Primary election week has come and gone along this the most conservative stretch of Old Route 66 and after a record number of challenges to state legislative seats, only a few incumbents failed muster with voters in their respective districts. There are some thirteen legislative races going to runoff election on August 23rd, two Democratic and eleven Republican. Twenty-five incumbents defeated their challengers and only three failed to emerge victorious in their primary. Among the losers of their primary challenge was the two-term incumbent representing the home district of Yours Truly, that being House District 70. Let the record show that during his tenure Mr. Ken Walker never ran a campaign against a Democratic opponent. The record will also show Mr. Walker failed to make the case to enough voters for his second re-hiring. Not even the approval of the Koch funded group Americans for Prosperity was able to save Mr. Walker from wrath of voter dissatisfaction with the results he and his GOP leadership produced for his district and for all Oklahomans.
It was thought by many that pro public education candidate, Ms. Carol Bush, had a tall order in taking down what was thought to be an entrenched incumbent. Numbering among those skeptical of her chances was moi. As it turned out, the candidate herself found the vote return after the polls closed quite surprising given her expression upon hearing the news. She ultimately defeated the incumbent by a vote margin of 51.6% to 48.4%.
Carol BushCandidate Bush ran a grassroots campaign of a couple dozen or so supporters, several of whom are upset and dissatisfied classroom teachers. My hat is off to her for being able to successfully sell a message of needed change in the legislature to the primary electorate of such a conservative red district. Where she stands in terms of policy on other key issues heading into the General Election remains to be determined. It is my hope that if enough voters in HD 70 understood the need for change at the State Capitol that maybe they will be amenable to taking that change a little further. True, Ms. Bush’s views on public education differed enough from those of Mr. Walker to make a difference with enough voters to matter, but will her political world view be enough to effect the degree of change necessary to alter the current direction of our ship of state? Ms. Bush is going to face Democratic candidate Joseph Jennings in the General Election. This is going to be a race between two political novices. This campaign will be an excellent opportunity to contrast two different ideologies based on the results of what five years of Conservative policies have gotten us here in Oklahoma.
Frequent readers of Reason Rest Stop may recall that I have stated on more than one occasion before that so many things involved in governing cannot be couched in terms of “liberal” or “conservative” or “Republican” or “Democrat.” As it turns out a lot of things, in fact most ideas involving crafting public policy and law must be evaluated based on if they are reasonable or unreasonable. Given that a lot of minds have already made the decision as to which candidate will be receiving their vote on Election Day 2016, I would like to make a direct and personal appeal to any voter in House District 70 or any other house or senate district who may be undecided as to which candidate to endorse with their vote on November 8th. If you find yourself in the voting booth wrestling with your conscience over who to vote for and you honestly believe that:
- Cutting taxes increases state revenue
- Endeavoring to manage a state budget with an eight figure deficit counts as sound business
- Declining acceptance of federal funding for Medicaid expansion is compassionate even though it may force more than a few rural hospitals and nursing homes to shutter their doors, turn their patients and residents away and eliminate hundreds of jobs as a result
- A minimum wage of $7.25/hr provides a livable income or that a government mandated minimum wage should be abolished
- Allowing one industry free reign to drill its wells wherever it pleases regardless of existing local city ordinances forbidding such intrusions qualifies as “small government”
- Public education is doing just fine and that cutting school back to four days a week is just what Oklahoma kids need
- Highways, bridges and overpasses regardless of how structurally deficient they may be along with other infrastructure will take care of themselves
- Leading the nation in the rate of per-capita incarceration is something of which to be proud and not ashamed
THEN BY ALL MEANS VOTE FOR THE REPUBLICAN!
Wouldn’t you know it, comedian Bill Maher went on his weekly rant on his show Real Time Friday evening and even though he did not mention Oklahoma among the states whose practice of “trickle down” economics have made them economic wastelands, the Sooner State certainly qualifies.
Bill Maher on failed Conservative economic “experiments,” 7.1.16
After this election please remember going forward that when it comes to governing,
RESULTS MATTER!
Thank you Stan