ARG Poll: Gingrich, Romney lead in Oklahoma

American Research Group Oklahoma Republican Primary Poll (link)

Newt Gingrich - 34%
Mitt Romney - 31%
Rick Santorum - 16%
Ron Paul - 10%
Other - 2%
Undecided - 7%

Poll of 600 likely Republican primary voters, taken February 6-7, with a MoE of +/- 4%

A recent American Research Group survey finds Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney leading the GOP field here in Oklahoma's presidential primary. The poll was conducted on February 6th and 7th, before Rick Santorum won the three states last night.

ARG is not well-know for being very accurate; in 2008, they were among the worst in accuracy rates among polling groups, so take the results with a grain of salt.

Romney, Paul and Santorum have fairly public campaigns in the state, whether grassroots or official campaign staff-led. Romney visited the state a few months ago, and Santorum is coming to Oklahoma City and Tulsa tomorrow. The major Super PAC supporting Gingrich has been running ads in the state for weeks (I've heard several different radio ads).

Santorum Sweeps CO, MN, and MO

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum swept last night's three GOP contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri with overwhelming and unexpected margins.

Santorum received 40.2% in the Colorado caucuses, with Mitt Romney at 34.9%, Newt Gingrich with 12.8%, and Ron Paul getting 11.8%. In contrast, in the 2008 caucus, Romney won the state with 60.1%, and Ron Paul was in fourth with 8.4%.

In the Minnesota caucuses, Santorum took 44.8%, Ron Paul placed second with 27.2%, Romney got 16.9%, and Gingrich received 10.7%. Former governor Tim Pawlenty had endorsed Romney, but apparently that had no influence on his state. In 2008, Romney won with 41.4%, and Paul placed fourth with 15.7%.

Caucuses like Iowa, Colorado, and Minnesota are technically non-binding, and don't award delegates. However, a win is a win, particularly when dealing with momentum, and the fact that the media and most voters don't understand the difference between a primary and a caucus when dealing with delegates.

In Missouri's primary, Santorum got 55.2%, Romney was in second place with 25.3%, and Ron Paul got 12.2%. Newt Gingrich was not on the ballot. The Missouri primary is non-binding, and has absolutely no bearing on delegates; Missouri will be holding a caucus in April that will begin the delegate process. Click here for more information on the Missouri caucus/primary situation.

Record crowd at Homeschool Capitol Day

Organizers of the annual Oklahoma Home Educators' Capitol Day event are reporting that over 2,600 homeschoolers attended activities today inside the capitol building in Oklahoma City. That figure is 600 higher than last year, which was the previous record.

Homeschool families from all across the state came to greet their legislators, and give a public face to homeschooling, in addition to learning about the legislative process, and lobbying for or against homeschool-related legislation.

Gov. Mary Fallin addressed the crowd in the morning, and relayed that she has declared February 6-10th as Oklahoma Homeschool Week. You can view her proclamation at this link.

Faught hires former Hannity producer as campaign manager

Hannity Producer Joins Faught Campaign 

Muskogee, OK – George Faught, GOP Candidate for Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District, announced today the hiring of Elisha Krauss as his campaign manager.

A McCurtain County native, Elisha Krauss (middle daughter of Steve and Wenda Blankenship of Broken Bow) has vast media, fundraising, event and political experience from 7 years as a producer for the nationally syndicated Sean Hannity Radio Show in New York City.

"I'm signing on in support of George Faught because he is a proven conservative who believes like I do. Issues like cutting spending and balancing the budget, defeating ObamaCare, jobs, agriculture and tourism are important to me, and I am confident that George is the best man for the job. Being from the 2nd District, my husband Eric and I understand the issues that affect voters, and I'm excited to join the effort to make a positive impact on this state by sending George to Congress," said Krauss.

"Elisha brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm to our campaign staff, and I'm proud to welcome her to the team. We have a great organization working, and with Elisha as campaign manager, our momentum will continue to grow," said Faught.    

Legislature begins 2012 session today

The 2nd Session of the 53rd Legislature begins today, with Governor Mary Fallin delivering her second State of the State address at 1pm in the House chamber.

You can view the session live at this link, beginning at noon.

Faught leads in CD2-donations, releases web video

Muskogee – Congressional candidate George Faught announced yesterday that he has raised a total of $204,872 in his campaign for Congress in Oklahoma’s 2nd District, including $99,541 in the 4th quarter of 2011.

Faught’s fundraising has been driven predominantly by donations from residents of the 2nd District.  For two consecutive fundraiser quarters, 80% of the monies Faught raised has come from within the 2nd District.

“Even in these tough economic times I am amazed at the generous financial contributions from my supporters”, said Faught.  “Our campaign is gaining momentum every day with volunteers and donations.”

Cash on hand at the close of the fundraising quarter was $146,434 and expenditures of the campaign to date were $58,438.

“I’m thankful for the continued support and sacrifice of so many hard working Oklahomans here in the 2nd District. Every donation given is helping to spread our vision of putting Oklahomans back to work with good paying jobs, cutting spending, balancing the federal budget, and repealing ObamaCare ” Faught said.

[editorial note - Faught has now raised the most money from within the 2nd District for two consecutive quarters]


The Faught campaign has also released a 7-minute web video, posted below for viewing.



You can learn more about George Faught and his campaign for Congress by visiting his website, and by following him on Twitter and Facebook.

Trump endorses Romney

Today, Donald Trump announced his endorsement of Mitt Romney for president. I guess this finally puts an end to Trump constantly hinting or threatening to run himself!

On a more serious note, though, does this endorsement actually mean anything to people?

District 2 Republican Congressional Debate tonight

Rogers State University Public TV and the Claremore Daily Progress are hosting a live, televised debate this evening with the Republican candidates for the 2nd Congressional District.

"This is the first major debate in this race, and I am excited to have this opportunity to share my message with the voters of the 2nd District," said George Faught. He will join fellow candidates Markwayne Mullin, Wayne Pettigrew, Dustin Rowe, Dwayne Thompson and Dakota Wood in the first (and possibly only) televised forum of the race.

Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb will be moderating the debate, which will consist of three rounds of questions, in addition to opening and closing remarks.

RSU Public Television (based out of Claremore) will be airing the debate live starting at 7:00pm. RSU-TV broadcasts on digital channel 35.1 and 35.2, Tulsa and Claremore COX cable channel 19, Cable Channel 4 in Bartlesville and satellite channel 35 across northeastern Oklahoma. In addition to being televised, the debate will also be available online, as RSU will be live-streaming it on their website.

For those who can't watch tonight, RSU-TV will be posting the entire debate on RSUPublicTV.org on February 1st.

The debate begins at 7:00pm.

Romney and Gingrich: "Who's on First?"

Contrary to what the title might seem to indicate, this post isn't about who is the front-runner in the GOP presidential race. Instead, it takes a slight break from actual political news...

Check out this video someone put together, featuring Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich "performing" Abbott and Costello's classic sketch 'Who's on first?'





Enjoy!

Herman Cain endorses Newt Gingrich

Former presidential candidate Herman Cain announced today via Twitter that he is endorsing Newt Gingrich for President.

The news came via a tweet Cain posted at 9:19pm EST, that read "I am officially endorsing @NewtGingrich for President of the United States!"

After dropping out of the race in early December, Cain was noncommittal on whether he would endorse a candidate or not. The Florida Republican primary, which is very important for both Gingrich and his main opponent Mitt Romney, is coming up on Tuesday.

1,000 Days Without a Budget

Yesterday marked 1,000 days since the U.S. Senate passed a budget.

Three candidates, three states: Newt takes South Carolina

Rick Santorum learned this week that he actually did squeak out a 34-vote victory in the Iowa Caucus. Mitt Romney held on to a commanding lead in New Hampshire, and won the first-in-the-nation primary.

Now, in a very apropos manner, given how turbulent this race has been, Newt Gingrich has taken a dominating lead, and will win South Carolina. As of 7:30pm (CST), with 35.8% reporting, the results are Gingrich 40.4%, Romney 26.2%, Santorum 18.1%, and Paul in last with 13.4%.

Three states. Three different victors.

The next primary will be in Florida, on January 31st.