Tulsa Election 2022: February 2022 Archives

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS UPDATE, with all precincts counted: The conservative, pro-parent school board candidates have either won outright (Debbie Taylor in Broken Arrow) or made it into a runoff (conservative Tim Harris against Susan Lamkin, who had the endorsement of the GKFF-connected incumbent and the support of the TPS establishment; conservative Shelley Gwartney against Union incumbent Chris McNeil). The top two candidates in both races were just a tiny margin apart -- 62 votes in Tulsa and 12 votes in Union. So the pro-parent candidates and supporters will have a busy eight weeks between now and the April 5, 2022, runoff. In addition to trying to help Tim Harris in Tulsa district 7 and Shelley Gwartney in Union district 2, there will also be a race in Tulsa district 4 (East Central area) between pro-parent candidate E'Lena Ashley and the Democrat incumbent, as well as two-candidate races for Jenks, Skiatook (2 seats), Owasso, and Sand Springs school boards, and Tulsa Tech Center board seat 3.

Smallest election in the state: 21 voters turned out in the Town of Tushka (just south of Atoka) and all of them voted for renewing their franchise with PSO. The Town of East Duke (in Jackson County near Altus) had 36 unanimous voters on their PSO franchise vote. East Duke appears on maps as just plain Duke, another situation, like New Cordell and Pryor Creek, where there's a mismatch between corporate and common name. In Tulsa, 11,314 turned out to vote for the PSO franchise, which passed by a 76-24 split, but I suspect that number was boosted a bit by the school board and bond issue elections happening in some areas.

Polls will be open today, Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. The Oklahoma State Election Board's online voter tool will let you know where to vote (and if you have a reason to go to the polls) and will show you a sample of the ballot you'll see. Here's the complete list of elections today across Oklahoma.

Below are my thoughts on some of the races in the Oklahoma school board and municipal primary election on February 8, 2022.

This is last-minute and thrown-together, I am sorry to say. Someone decided to foment a crisis, which landed atop an intense work load, plus the final push of a busy MIT admissions interview season, which ended yesterday.

Serious challengers to the status quo have emerged in several school board races in the Tulsa metro area. These candidates are committed to serving the best interests of students and their parents, rather than the agendas of administrators or unions or overly-influential, control-freakish "philanthropic" organizations. Parent Voice of Tulsa has identified the strongest pro-parent and pro-student candidates in each race, listed below.

Tulsa School Board, Office No. 7: Tim Harris. The retired district attorney, a conservative Republican, is running for an open seat. He has been endorsed by Parent Voice of Tulsa, the Republican Party of Tulsa County, former Congressman Jim Bridenstine, Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell, retired college president Everett Piper, and many other conservative voices.

His principal competitor is a registered Democrat who has no history of voting in school board elections and has the backing for prominent left-wing institutions and donors, including the outgoing GKFF-connected board member, along with a number of other GKFF-affiliated donors, former Democrat Mayor Kathy Taylor, and the Tulsa County Democratic Party. Voting for her would be to vote for keeping failed Superintendent Deborah Gist, for accepting more strings-attached "grants" from foundations, for keeping kids in masks or out of the classroom, failing to learn via Zoom.

Union School Board Office No. 2: Shelley Gwartney. Gwartney has four children in Union schools and has been very involved as a volunteer in the district and the community. Her website goes into detail on the issues that matter to conservative parents and taxpayers. Gwartney has also been endorsed by the Republican Party of Tulsa County and Parent Voice of Tulsa.

Broken Arrow School Board Office No. 2: Debbie Taylor. Taylor is mother to four BA graduates and grandmother to 9 current students in the Broken Arrow Public Schools. Taylor is also supported by Parent Voice and the Republican Party of Tulsa County in her race for the open seat.

City of Tulsa franchise election for PSO: NO. While most Tulsa voters will not have the opportunity to vote for school board, there is a citywide election. Voters will decide whether to continue to grant PSO a franchise to use its right-of-way -- including the right-of-way along your back fence -- for the next 15 years. Here is the description on the ballot:

Do you approve the City of Tulsa's Ordinance No. 24695, granting an electric franchise to Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO), so that PSO may use and occupy the streets, public ways and public places of the City for installing, operating and maintaining poles, wires and other equipment, for the purpose of furnishing electricity to the public? PSO will charge its consumers a reasonable, regulated fee for the electricity furnished. PSO must abide by the terms and conditions set forth in the Franchise Ordinance. PSO will pay fees to the City of Tulsa for the use of the public ways, as calculated in the Ordinance. This franchise will last for fifteen (15) years.

You will not find any reference to this election on the CityOfTulsa.org homepage, but Ordinance No. 24695 can be found on Municode, which hosts the city charter and ordinances. Here is a copy of the proposed City of Tulsa PSO franchise, which was approved by the City Council on November 17, 2021, and signed by Mayor G. T. Bynum IV the following day. Included in that PDF is a "redline" version showing how the new franchise differs from the one that has been in force since 1997, a quarter-century ago. The new franchise has a shorter term, only 15 years; it raises the franchise fee from 2% to 3% of gross receipts, a cost that will undoubtedly be passed on to Tulsa residents and businesses; it does not provide a way to revisit the franchise fee during the 15-year term; and it has a provision that would allow the City to order burying lines below ground, but the City (read: Tulsa taxpayers) would have to cover the extra cost.

As a rule, I think that voters ought to punish attempts by public officials to sneak something past them by putting it on a special ballot, and at the same time incurring the cost of of a special election and the burden on the election board and its volunteers. Whatever the positive or negative aspects, it ought to be on the same general election ballot we use to elect city councilors and the mayor. So I recommend a NO vote on the PSO franchise.

Catoosa Public Schools bond issue: NO. The bond issue would replace the current Cherokee Elementary School building (on the west side of Cherokee Street, built circa 1960 and formerly served as the junior high, middle school, and upper elementary) with a new building, which would also eliminate the district's use of the Helen Paul Learning Center, which was built by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s and is just about the only historic building left in all of Catoosa. The administration is silent on what will happen to the Helen Paul building. I confess a personal interest: All but one of my classrooms from kindergarten to 8th grade have been demolished. The only one left is the classroom on the southeast corner of the intersection of the main corridor and the original entrance, where I was in Mrs. Helen Paul's 2nd grade class. This is also the only one of my mother's kindergarten classrooms remaining in Oklahoma. New facilities may be nice, but some of us recall the sparkling new J. W. Sam Elementary building from about 25 years ago, which was closed because of shoddy construction. I would vote no and demand some answers about historic preservation and construction quality. There is also an open school board seat on the ballot.

Also on today's ballot across the Tulsa metro area:

• Sand Springs: Two City Council races
• Bixby: $43 million bond issue for a performing arts center
• Coweta: A revote, due to failure to comply with public notice requirements, of last September's one-cent sales tax election
• Sapulpa: Vote to make the "temporary" 2% sales tax permanent
• Bixby Public Schools: Two bond issues, Prop No. 1 for $110 million to include a new high school building; Prop No. 2 for $4.5 million for student transportation
• Jenks Public Schools: Two bond issues totalling $14,025,000.

Remember that voting "no" on a bond issue is a way to send a vote of no confidence in your school's board and administration, even if you don't have the opportunity to vote directly for a board member.

Down the turnpike, Oklahoma City at-large city councilor David Holt (he has the ceremonial title of "mayor"), who has made his living as a professional schmoozer and never had a real job (as far as I can tell), is running for re-election. He is opposed by Carol Hefner, who is running as a conservative, pro-free-market, pro-public-safety candidate; Frank Urbanic, a lawyer who successfully challenged Holt's attempts to shut down city businesses during the pandemic; and Jimmy Lawson, an activist pushing for criminal justice "reform" and "equity." Carol Hefner has the endorsement of the Oklahoma County Republican Party, the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee (OCPAC) and Oklahoma Second Amendment Association (OK2A). If no one gets 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff in April.

Holt refused to debate his challengers.

Unless conservative voters in Oklahoma's cities eject progressive mayors and councilors from office, these progressive mayors will continue to prioritize policies aimed at turning these cities "blue," moving Oklahoma toward a future where, like Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, and many other states, corrupt "progressive" urban centers will control elections for the whole state. We need mayors and councilors in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Norman (we already have them in Broken Arrow!) who will make their cities attractive to conservatives who are refugees from other states.