The Deception of Markwayne Mullin

Markwayne Mullin seems to have a problem with honesty.

Today marks eleven months since the FEC caught Congressman Markwayne Mullin raising funds and making expenditures for a 2018 reelection campaign without filing the paperwork declaring his candidacy. The next day, Mullin officially filed the paperwork declaring his candidacy for a fourth term in Congress, thus breaking his oft-repeated pledge to only seek three terms in office.

Almost three weeks went by before I caught the move, but when I published my post, some media outlets picked it up and prompted some reaction from Mullin and his campaign. A couple days later, Mullin went on air with Tulsa talk radio host Pat Campbell and said that "we're still praying about it [running for a 4th term]", and that he was "not even close to made up our minds".

Throughout the interview, he made numerous comments that filing the statement of candidacy was not a declaration of candidacy, but that it was merely routine paperwork filed so that he could be involved with NRCC activities, and that he had not decided whether he would run or not.

However, two days after my first post, and two days before his interview with Campbell, Mullin's campaign made some expenditures that seem to counter Mullin's comments to the contrary.

In the months between his 2016 re-election and his 2018 statement of candidacy filing, most of Mullin's campaign spending dealt with consultant retainers, fundraising expenses, staff salaries, and miscellaneous office expenses. There were some notable exceptions.

• January 25th, 2017: $24,500.00 for polling
• February 27th, 2017: $3,850 for redesigning his website. An Internet Archive capture of MullinForCongress.com shows that between February 2nd, 2017, and March 14th, 2017, Mullin's campaign website underwent a major overhaul -- which included moving in a new Donate section to a prominent spot on the front page, with the phrase "Support the Team Mullin re-election campaign by contributing today." According to Mullin's interview with Pat Campbell on April 19th, there was no re-election campaign because he hadn't decided yet.
• April 17th, 2017 (two days before his KFAQ interview): a $15,000 payment to Peak Enterprises, Inc., for Digital Media Consulting/Advertising. From what I've been able to find, this is the first time Mullin's campaign used this company for any work, indicating that this likely went beyond simply maintaining his existing 2016 campaign on a "holding pattern" until his decision was made regarding a fourth campaign.

Mullin's campaign would probably argue that some of the other expenditures were for keeping his infrastructure in place awaiting his final decision on a 2018 campaign, but the above items seem to indicate that was not the case, and that Mullin's public posturing was simply an effort to obscure an anticipated campaign rollout.

What seems to be more likely is that Markwayne Mullin had already planned to break his term limits pledge and run for a fourth term, but the FEC warning letter and subsequent attention messed up the timeline for his announcement. Mullin's campaign spending indicates that the decision to run had already been made, despite his comments to the contrary on KFAQ with Pat Campbell.

Mullin released a video ad on July 4th, 2017, where he announced that he would be breaking his term limits pledge.

Oklahoma has had other members of Congress make term limits pledges. Tom Coburn, J.C. Watts, and Jim Bridenstine made three-term pledges in the House, in addition to Markwayne Mullin. Steve Largent made a six-term pledge, but only ran for four. Coburn again made a two-term pledge in the Senate, resigning before completing his final term.

Until Markwayne Mullin, J.C. Watts was the only member to break his term limits pledge. He has since publicly said that breaking his pledge was his biggest regret from his time in office. At a 2010 speech to the Muskogee County Republican Party, Watts said that he had made a pledge before God and to his constituents, and when he broke it that fourth term became his worst time in office politically and with his family.

In a 2010 interview with National Review, Watts had this to say: “I saw people come into Washington thinking it was a cesspool and after being there for two months, thinking it was a jacuzzi. Regardless of what arena you’re in, the cheer of the crowd can be so seductive.” He also said, “I am an adamant supporter of term limits, and I recognize you get the good with the bad if you adopt term limits, but I say let’s start down that track and protect all of us as elected officials from ourselves, because the cheer of the crowd is just too intoxicating.”

Markwayne Mullin had been seduced by the cheer of the crowd -- and the pull of power.

In 2012, Markwayne Mullin made a pledge, a vow to the people of Oklahoma. that he would only run for three terms. He repeatedly confirmed that promise, and campaigned on it across the entire 2nd Congressional District. He signed it, put his name to it.

Mullin likes to say that he's "A Businessman, Not A Politician." I doubt as a businessman that he signs a contract, and then goes back and breaks it. You don't make it in business if you're a crook who won't keep his word.

Markwayne Mullin is the consummate politician, deceptively saying one thing, then doing the opposite. Voters should reward that dishonesty and lack of integrity by booting him from office in the June 26th primary. They should replace him with a person of virtue and character who has demonstrated true honor and integrity (I have a recommendation).

Tom Coburn reacts to Markwayne Mullin breaking term limits pledge

Dr. Tom Coburn was interviewed yesterday morning on 1170 KFAQ by talk show host Pat Campbell, reacting to Congressman Markwayne Mullin's announcement that he will be running for a 4th term and break his oft-repeated term limits pledge.

Here's the audio of the interview:



A few highlights:

• "I think it's bad for Oklahoma, and I think it's bad for Markwayne Mullin"
• "[Mullin's recent actions show that] the arrogance of power has affected his thinking, and when a man's word doesn't mean anything, nothing else matters."
• Mullin has "drunk the [Washington DC] kool-aid"
• Coburn voiced support for Jarrin Jackson, who challenged Mullin in 2016, should he decide to make another run at the seat

So much for Term Limits? Mullin aspires "to be a career legislator"

Congressman Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma's 2nd District has been in hot water over the past week for comments he made at a recent town hall in Jay, saying gems like...

“You say you pay for me to do this. Bullcrap. I pay for myself. I paid enough taxes before I got there and continue to through my company to pay my own salary. This is a service. No one here pays me to go.”

and 

“I’m just saying this is a service for me, not a career, and I thank God this is not how I make my living.”

and 

“I’m paying more taxes inside my company and personally than I’ll ever receive from Congress.”

His comments have been major national news, with stories running on the Drudge Report, TheBlaze, The Washington Times, TheHill, Politico, FoxNews, Conservative Review, and many other publications and news sites.

A spokesperson for Mullin told the Tulsa World, “The congressman reiterates in the video that his work as the representative of the Second District of Oklahoma is a service. His aspiration is to be a career legislator and not a career politician. He is not, nor does he ever aspire to be, a career politician. His priority will always be to serve his constituents to the best of his ability.” [emphasis mine]

Let's remember that Mullin campaigned in 2012 on a pledge to serve no more than three two-year terms (six years) in office. In an August 1, 2011, article from the AP, Mullin told reporter Sean Murphy, "I don't want to be up there (in Washington) and become part of the problem. If we can't accomplish anything in six years, it's a waste of time anyway." Sounds like that's not the case anymore, at least according to his spokesperson.

In 2016, US Term Limits, the leading advocacy organization and the group with the pledge Mullin signed, slammed Mullin for failing to follow through on his commitment to co-sponsor term limits legislation, as well as his public hedging on keeping his pledge in 2018.

OKGOP Communications Director resigns in protest of Trump

Alea Iacta Est

by Brett Farley

This morning I sent an urgent message to the Chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party insisting that the party release a statement thusly:

“The Republican Party was founded to promote certain principles, rights and values that befit a free and moral people and to advance candidates for office who will defend them. It has been demonstrated finally and without question by this most recent revelation of what Donald Trump has said and what he said he does that he is wholly unfit to continue as the Republican nominee for President of the United States. We, the Republican Party of Oklahoma, join the growing chorus of party leaders and elected officials around the country in demanding that Mr. Trump withdraw as a candidate for president in order that the Republican National Committee may begin the necessary process to select an alternate nominee who will more appropriately represent our party and its members.”

The response I received indicated a refusal to make a clear and unequivocal statement of the sort that has already been offered by dozens of Republican elected officials and leaders nationally. Therefore, just before 11am CST I offered my immediate resignation as Director of Communications for the Oklahoma Republican Party. The time for bold action is now. I can no longer countenance an official role with a party that is unable or unwilling to act upon the pressing moral gravity of the situation at hand.

No doubt my decision will bring with it certain derision and charges of political desertion from members of my party. And I expect fully that it will come at a cost to my professional reputation and perhaps even of a financial nature. But no cost is too great compared to what I must necessarily sacrifice if I were to continue supporting in any official capacity a party that refuses unequivocally to reject such a man.

That I am not changing my party affiliation is a mere matter of unfortunate circumstance in that it is already too late to reregister prior to next month’s election. Moreover, Donald Trump’s defeat at the hands of the weakest Democrat challenger in a generation is almost certain; therefore, I hold hope that we might find a collective dignity with which to begin picking up the pieces from this electoral wreckage to rebuild the party of Lincoln and of Reagan.

I am the father of three daughters with a fourth daughter due in February. One of my greatest joys of late has been teaching my oldest daughter of twelve years about the sort of character and Christian ethic that befits a man worthy to call himself one day her husband and my son-in-law. I cannot and I will not, then, through some twisted logic attempt in the same breath to justify a vote for a man who is the quintessential opposite of everything I am teaching her to expect in a man. To put a finer point on it, I cannot bring myself to place a mark next to the name of a man whom I cannot trust to be alone in a room with my daughters.

Once upon a time the word ‘party’ meant more than simply a letter after a candidate’s name. Not so long ago, membership in a political party meant necessarily that one ascribed to a set of principles and policies that he or she believed along with fellow members would aid our republic in creating a brighter future for our posterity. That word now clearly rings hollow.

If many of my Republican colleagues are to be believed, we have some sort of unholy imperative to cast a vote for a man simply for the fact that the letter ‘R’ follows his name, despite that that man has publicly professed values and positions in recent years — and in many cases within recent months — that are diametrically opposed to the very platform passed by the same delegates who gave him our party’s nomination. The argument can be summed thusly: Donald Trump because Hillary Clinton.
Never has more tortured logic been proffered by members of our party to justify support for a man so politically and morally bankrupt. It is an argument so specious that any further attempt to disprove it would be a waste of keystrokes. But it suffices to point out that it is precisely the same argument offered by our counterparts to justify an unwitting vote for Hillary Clinton.

Other of my colleagues offer a justification which can be summed: Donald Trump because SCOTUS. Never before has our party so willingly turned a deaf ear to history and practical political reality until now. Even in our best days, Presidents Reagan and Bush, solidly conservative Republicans, managed to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who gave the deciding votes in some of the most egregious decisions in the Court’s history. Yet these same colleagues argue that we can trust a man who has broken promises to customers, business partners, wives and God himself to uphold his tentative pledge to nominate conservative justices.

Ronald Reagan once famously quipped about his switch from Democrat to the Republican Party that he did not leave his party, for his party had already left him. Over the years I have often wondered what such a scenario might look like on this side of the partisan divide. Alas, I need not wonder any longer; the answer is plainly before us.

December 17, 1998, my 21st birthday, is a date I will never forget. It was the date originally scheduled for the impeachment vote by the House of Representatives for President William Jefferson Clinton. I recall vividly watching the television two days later at a Pizza Hut just off the campus of the University of Oklahoma as Republican members of the House voted finally to impeach. They did so after having concluded that the unbecoming behavior and subsequent obstruction and perjury by Clinton met the threshold for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Not even 20 years hence a majority of the members of that same party have nominated a man who publicly brags about that same felonious behavior. Not only has he refused to repent of his transgressions, Donald Trump celebrates them in the worst instance and, at best, offers a token apology that “some may have been offended.” Is this what our party stands for today? Is this the man we want our children and grandchildren to look to as the exemplar of that “shining city on a hill”? I pray not.

The time for political machinations and twisted reasoning has come to end. It is time now for each of us to appeal to the better angels of our nature and vote with moral courage, not with a vain fealty to some predisposed partisan obligation. Our consciences, our posterity demand more of us. On November 8, I will be placing a mark neither by the name of Hillary Clinton nor by that of Donald Trump. And years from now when my children ask me to detail for them the history of the Republican Party and of our participation in it, my solemn prayer is that we may still call it ‘our’ party.

Brogdon Misquotes, Misrepresents McCarville in Campaign Email

In his latest campaign email, Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brogdon speaks about his latest television commercial. You know, the one I was critical of, and called 'deceptive'.

His email says the following:

I find it extremely important that voters are presented with all the facts before they go into the ballot box July 27th.  I have been very open and honest with my record of promoting smaller government, protecting your freedom, and lowering taxes. Unfortunately, my opponent has been dodging her record of voting for the bailout over the last year.

Watch our latest T.V. advertisement now!

The bailout vote gave one TRILLION dollars of YOUR money to bail out financial institutions and gave the federal government control over certain private businesses.  This was not small government, fiscal responsibility, nor Oklahoma values.  So, I find it very important Oklahoma Republican voters are aware of Representative Mary Fallin’s voting record.

McCarville, an Oklahoma political reporter, recently wrote:

" Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brogdon's campaign warchest is thin compared to opponent Mary Fallin's and some observers say Fallin should give thanks for that. They point to this Brogdon commercial, which some believe would resonate with voters if Brogdon had enough money to saturate the television airwaves with it."

Dedicated to Liberty,

Randy Brogdon

[emphasis as in original]

However, there is a huge inaccuracy in the attribution of Mike McCarville's statement that I, as a "brother" blogger, feel compelled to correct.

On Thursday, July 8th, Mike McCarville wrote two posts about Brogdon TV commercials.

At 1:59pm, he posted about Brogdon's attack ad. In the post itself, there was no commentary - just the YouTube video of the "Mary Fallin Compromise" advertisement.

Again, let me reiterate. He wrote no commentary about the ad. You can see for yourself here.

But, that was not his first post of the day about a Brogdon commercial. At 5:27am, he posted about Brogdon's excellent "Freedom" ad.

It was about that ad, a positive commercial about Randy, that McCarville made the following commentary:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brogdon's campaign warchest is thin compared to opponent Mary Fallin's and some observers say Fallin should give thanks for that. They point to this Brogdon commercial, which some believe would resonate with voters if Brogdon had enough money to saturate the television airwaves with it.

Again, here is the link to this particular post by McCarville.

As you can see with your own eyes, McCarville did not make that statement about the attack ad, but about the previously released positive ad.

This was a blatant misquote and misrepresentation by the Brogdon campaign. The implication in the campaign email is that Mike McCarville, the most widely read and prominent political blogger in Oklahoma, posted that particular quote about a widely criticized ad. Unfortunately for the Brogdon campaign, that was absolutely not the case, and they have been caught in something that cannot be explained away. There is no excuse, there is no justification for such blatant untruthfulness.


Oklahoma Values have been a topic that has been much discussed by the candidates for governor.

One of the premier Oklahoma Values is that of Honesty.


**UPDATE**: Mike McCarville now reports, "Randy Brogdon has apologized. He said the error is his."