OKGOP infighting over Vice Chair's legislative scorecard

As a former county GOP officer and state executive committee member, I used to be pretty plugged in to the goings-on in OKGOP activist circles (I've taken a step back in recent years for family and committment reasons). The last several election cycles have seen a lot of turmoil inside the OKGOP, with a revolving door of chairmen leaving the party is rather fragile state, financial-wise and in effectiveness.

Ultra-conservative (I mean that in the most positive of ways) State Sen. Nathan Dahm won a hotly contested state chair race earlier this year, and there was some thought that his surprise election could see something of a reuniting of various divisions among the grassroots activists. Apparently not. New Vice Chairman Wayne Hill seems to be the point man for one of the factions, and sent out a legislative scorecard last week that some got the impression was officially from the Oklahoma Republican Party.

Dahm and the chairs of the Tulsa and Oklahoma county parties have each issued statements slamming the scorecard as "fraudulent" and "unauthorized". Read on:

OCPA column: Transparency fuels profanity at Capitol

Transparency fuels profanity at Capitol

By Jonathan Small

As one transitions from a child to adult, perception changes with age. That’s certainly been my experience when it comes to politics.

I first visited the Oklahoma Capitol as a child in the 1980s, going with my parents to advocate on behalf of some of our state’s most vulnerable citizens. Today, I still do the same thing as president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, advocating for free-market policies that provide the greatest prosperity to the largest number of people.

The response to my work as an adult, however, is not the same as the response I received as a child.

This year OCPA launched our new Legislative Scorecard and a watch list. One of the first bills to be scored was authored by the chair of an appropriations and budget subcommittee who was also part of the House Republican leadership team.

OCPA releases Legislative Scorecard for tracking session votes

From the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs:

At the beginning of the 2020 legislative session, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs announced that we would produce a legislative scorecard to be updated throughout the session.

The OCPA board of trustees and staff came to realize that there wasn’t an easy-to-use guide for constituents to understand just how their lawmakers are voting on issues related to free markets, limited government, individual initiative, and personal responsibility. So we decided to change that.

At the beginning of the legislative session, we launched our new Legislative Scorecard, which can be found at scorecard.ocpathink.org. In addition to the scorecard itself, we released a watch list of bills that are eligible to be included on the scorecard. You can view the watch list at ocpa.co/WatchList.

Check out the live scorecard and share it with your family and friends, it even has an easy-to-use locator so anyone can easily find their lawmaker.

I checked out the Muskogee area legislators to see how they've been voting so far this session.

Ouch.

The city of Muskogee is covered by Rep. Avery Frix (45%), Rep. Chris Sneed (47%), and Sen. Dewayne Pemberton (36%).

Pemberton has the lowest rating for any Republican Senator, and fourth lowest in the entire Senate. Half of the Democratic caucus rates higher than him. 24 of 77 House Republicans have lower scores than Frix, while 30 have lower scores than Sneed.

Randleman and Thompson cover far southern Muskogee County, Fetgatter has portions of far western Muskogee County, while McDugle is across the border in Wagoner County. Sen. David has portions of western and northeastern Muskogee County.

OCPA's scorecard has already resulted in fireworks. BatesLine has the details, including a member of the House directing obscenities and giving OCPA's president Jonathan Small "the finger" inside the Capitol building.