"Defund Discrimination": Gov. Stitt takes hatchet to taxpayer-funded DEI programs

Good for Gov. Stitt:

GOVERNOR STITT SIGNS ANTI-DISCRIMINATION EXECUTIVE ORDER, TAKES AIM AT DEI MEASURES

OKLAHOMA CITY (December 13, 2023) - Today, Governor Kevin Stitt signed Executive Order 2023-31, implementing greater protections for Oklahomans and their tax dollars against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

“In Oklahoma, we’re going to encourage equal opportunity, rather than promising equal outcomes,” said Governor Stitt. “Encouraging our workforce, economy, and education systems to flourish means shifting focus away from exclusivity and discrimination, and toward opportunity and merit. We’re taking politics out of education and focusing on preparing students for the workforce.”

LOL: OK House Dems Leader calls CPAC a "Right-Wing Extremist Organization"

This is so laughable.

First of all, the "extremists" in the Oklahoma Legislature are the House and Senate Democrats, rabidly in favor of abortion without limitation whatsoever (i.e. the unabated murder of the preborn), the "trans-ing" and sexual perverting of kids via the LGBT agenda, et cetera; so far politically outside of the mainstream of Oklahomans that they have been reduced to a tiny "super-minority" in the Legislature.  

Rep. Munson essentially finds any generic Republican/conservative thought to be "right-wing extremism", so... her take is pretty much nonsense.

Furthermore, CPAC has affirmed and celebrated conservative homosexual groups over the past several years, particularly since Donald Trump's rise to prominence and his general friendliness to things LGBT. On many issues, especially social and moral ones, CPAC and the American Conservative Union are not quite the paragons of conservatism they once may have been.

Read on for a good laugh:

Leader Munson Responds to Ranking by Right-Wing Extremist Organization

OKLAHOMA CITY – Today Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson (D-Oklahoma City) responded to the recent praise for Oklahoma’s Legislature receiving a high ranking by a right-wing extremist organization, the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Speaker McCall touts CPAC rating of OK Legislature as 2nd most conservative in nation

McCall Touts Latest CPAC Rating for OK Legislature

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, today issued a statement praising the conservative rating for the Oklahoma Legislature after the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Foundation's Center for Legislative Accountability (CLA) released its 2023 ratings of the voting records of state legislators in all fifty states. Oklahoma was ranked as the second most conservative legislature in the country, trailing only West Virginia.

American Conservative Union gives Dahm perfect score, ranks as most conservative OK legislator

OKLAHOMA STATE SENATOR NATHAN DAHM RANKED THE MOST CONSERVATIVE LEGISLATOR IN OKLAHOMA, RECEIVING A PERFECT SCORE FROM THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION

Oklahoma (February 1, 2022) - State Senator and candidate for US Senate Nathan Dahm received a perfect score of 100 from the American Conservative Union and has been ranked the most conservative legislator in Oklahoma's lifetime.

Nathan Dahm released the following statement:

"I am honored to be recognized by the American Conservative Union for having the highest-scoring voting record for conservative values in Oklahoma. Conservative values are under attack by the fake news mainstream media and the corrupt political establishment. As the most conservative member of the Oklahoma legislature, I have been fighting tirelessly to stop them from advancing their dangerous, socialist agendas. 

ACU releases rating of OK's 2019 legislative session

Oklahoma Outshines Texas, other Red States in Conservative Rankings

CPAC Host Releases Scores of Oklahoma Legislature

Alexandria, VA (June 11th)— Oklahoma lawmakers voted more conservatively than lawmakers in other states controlled by Republicans such as Texas, Kansas and Ohio, according to the just-released ratings of the 2019 session by The American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF), host of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

In the 2019 session, the Oklahoma Legislature earned an average conservative score of 68.85%, outperforming neighboring Texas (56.75%) and Kansas (65.26%) as well as Ohio (63.06%).

Conservative Performance Index: OK Senate

UPDATE: view the Senate CPI maps here.

Following up on my Conservative Performance Index for the Oklahoma State House post this morning, this post compares each state senator's conservative score to their district rating, to add up their Conservative Performance Index.

The conservative rating ('CR' in the spreadsheet) I use is an average of the most recent American Conservative Union scores for Oklahoma legislators, and the Oklahoma Constitution's Conservative Index. Using multiple sources broadens the perspective and scoring system for what I feel is a more accurate picture.

Positive CPI scores indicate that the member's conservative voting outperforms their district's Republican rating (RDR). Negative scores show that the member is more liberal than the district.

One purpose of this system is to illustrate how conservative or liberal a legislator is for their district. As filing for office is coming up next month, this edition of the Conservative Performance Index will be the final version before elections are decided for the upcoming legislative term.

In this post, we'll look at the CPI for State Senate members (the State House CPI can be viewed here).


This year's Senate CPI is more of a mixed bag than the House CPI. The top five Senators (all Republican) stayed about the same or increased their conservative scores, while the freshmen GOP class sunk the overall Republican average by having (with few exceptions) negative to extremely-negative scores.

Top scoring senators this time are Joseph Silk (R-SD5) at +36.1, followed by Nathan Dahm (R-HD33) at +34.3, and Josh Brecheen (R-HD6) at +34.2. Rounding out the top five are Anthony Sykes (HD24) at +29.9, and Mark Allen (SD4) at +29.4. As you can note by comparing the rankings, the top 9 members are the same this time as they were last time, with most changes being one-rank leapfrogging.

Unlike in the State House, no Democrats have positive CPI scores. Anastasia Pittman (D-SD48) tops out the Democratic caucus at -3.2. J.J. Dossett (D-SD34) has the lowest Democrat score at -22.1. The average Democratic CPI is -14.5 (last time was -8.0).

On the Republican side, 25 members (62.5%)  have positive CPI scores, while 15 (37.5%) have negative scores. Of the 13 freshmen, only 2 (15%) had positive scores. That means 11 (85%) of freshmen Republicans had negative ratings.

The average Republican CPI is +3.9 (last time was +15.0). The freshman GOP average is -12.3, while the non-freshman average is +11.8. As with the House, the freshman GOP class is an appalling and unmitigated embarrassment.

The only non-freshmen Republicans with CPI scores below 0 are Ervin Yen (R-SD40) at -5.6, Stephanie Bice (R-SD22) at -5.1, now ex-Sen. Bryce Marlatt (R-SD27) at -5.0, and Ron Sharp (R-SD17) at -4.0. James Leewright (R-SD12; +3.3) and Julie Daniels (R-SD29; +1.8) are the only freshmen Republicans above 0.

The House Democrats outperformed their Senate counterparts, while the Senate GOP scored far better than the House GOP did (although both freshmen Senators and Representatives had a nearly identical average).

Conservative Performance Index: OK House

UPDATE: view the House CPI maps here.

Following up on my 2017 Republican District Ratings from a while back, this post compares each legislator's conservative score to their district rating, to add up their Conservative Performance Index.

The conservative rating ('CR' in the spreadsheet) I use is an average of the most recent American Conservative Union scores for Oklahoma legislators, the Oklahoma Constitution's Conservative Index, and for the House, the recent Platform Index for the two special sessions over the past few months. Using multiple sources broadens the perspective and scoring system for what I feel is a more accurate picture.

Positive CPI scores indicate that the member's conservative voting outperforms their district's Republican rating (RDR). Negative scores show that the member is more liberal than the district.

One purpose of this system is to illustrate how conservative or liberal a legislator is for their district. As filing for office is coming up next month, this edition of the Conservative Performance Index will be the final version before elections are decided for the upcoming legislative term.

In this post, we'll look at the CPI for State House members. We'll examine the State Senate in the next CPI post.


This year's CPI is somewhat lower than the 2016 CPI. Top scoring legislators this time are freshman Rick West (R-HD3) at +30.9, followed by George Faught (R-HD14) at +30.3, and Jason Murphey (R-HD31) at +30.1. Rounding out the top five are John Bennett (HD2) at +27.8, and Travis Dunlap at +25.2.

For comparison, the top seven in 2016 were all above these scores (Faught is the only common member; the rest dropped further down the list or termed out). Most districts got more Republican, while conservative averages sagged some overall; the combination reduced most CPI scores. For comparison, I've added a column to show where each member ranked in the 2016 CPI.

The top Democrats were Shane Stone (D-HD89) at +21.9, Regina Goodwin (D-HD73) at +20.9, Jason Lowe (D-HD97) at +20.3, George Young (D-HD99) at +10.8, and Eric Proctor (D-HD77) at +10.5. Four of these hold seats with very low Republican District Ratings (ranging from 10.3 to 31.7, averaging 20.4), with the exception of Proctor, whose district is a 43.5 (slightly more Republican than the most-Democratic GOP-held seats).

Cindy Munson is the lowest scoring Democrat, as well as the lowest scoring non-freshman member, at -29.4. The only member to score lower was Zack Taylor (R-HD28) at -32.4; Taylor won a special election and thus is only rated on his special session votes. 4 Democrats and 12 Republicans have CPI ratings of -20 or worse.

The lowest non-freshmen Republicans are Casey Murdock (R-HD61) at -25.0, Leslie Osborn (R-HD47) at -22.3, Mike Sanders (R-HD59) at -17.8, Chris Kannady (R-HD91) at -17.5, and John Pfeiffer (R-HD38) at -16.5.

An astounding 46 Republicans (63%) have negative CPI scores (24 of which of are freshmen), while only 27 (27%) have positive CPI scores. 21 Democrats are negative, and 7 have a positive CPI. Last year, six Republicans and one Democrat had a CPI of +30 or higher; this year, only three Republicans are at that level. 7 Republicans and three Democrats are between +20 and +30, compared to 18 Republicans last year.

Of the 27 freshmen Republicans, 24 have negative CPI scores, while 3 have positive CPI scores. That makes the freshmen GOP average -12.2. This freshman class is an abysmal failure for conservatism and the Republican Party.

The average Republican score is -2.7 (last year was  +14.8), and the average Democrat score is -5.5 (last year was -4.4). If freshmen Republicans were taken out of the equation, the GOP average would have been +2.9.

Next time, we'll examine the 2017 Conservative Performance Index for the State Senate.

Conservative leaders urge Oklahoma politicians to protect taxpayers

Conservative leaders urge Oklahoma politicians to protect taxpayers

September 28, 2017

Dear Governor and State Lawmakers,

We are a coalition of conservative citizens, many of us serving in leadership of state or local organizations, who write to urge you to address the need for more consolidation and other efficiencies in all areas of state government and to resist raising taxes on your constituents.

Many Oklahoma families and businesses are struggling and have been forced to reduce their own spending. Indeed, Oklahomans lost more than $13 billion in taxable income and reduced purchases by $4.1 billion in one year alone when oil prices collapsed.

And yet, Oklahoma’s total state government spending is at an all-time high. The state is now on track to spend more money next year—more than $17.9 billion—than at any time in our history. If you believe that certain state services are not adequately funded, we urge you to prioritize spending rather than raise taxes.

“Limited government” and “lower taxes” have been winning campaign messages in Oklahoma over the last decade. Some candidates have even made written promises to oppose and vote against (or veto) “any and all efforts to increase taxes.” We encourage you to stay true to these principles and to oppose efforts to increase the burden of government on hard-working Oklahoma families.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Small
Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA)

John Tidwell
Americans for Prosperity-Oklahoma

Grover Norquist
Americans for Tax Reform

Steve Curry
Republican National Committeeman for Oklahoma

Ronda Vuillemont-Smith
Tulsa 9.12 Project

Tom Newell
Former chairman, General Government Oversight and Accountability Committee, Oklahoma House of Representatives

Michael Bates
BatesLine.com

Brandon Arnold
National Taxpayers Union

Jamison Faught
MuskogeePolitico.com

Andrew Lopez
Canadian County Republican Party

Daniel Schneider
American Conservative Union

Charles W. Potts
Oklahoma Republican Party executive committee member

John Michener
Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee

Bunny Chambers
Eagle Forum of Oklahoma

Lisa B. Nelson
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)

Ashley N. Varner
ALEC Action

Other signers will be added to the letter as the special legislative session continues.

Conservative Performance Index - OK Senate

Following up on my Republican District Rating system, this post compares each legislator's conservative score to their district rating, to add up their Conservative Performance Index.

The conservative rating ('CR' in the spreadsheet) I used is an average of the American Conservative Union scores for Oklahoma legislators and the Oklahoma Constitution's Conservative Index. Using two sources broadens the perspective and scoring system.

Positive CPI scores indicate that the member's conservative voting outperforms their district. Negative scores show that the member is more liberal than the district.

In my last post, we looked at the CPI for State House members. Now, let's look at the CPI for State Senate members.


SD5 Sen. Joseph Silk has far and away the best CPI score at +45.4. The next four are all Republicans - SD6's Josh Brecheen (+32.7), SD33's Nathan Dahm (+31.9), SD4's Mark Allen (+31.6), and SD14's Frank Simpson (+31.4).

12 Republicans have CPI scores of +20 or better. Only two Democrats have positive scores: Anastasia Pittman (SD48, +7.2) and J.J. Dossett (SD34, +0.7). The only Republicans with negative scores are Ron Sharp (SD17, -1.6) and Bryce Marlatt (SD27, -1.6).

The average Republican CPI score is +15.0, and the average Democrat CPI score is -8.0.

13 senators are leaving office due to term limits, not seeking reelection, or losing their primary election. The average CPI for those leaving office is +2.0 (+7.1 for Republicans and -14.8 for Democrats). For the members who are running for reelection or elected without opposition, the average CPI is +13.9 (+17.7 for Republicans and -4.6 for Democrats).

Conservative Performance Index - OK House

Following up on my Republican District Rating system, this post compares each legislator's conservative score to their district rating, to add up their Conservative Performance Index.

The conservative rating ('CR' in the spreadsheet) I used is an average of the American Conservative Union scores for Oklahoma legislators and the Oklahoma Constitution's Conservative Index. Using two sources broadens the perspective and scoring system.

Positive CPI scores indicate that the member's conservative voting outperforms their district. Negative scores show that the member is more liberal than the district.

In this post, we'll look at the CPI for State House members.



In what might surprise some, the top performer is Democrat State Rep. Regina Goodwin. She represents HD73, in the heart of north Tulsa. Her district has the lowest Republican rating in the state at 10.0%. Her conservative rating is 53, giving her a CPI of +43.0. She is the only Democrat in the top 34 House scores.

The second highest CPI score is Rep. George Faught of HD14 at +38.1. Term-limited Rep. Sally Kern (HD84) is third with +36.1, and term-limited Rep. Paul Wesselhoft (HD54) is fourth with +34.4. Freshman Rep. Scooter Park (HD65) is fifth with a CPI of +33.3. Incoming House Speaker Charles McCall is sixth at +33.1.

The lowest Republicans are Rep. Casey Murdock (HD61) with -15.6, term-limited Rep. Doug Cox (HD5) with -5.5, Rep. Leslie Osborn (HD47) with -3.8, term-limited Speaker Jeff Hickman (HD58) with -3.0, and term-limited Rep. Marian Cooksey (HD39) with -2.7.

Six Republican and one Democrat have CPI scores above +30. 18 Republicans have a score between +20 and +30. The average Republican score is +14.8, and the average Democrat score is -4.4.

61 Republicans have positive CPI scores, while 9 Republicans have negative CPI scores. 12 Democrats rate in positive territory, while 19 are negative (including six below -20).

33 House members are leaving office due to term limits, not seeking reelection, or losing their primary election. The average CPI for those leaving office is +6.2 (+14.0 for Republicans and -6.4 for Democrats). For the members who are running for reelection or elected without opposition, the average CPI is +9.8 (+15.1 for Republicans and -3.2 for Democrats).


In my next post, we'll look at the Conservative Performance Index for the State Senate.