during the same hours listed above.
Polls are open Tuesday, August 28, 2018, until 7 p.m. The Oklahoma State Election Board's online voter tool will let you know where to vote and will show you a sample of the ballot you'll see. Here is the complete list of offices and issues on Tuesday's ballot across Oklahoma.
Here are the candidates I'm recommending and (if in the district) voting for in the Oklahoma primary elections on August 28, 2018. 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. My most enthusiastic choices are in bold.
1st Congressional District: Tim Harris. Harris served four full four-year, scandal-free terms as District Attorney. He's a known quantity, and we know him to be ethical and conservative. While some have raised concerns about specific decisions made in his office with regard to local government, as my friend John Eagleton says, "While his opponent was pushing 'dog food' to the public, Tim Harris was putting on a kevlar vest every day and putting bad guys away." Kevin Hern's brief time on the political stage has featured conservative-sounding sentiments at odds with his actions. Before the primary, former congressman Jim Bridenstine called attention to Hern's involvement in a plan to unseat Bridenstine in 2016.
Governor: Kevin Stitt. As a successful business owner, Stitt has had to make decisions, pick a course amidst uncertainty and commit to it. Stitt's opponent, Mick Cornett, has demonstrated the same deficiency of political courage and leadership that has plagued us in the governor's mansion over the last eight years. (And no, folks, mayor of OKC is not an executive position. It's an at-large seat on the council, with a figurehead role as chief cheerleader. The City Manager actually runs city government.)
Attorney General: Mike Hunter. I'm aware of the concerns about Mike Hunter's performance as acting AG. But in a time when freedom of conscience is under attack, particularly with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity, we need an Attorney General who will stand up for our rights, and Gentner Drummond is a major backer of a judicial candidate who believes that adoption agencies should be forced by government to violate their beliefs; Drummond himself refused to express an opinion on SB1140, which protects the rights of adoption agencies to make decisions in the best interests of the child and in accordance with their values.
Auditor and Inspector: Cindy Byrd. Byrd is a solid professional auditor who has served under and been endorsed by Gary Jones, the most efficient and aggressive State Auditor Oklahoma has ever had. Her opponent, who has a very messy legal and financial situation, is backed by a collection of his fellow scalawags and scoundrels and has been running a nasty smear campaign.
Lt. Governor: Matt Pinnell
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Linda Murphy
Labor Commissioner: Cathy Costello
Corporation Commissioner: Bob Anthony
District Attorney, District 14: Steve Kunzweiler
State House 10: Travis Dunlap
State House 14: George Faught
State House 20: Bobby Cleveland
State House 30: Kent Glesener
State House 36: Sean Roberts
State House 41: Denise Crosswhite Hader
State House 63: Jeff Coody
State House 68: Nicole Nixon
State House 79: Dan Hicks
State House 80: Mike Ritze
State House 101: Tess Teague
Tulsa County Assessor: John Wright. Wright was one of my first and most emphatic endorsements. Wright has eight years of experience in the Tulsa County Assessor's office, on top of respected service as a state representative for Broken Arrow. His professional skills and demeanor have earned him the endorsements of many current and retired county assessors across Oklahoma, including the retiring incumbent, Ken Yazel.
Tulsa County Commissioner District 1: Tracey J. Wilson. Wilson is running against Stan Sallee in District 1 (north and east Tulsa County) for an open seat. Sallee is backed by the usual chambercrats and special interests. Tracey Wilson's focus on basic county services would be a welcome change from the expensive pursuits of his predecessors, and it's time that rural north Tulsa County had representation at the courthouse.
Tulsa City Council District 3: Justin Rolph
Tulsa City Council District 5: Ty Walker
Rolph and Walker are both conservatives. Rolph is a journeyman electrician with a vision for seeing District 3's vast reaches of vacant land develop with manufacturing jobs. Walker is owner and operator of Wanda J's Next Generation Cafe on Greenwood.
I'm not making endorsements in any of the other four Tulsa City Council races. I submitted a questionnaire to District 4 candidates, but received only one reply, which you can see here.
MORE INFORMATION:
Tulsa Bible Church pastor Phil Martin has put together a comprehensive collection of links to candidate websites.
OTHER CONSERVATIVE VOICES:
Here are some blogs, endorsement lists, candidate questionnaires, and sources of information for your consideration.
Pat Milton, 1st Deputy and a 10-year veteran of the Tulsa County Assessor's Office, posted a ringing endorsement of John Wright, who finished first in the June primary to succeed Ken Yazel and who is on Tuesday's runoff ballot. I'm reposting it here with Milton's permission.
Milton highlights Wright's experience in the assessor's office, his training and accreditation in the specialized work that assessors do, his integrity, his thoughtfulness, and his role, alongside Yazel, in reforming the Assessor's Office to build an office that passes its audits with flying colors and consistently ranks at or near the top among Oklahoma counties in its performance audit:
If you intend to vote in the runoff election this coming Tuesday, I'm asking for your vote for John Wright. The reason is simple.John has eight years of experience being on Ken Yazel's Executive Staff. John has participated in most of the major reforms Ken has made to the operation, and the taxpayers are better served having a person with experience in that office.
John has an IAM Accreditation and has completed the requirements for an AAS Professional Designation from the International Association of Assessing Officers, the standards setting body for our profession.
In the past 10 years, the Assessor's Office has functioned with an average annual increase in its budget of 1%. The office has received "0" dings from the State Auditor and Inspector. And the office has been at or near the top in every Oklahoma Tax Commission performance audit, receiving a perfect score twice.
John has more personal integrity than anyone I have ever known. He is endorsed by Ken Yazel, Don Newberry, Kirby Lehman, Fred Perry, me, several county assessors, and many more.
John is a thoughtful leader with a lot of experience. That is what the Assessor's Office needs.
Please vote for John Wright on Tuesday.
Thank you...Pat
"I shall show my contempt by going down to the polling booth, taking my form, crossing both their names out and writing 'GET KNOTTED' in."-- Tony Hancock, Hancock's Half Hour, "The Election Candidate"
I share The Lad's sentiments about many of the races on the August 28, 2018, runoff ballot, but perhaps none so intensely as the race for Tulsa City Council District 4 after watching their July 24, 2018, forum moderated by the League of Women Voters and hosted by the 36 Degrees North co-working center.
The four candidates -- Barbra Kingsley, Juan Miret, Kara Joy McKee, and Daniel Regan -- all seem pleasant enough, in fact, too eager to please. The whole thing reminded me of a student council election, all the popular kids trying to outdo each other in niceness and likeability, with a sprinkling of progressive virtue signalling. The four were nearly indistinguishable in their answers. In response to nearly every question, the candidates promised to look at new city initiatives to address whatever problem the questioner raised. I got no sense that any of the four understand the core functions of city government, the value of keeping government within the boundaries of its core functions, and the tough choices that have to be made to provide just the core services on which citizens rely.
During the short-answer lightning round at the end of the forum, the four were asked, "Do you believe in global warming?" a question that has a sort of catechetical ring to it. All four, evidently well-catechized members in good standing of the Church of What's Happening Now, answered yes. Turned from a question into a statement, I could imagine it being chanted by a congregation, "I believe in Global Warming, the issue almighty, destroyer of heaven and earth, and in Al Gore, the only begotten son of his father...."
Asked who their favorite mayor was, each of them answered "G. T. Bynum," revealing a disheartening lack of historical perspective, a fear of standing out from the crowd, and a stunning lack of discernment.
After the forum, I emailed an eight-question issues survey to the four candidates. I'm sure the candidates didn't need more to do in the weeks before the primary (all but one were evidently too busy to complete their legally required campaign contribution report by last Monday's deadline), but I have a vote in this election. In fact, I ran for the seat twice, in 1998, when I lost the Republican primary to Anna Falling, the eventual winner, and 2002, when I won the primary but lost the general to former Fire Chief Tom Baker. I needed to know where they stood on specific city issues before casting my vote, much less making a public endorsement.
Daniel Regan was the only candidate to acknowledge the survey, much less respond, so a point to Daniel. Nevertheless, his answers were disappointing, and his ties to the development industry -- and what that would mean for his support for reasonable zoning reforms -- are worrisome, so I won't be endorsing him. His answers are below (or after the jump, if you're on the home page).
My ideal city councilor would share my views on fiscal issues (don't raise taxes, focus spending on core city services, take a Strong Towns approach to city governance), neighborhood issues (protect neighborhood character and historical buildings, stop neglecting north, east, and west Tulsa), and social issues (no further City Hall encroachment on freedom of conscience). None of the candidates checked any of my boxes, much less all three.
Grassroots activists who support Kevin Hern for Oklahoma's 1st Congressional Candidate say they've been told by the candidate and his campaign that he never accepted the endorsement of the crony-capitalist, open-borders Republican Main Street Partnership or donations from the organization's affiliated Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC. (Note the subtle difference -- the 501(c)(4) group has a space between main and street, the PAC does not, at least not in their FEC filings.) Michelle Malkin has described the RMSP as "pro-bailout, pro-debt, pro-amnesty, anti-drilling."
Tulsa 9/12 Project leader Ronda Vuillemont-Smith said this in a public Facebook comment: "I asked the candidate directly if he has accepted any endorsements from this PAC to which he said he has not. He also has stated that he has never received any money from that PAC or through that website."
Despite apparent recent attempts to sweep away the record of this connection as the primary approaches, an abundant trail of evidence remains.
On December 13, 2017, the Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC gave congressional candidate Kevin Hern a $5,000 donation, transaction ID SB23.16118.
Six months later, on June 11, 2018, the same group reported that the contribution to Hern had been returned to them.
Up until about a week ago, Kevin Hern had his own page on the Republican Main Street Partnership PAC site as one of their new candidate endorsees. That page was taken down recently; Google's cache shows it was there as recently as 14 Aug 2018, 17:35:57 GMT. Bing's cache also has it as of this post. ("View source" to find Hern's name listed among the other RMSP endorsees.) Like many political organizations, mainstreetpac.com blocks archival websites (e.g. the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine) from taking snapshots of its site.
The RMSP endorsement of Hern was widely reported in the spring:
Roll Call, in an April 26, 2018, story, lists Hern among 10 candidates endorsed by Republican Main Street Partnership for the 2018 election:
A Republican PAC that supports lawmakers from the "governing wing of the GOP" is making its first non-incumbent endorsements of the cycle.Republican Main Street Partnership is backing 10 recruits this week, all of whom have received the maximum primary contribution from the PAC. The PAC is also supporting its 75 House members.
"Our members are the majority makers, and this fall Republican control of the House runs right through Main Street," Sarah Chamberlain, the group's president and CEO, said in a statement.
"Main Street is proud to support these candidates who are committed to governing in the Republican tradition," Chamberlain said.
The new candidates Main Street is backing are:...
Kevin Hern (OK-01): The businessman is running in the June 26 primary for the Solid Republican seat vacated by Jim Bridenstine, who was recently sworn in as the administrator of NASA.
The other candidates listed in the April 26 Roll Call story: Shantel Krebs (SD-AL), Young Kim (CA-39), Conrad Lucas (WV-03), Troy Balderson (OH-12), Dino Rossi (WA-08), Anthony Gonzales (OH-16), Mike Miller (FL-07), Luke Malek (ID-01), Cresent Hardy (NV-04).
Oklahoma conservative political blogger Jamison Faught noted the RMSP Hern endorsement on May 2, 2018, with links to the above Roll Call story, to Hern's page on the Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC's website, and to the Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC's list of 2018 endorsements on their website.
I called attention to Hern's endorsement by Republican Main Street Partnership and Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC in a June 15 article that also discussed his contributions to McDonald's Corp PAC, which supports left-wing candidates like Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Chuck Schumer, leader of the Senate Democrats.
A Politico story just before the primary cast the 1st District race as a proxy battle between Andy Coleman, champion of the Freedom Caucus conservatives, and Kevin Hern, representing the moderates of the Republican Main Street Partnership.
Another crowded GOP field could also yield a runoff in the 1st Congressional District, left open since former Rep. Jim Bridenstine was confirmed as the administrator of NASA. A number of House Freedom Caucus members have supported Andy Coleman, a veteran and attorney, but Coleman has tangled with Kevin Hern, a businessman supported by the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership.
It was also just before the primary that former Congressman Bridenstine called attention to Hern's part in a plot to unseat him in 2016. Bridenstine issued this statement a week before the primary:
Kevin Hern has been using my name and image in his campaign ads for Oklahoma's First Congressional District. Voters should know that Kevin Hern initiated a run against me in 2016 and poll tested messages that included terrible lies about me. I learned of this when the pollster called my home. Now he uses my name and image in ads as if we are close. Kevin Hern's later support of me was opportunistic and based on self interest knowing I had limited my terms.
This organization, Republican Main Street Partnership, which has opposed and resisted conservative candidates, congressmen, and ideas in Washington, endorsed Kevin Hern, and Mr. Hern didn't seem worried about this connection until very recently. RMSP issued a press release in April listing Hern among its 10 endorsed candidates. Their affiliated PAC gave him a $5,000 check in December. It was widely reported in the press; Jamison Faught had the story in May with links the April story in Roll Call and to the references to Hern on mainstreetpac.com, which have recently (within the last week) been deleted. And now he appears to be trying to convince his supporters that none of this ever happened.
Tim Harris was my third choice in the primary, and I had my disappointments with the way his office handled issues involving local government, but Kevin Hern has earned my complete distrust with his handling of questions about his ties to this group, as well as questions about his McDonald's PAC contributions, and I'm alarmed at how willing some of my fellow conservative activists are to believe a story that doesn't align with the facts on record.
(P. S. As of this writing I made three attempts to speak to someone at Republican Main Street Partnership about the disappearance of Kevin Hern from the mainstreetpac.com website. On the first try, I reached a receptionist but was told that the executive director and press team had gone home early. On the second and third tries, I got voice mail. A list of emailed questions have not received a reply. I find it hard to believe that a Washington political group would issue an endorsement without the knowledge or consent of the candidate.)
The City Clerk's office of the City of Tulsa has at long last begun publishing campaign contribution reports for City of Tulsa candidates on their website. In years past it was necessary to visit the City Clerk's office for physical copies of the reports; more recently they began providing them via email upon request. This is a great step forward for transparency.
For a few brief, shining years, candidates from large cities and counties had to file with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, using the same online system as candidates for statewide and legislative office, but then some local officials convinced their cronies in the legislature to stop that aid to transparency. The current patchwork system is unnecessary. With a little more money for system capacity and administration, all political candidates at every level of government could use the Oklahoma Ethics Commission online system to file their reports, which would then be readily accessible for public scrutiny. (The system could use improvements -- direct permalinks to reports, the ability to download complete spreadsheets of contributions and expenditures for a campaign, incorporating all reports.)
What is surprising is how few candidates have bothered to comply with the requirement for pre-election reporting. State law requires a pre-election report to be filed by 5 p.m. on the second Monday before an election, i.e. 8 days prior. That deadline was Monday, August 20, 2018. The report is supposed to cover all contributions and expenditures through the third Monday before the election, i.e. 15 days prior. Supplemental reports have to be filed within 24 hours for any contribution or aggregate of contributions from a single source totalling $1,000 or more.
As of the time of this post, only four candidates have complied with state ethics law by filing a timely pre-election report: Jerry Goodwin (District 1), Kara Joy McKee (District 4), Connie Dodson (District 6), Dezaray Edwards (District 6). Fourteen of the 18 candidates who will be on Tuesday's ballot have not done so. While some of those candidates filed quarterly reports covering the period up through June 30, that leaves six weeks of activity unreported.
(It's also surprising to see that Tulsa's monopoly daily newspaper no longer takes an interest in candidate ethics reports. You can go to tulsaworld.com and learn which candidates classify the hot dog as a sandwich, but you won't be able to find out which candidates the anti-neighborhood, anti-historic preservation developers are backing.)
Happily, although it's difficult to find and a challenge to navigate, voters now have direct, unmediated access to City of Tulsa campaign contribution ethics reports.
What can be gleaned from this very incomplete set of reports?
TulsaBizPAC's sloppy August 1, 2018, report (the dates change from one page to the next, and the report covers a two-year period; it should be reporting quarterly) shows that it could be renamed HelmPAC. Developer Jay Helm of American Residential Group donated $10,000 of the $15,600 that was raised. Toyota dealer Jim Norton also gave $5,000. The remaining $600 came from Jayme Cox of Cimarex ($400), and local Cox Communications VP Roger Ramseyer ($200). On July 27, TulsaBizPAC gave $1,000 each to the following six candidates:
District 1: Jerry Goodwin
District 3: Crista Patrick
District 5: Cass Fahler
District 6: Connie Dodson, Dezeray Edwards
District 9: Ben Kimbro
I regard a donation from TulsaBizPAC (the political arm of the Tulsa Regional Chamber) as a strong counterindication. The Chamber's long-running role as a city contractor and their consistent lobbying for higher taxes suggests that they won't be backing fiscal conservatives.
The small coterie of cranky developers (Joe Westervelt and John Bumgarner are a couple of names to look for in this regard) who have blocked sensible zoning reforms (ideas like form-based codes and neighborhood conservation districts that would customize the rules to meet the needs of individual neighborhoods) are heavily backing Crista Patrick, daughter of longtime, off-and-on Councilor David Patrick. Westervelt and Bumgarner gave her $500 each, as did Art Couch of W. N. Couch Construction, a frequent contractor to the city for street construction. Burt Holmes, who targeted independent-minded, grassroots councilors for defeat in the 2011 election, has given Crista Patrick the maximum, $2,700. Patrick also has backing from George Kaiser's circles: $250 each from Ruth Kaiser Nelson (George's sister) and Frederic Dorwart (president and trustee of GKFF). Former mayor Kathy Taylor gave Patrick $100. For 20 years, Money Belt donors have looked to David Patrick to serve their interests (and not the interests of his District 3 constituents) at City Hall. It looks like those same interests expect Crista Patrick to follow in her father's footsteps.
In District 4, the big developer money is backing Daniel Regan. $2,000 from Jay Helm, $5,000 from Associated General Contractors Oklahoma PAC, $2,700 from Robert Stem, executive director of Association of Oklahoma General Contractors (road building association). In the 2nd Quarter report, Regan got $500 from John Bumgarner and $250 from Kathy Taylor. Bumgarner is the un-developer of the vacant half-block south of the Broken Arrow Expressway between Troost and Utica Avenues.
In District 6, Connie Dodson received $1,000 from the Realtors PAC in Oklahoma City (which should have filed an ethics report of its own with the City Clerk's offce), in addition to the $1,000 from TulsaBizPAC.
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