CPAC overlooks tax hike record to give early endorsement to Echols for Attorney General

Echols is the only public candidate for Attorney General at this very early stage, which makes this endorsement from CPAC somewhat risky. One only needs to look at past Oklahoma elections like the 2004 U.S. Senate or 2022 2nd Congressional District races to see wisdom in keeping one's powder dry until the field develops.

Furthermore, while Echols touts helping (as one of 149 legislators) pass the 'largest tax cut in state history', Echols was one of 44 House Republicans to vote in 2018 to gut taxpayer protections and make it easier to raise taxes on every Oklahoman (HJR 1050). Echols went a step further in supporting an amendment that would have lowered those taxpayer protections even further, from a 75% vote threshold for legislative approval of tax hikes (put in place by SQ640) all the way down to a mere 60% -- which would have meant a minority of Republicans could have partnered with the Democrats to pass tax increases. Additionally, it should be mentioned that Echols voted for most of the 2017-2018 tax hike proposals, including HB1010XX, the largest tax increase in Oklahoma history (plus an even larger tax hike that failed a month earlier).

Something to keep in mind: candidates running for office in 2026 will give you the rosiest picture of their record, without disclosing facts like these. Just sayin'...

Jon Echols Receives Endorsement from Leading Conservative Group, CPAC

Oklahoma City, OK - Today, Jon Echols, candidate for Attorney General, received the endorsement of CPAC, the nation’s oldest conservative grassroots organization.

"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.

Stitt touts support from fiscal conservative groups on special session tax relief plan

After calling a special session to remove the grocery sales tax and cut personal income taxes, plus vetoing legislation that would have instead given "inflation relief" checks of $75 per taxpayer (that apparently would be taxable federal income?), Governor Stitt has some fiscally conservative organizations lending him support:

GOVERNOR STITT’S CALL TO DELIVER REAL RELIEF, RIGHT NOW DRAWS BROAD SUPPORT

OKLAHOMA CITY (May 26, 2022) – Governor Kevin Stitt’s call for the Legislature to deliver Oklahomans real relief, right now is being praised by a broad coalition.

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%).

Oklahoma Police Chief speaks at CPAC on Civil Asset Forfeiture

Police Chief Stephen Mills of Lindsay, Oklahoma, spoke at CPAC this morning on the topic of Civil Asset Forfeiture. Here's his speech:



Here's his bio/resume from CPAC. Chief Mills occasionally writes opinion pieces on his Facebook page here.

Rand Paul wins CPAC 2013 Straw Poll

The 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), hosted by the American Conservative Union, started Thursday, and concludes today. Preliminary results from the CPAC Straw Poll were just released.

1. Rand Paul - 25%
2. Marco Rubio - 23%
3. Rick Santorum - 8%
4. Chris Christie - 7%
5. Paul Ryan - 6%
6. Scott Walker - 5%
7. Benjamin Carson - 4%
8. Ted Cruz - 4%
9. Bobby Jindal - 3%
10. Sarah Palin - 3%
11. Other - 14%
12. Undecided - 1%

More details will be released about the straw poll later.

You can vote in the MuskogeePolitico.com Primary Madness at this link (currently in the Elite 8).

CPAC 2010 Straw Poll Results

The 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), hosted by the American Conservative Union, started Thursday, and concluded on Saturday. Somewhere around 10,000 conservative and libertarian activists attended this year's conference - said to be a 20% improvement over last year.

A straw poll was taken, standard fare at CPAC. Here are the results.

CPAC 2010 Straw Poll (Poll details - PDF)

• Ron Paul - 31%
  
• Mitt Romney - 22%
  
• Sarah Palin - 7%
  
• Tim Pawlenty - 6%
  
• Mike Pence - 5%
  
• Newt Gingrich - 4%
  
• Mike Huckabee - 4%
  
• Mitch Daniels - 2%
  
• Rick Santorum - 2%
  
• John Thune - 2%
  
• Haley Barbour - 1%
  
• Other - 5%
  
• Undecided - 6%

Straw poll of 2,395 CPAC registrants, February 18-20, 2010

Ron Paul continues his track record of winning straw polls (or should we say, over-performing?). This is where the poll needs to be clarified.

Only about 25% of the CPAC attendees bothered to vote in the straw poll. 13% of voters were associated with a CPAC cosponsor (such as the NRA, Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, the John Birch Society, and the highly-controversial GOProud - a gay conservatives group), 32% were individuals (i.e. non-college age), and 48% were students.

Fiscal issues came out way on top for the attendees; pro-life and pro-traditional marriage issues ranked very low. Not an accurate sampling of the grassroots Republican, or the primary electorate.

Age-wise, 54% were between 18 and 25 years old, 19% were 26-40, 14% were 41-55 years, and 10% were over 55 years of age. 64% of voters were male, 30% female, and 6% refused to answer.

So, the typical voter in the straw poll was a young, college-attending male, focused on fiscal issues. In other words, the standard Ron Paul supporter. In light of this, and given the strong libertarian bent of CPAC, I am not surprised that Ron Paul won the straw poll.

CPAC Straw Poll Results

The 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) started on Thursday and came to a close today. At the conference, they took a straw poll for the 2012 GOP primary.

You just thought last election was the longest election cycle in history. Try to last through this one.

Anyway, here are the results:

CPAC 2009 Straw Poll (PowerPoint)

• Mitt Romney: 20%
• Bobby Jindal: 14%
• Ron Paul: 13%
• Sarah Palin: 13%
• Newt Gingrich: 10%
• Mike Huckabee: 7%
• Mark Sanford: 4%
• Rudy Giuliani: 3%
• Tim Pawlenty: 2%
• Charlie Crist: 1%
• Undecided: 9%

Straw poll of 1,757 CPAC registrants, February 26-27th, 2009

First of all, here are some of the demographics of the participants. 52% described themselves as 'Students', 36% were non-students, and 13% were either co-sponsors of the event or affiliated with a co-sponsor (i.e. FairTax, NRA, ACU, Eagle Forum, etc.).

57% of the voters were between the ages of 18 and 25. The next highest group was 26-40, at 16%. 12% were 41-55, 7% were 56-65, and 5% were over 65 years of age, and 2% were under 18.

I think that those figures explain Ron Paul's high performance. The large number of the college-age crowd, Paul's main demographic, must have had an impact on his vote total.

Just from looking at the answers to some of the questions, the crowd seems to have been more libertarian of bent, with not quite as much emphasis on social conservative issues. Hence the success of Romney and Paul, and the lower numbers for Huckabee and Palin.

An interesting poll, nevertheless, I'd rather wait a year or so before seeing any more presidential election polls...