Senate Dems elect next leaders for 2025-2026 session

The minivan caucus (aka the eight Democrats in the Oklahoma State Senate) has anointed their presumptive leaders for the 2025-2026 legislative session:

Senate Democratic Leader Floyd announces caucus election of Sen. Kirt as next leader; Sen. Brooks elected as caucus chair

 OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Democratic Leader Kay Floyd announced Wednesday her caucus has elected Sen. Julia Kirt to follow Floyd into that leadership role for the 60th Oklahoma Legislature. Sen. Michael Brooks was chosen to succeed Sen. Kevin Matthews as Democratic caucus chair. Due to term limits, the 59th Oklahoma Legislature will be the last for both Floyd and Matthews, who will continue to serve in their Senate leadership roles until they leave office in November of 2024.

Legislature to hold redistricting software demo for Lawmakers and Public

House and Senate to Hold Redistricting Software Demo for Lawmakers and Public

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma House of Representatives and Oklahoma Senate have planned a bipartisan, bicameral virtual demonstration of the redistricting software, Maptitude for Redistricting by Caliper, that both chambers will use to redraw new legislative and congressional district lines during the 2021 redistricting process.

As part of the Legislature’s transparency efforts surrounding redistricting, the public will be able to watch the virtual demonstration via livestream on the Oklahoma Senate website, https://oksenate.gov/live-chamber.

Tracy Horgan, the director of redistricting services for the Caliper Corporation, will provide a brief demonstration of the software capabilities for lawmakers at 9 a.m., Dec. 14, in Room 535 at the Capitol. Due to COVID-19 protocols, the demonstration will be conducted remotely and in-person attendance by lawmakers will be limited.

The demonstration will be recorded and archived so that lawmakers and the public can watch the software demonstration at a later date, if necessary. Following the demonstration, the House and Senate redistricting office staff will begin a three day virtual training course to learn and refine their skills with the software.

State Senate redistricting committee members named

Senate leader names redistricting committee members

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat on Thursday announced the members he has appointed to serve on the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting.

“Alongside drafting a state budget, redistricting will be the highest priority of the Legislature next session. The Oklahoma Senate will conduct an open, transparent and bipartisan redistricting process. The senators who serve on the redistricting committee have an important task and I appreciate them accepting the challenge to serve on the Senate redistricting committee,” said Treat, R-Oklahoma City.

Treat previously named Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, as chair of the committee and Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, as vice-chair of the committee. Treat said Sen. Michael Brooks, D-Oklahoma City, will serve as co-vice chair of the committee.

The members of the committee are:

Bill Allowing Videoconferencing in District Court Becomes Law

Bill Allowing Videoconferencing in District Court Becomes Law

OKLAHOMA CITY (May 21, 2020) – Courtrooms across the state will now be allowed to use videoconferencing in district court proceedings after being signed by the Governor.

House Bill 3756, authored by Rep. Nicole Miller, R-Edmond, authorizes the use of videoconferencing technology in all stages of civil or criminal proceedings except in jury trials or trials before judges.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has really highlighted the flexibility and usefulness offered by videoconferencing,” Miller said. “The utilization of videoconferencing in district courts has the potential to save our criminal justice system both time and money, as well as maintaining public safety. I’m thankful Governor Stitt signed this legislation that will maximize efficiencies and bring our District Court technologies into the 21st century.”

Democratic members of Legislative Office for Fiscal Transparency protest lack of transparency in hiring of executive director

Statement on Hiring of Executive Director for LOFT

OKLAHOMA CITY – The following statement was issued by the Democratic members of the Legislative Oversight for Fiscal Transparency (LOFT), Sen. Julia Kirt, Sen. Michael Brooks, Rep. Cyndi Munson, and Rep. Meloyde Blancett:

“We are disappointed by the process used to hire the new director of the Legislative Office for Fiscal Transparency (LOFT). The objective of the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency was to provide openness and transparency.  This vote today to hire a director and the process by which this was brought forth was nothing close to transparent, which begs the question of how effective LOFT will  be if this is the way we conduct our actions.

There should have been a more transparent process for hiring the director of a new taxpayer-funded office launched to focus on transparency. The candidate selected was not one of the original applicants for the position. As members of the LOFT Oversight Committee, we were previously told we would have input in the vetting of candidates for the director position and on who was selected after the interview process. That is not what happened. Moving forward, the work of LOFT and the LOFT Oversight committee must be conducted with more openness, public participation and accountability."

Brief Blogging Bullets

Blogging has been on partial-hold due to vacation, so here are some brief blogging bullets to catch up on some of what's happened in the week or so.

• Democrats won both special elections on Tuesday, July 11th:
• Democrat Michael Brooks defeated Republican Joe Griffin in SD44 by a vote of 54.6% to 45.4%. The district has a Republican District Rating of 49.6 (30th most-Republican/18th most-Democrat; 11 GOP-held seats have lower scores, 1 Democrat seat has a higher score), and combining past history with the tremendous baggage of ex-Sen. Ralph Shortey's scandal means this outcome wasn't exactly shocking.
• Democrat Karen Gaddis defeated Republican Tressa Nunley in HD75 by a vote of 52.3% to 47.7%. The district has a Republican District Rating of 56.3 (40th most-Republican/61st most-Democrat), making this the most Republican State House seat held by Democrats. Gaddis' victory caught many people by surprise, but again, this special election was the result of another scandal. The Democrats have an unbeaten record in recent years in scandal-caused special elections, but will it translate into more widespread victories in the regularly-scheduled general election? Only time will tell.
• Edmond education activist and self-described Republican Angela Clark Little "joined with former Gov. David Walters and a who's who of Democratic luminaries to help raise money for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Drew Edmondson."
• Tulsa businessman Kevin Stitt has joined the GOP race for Governor. Stitt is the founder and CEO of Gateway Mortgage Group.
• State Rep. Leslie Osborn was replaced as A&B Chair by Speaker McCall today. A&B Vice-Chair Kevin Wallace will be the new budget chairman. Ironically and rather bizarrely, Democrat leaders are speaking out in support of Osborn.
• A new Oklahoma Republican political consulting firm has launched - Tomahawk Strategies principals include former AFP-OK director and Trump campaign leader Stuart Jolley.
• State Rep. John Michael Montgomery is running for SD32, the lone Democrat-held seat west of I-35 (open seat in 2018 due to term limits)
• Lieut. Governor candidate Matt Pinnell raised over $300k in his first ten weeks as a candidate, including donations from all 50 states.