Lankford to headline 2nd District GOP's Christmas Dinner

U.S. Senator-elect James Lankford will be the guest speaker at the 2nd District GOP's upcoming Christmas Dinner.

The dinner is scheduled for Friday, December 5th, at 7:00pm, and will be held at the Okmulgee Community Center (7th and Kern - map) in Okmulgee.

Dinner tickets are $20 per person. To RSVP, email okgop2@gmail.com or call 918-869-0978.

Lankford was first elected to represent the 5th Congressional District in 2010, and just won the U.S. Senate race to finish out Tom Coburn's term earlier this month.

History made: Republicans surpass Democrats in registration

BREAKING: Republicans surpass Democrats in voter registration - first time in state history

Andrew W. Griffin | November 20, 2014

OKLAHOMA CITY  - For the first time in Oklahoma history, registered Republican voters outnumber registered Democrat voters, on a report released today by the Oklahoma State Election Board.

As of Thursday morning, there were 884,136 registered Republicans and 883,876 registered Democrats. Also included were 258,651 independent voters and eight Americans Elect voters.

Political junkies have been predicting that sometime during the fall of 2014 that the flip would occur.

For the county-by-county breakdown, go here.

Note: Back in January 2013, I correctly guessed the OKGOP would pass the ODP in 2014.

Op-Ed: A GOP for America's future

A GOP for America's future

originally posted here by Dustin Siggins

Note: This piece was co-authored by seven philosophically and geographically diverse conservatives who believe the GOP must lead in 2015. Our proposals outline a path that will accomplish this goal for the betterment of America.

On Election Day, the GOP won the Senate, held the House, and made solid gains in several states. The party can rightly claim a mandate from voters.

But what is that mandate? Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have promised that Congress would move on tax reform, the national debt, and repealing the Affordable Care Act. We hope that they follow through -- but given the GOP's tendency to overpromise and under-deliver, we have our doubts.

If the world were run by scientific and mathematical reality, Republicans would pass a constitutional amendment recognizing the scientific fact that we are human beings at conception. They would enact aggressive Social Security and Medicare reform, and revamp the tax code. And they would repeal the Affordable Care Act, eliminate corporate welfare and food stamps, and drastically expand domestic energy access.

However, these goals are not politically possible with President Obama in the White House and a GOP that tends to flinch in the face of tough decisions. So what can be accomplished that would help the nation and convince its conservative base that the party can be trusted?

McConnell and Boehner have outlined good steps. But we, a geographically and philosophically diverse group of conservatives, think they can do better.

First, pass legislation that could garner bipartisan support. Greater transparency and efficiency among the executive and legislative branches should be a top priority. Medicare, Medicaid, and the Defense Department alone face tremendous fraud and improper payments, and the federal government as a whole loses hundreds of billions of dollars annually to mismanagement and duplication.

Expanding drilling opportunities, something supported by many Democrats, would provide more jobs and more tax revenue, reduce environmental harm, and -- over time -- allow the U.S. to reduce its funding of Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and other nations that abuse human rights and/or provide fertile ground for terrorists.

The GOP should also renounce its relationship with Big Business by refusing to renew tens of billions in special-interest tax preferences at the end of the year, and end nearly $100 billion in federal corporate subsidies. Whether for oil companies, wind farms, NASCAR, or Goldman Sachs, policies that take from middle America to help the wealthy are immoral and fiscally insane.

These savings should be used to lower taxes for all Americans -- unless President Obama wants to defend giving approximately $150 billion in taxpayer dollars each year to wealthy special interests while the average American struggles to find work.

Now comes the hard stuff. We are pleased to have seen McConnell say in a press conference that the party will conduct investigations and oversight of the Executive Branch. Republicans should also allow only qualified judges to garner Senate approval, and should stop an executive amnesty cold.

Fiscally speaking, the nation is in serious trouble. Social Security and Medicare have become increasingly more expensive. They are the primary drivers of our debt. While extensive reforms are unlikely to pass, Republicans should promote means-testing of both programs and force Obama to defend giving Bill Gates and Warren Buffett retirement money.

Likewise, Republicans should demand that the president uphold his promise that all Americans be able to keep their health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and overturn the unconstitutional HHS Mandate. They should also eliminate Congress's Obamacare subsidies for themselves.

Finally, it is important that the federal government stop its funding of abortion, be it at home or abroad. In 2009 and 2014, polls found that the American people do not support federal abortion funding. Republicans should force President Obama to explain why the average American should pay for the destruction of a million unborn children each year.

The plan we have laid out is considered radical inside the Beltway. We can hear it already -- "Obama will never sign it, and getting 60 votes in the Senate will be impossible." However, this is only part of the story. In December, a government funding bill must be passed; Republicans should include some of our measures in that legislation. Likewise, each and every funding bill and debt ceiling bill should include our very reasonable recommendations.

Two weeks ago, the GOP was given a golden opportunity to prove that it is better than the other guys, a duty it has shirked for at least 15 years. This is a chance for Republicans not only to show the American people they are just as tired of Beltway politics as voters, but also to swing the pendulum just a little bit away from fiscal and cultural destruction, and toward a brighter future.

--

Dustin Siggins is the D.C. correspondent for LifeSiteNews.com and a public relations consultant. Drew Belsky is the deputy editor for the online political journal American Thinker. Oklahoma State Representative George Faught is a small business owner who was elected to a fourth term on November 4. Christopher Arndt is the chairman of the Michigan Young Republicans. John Hawkins is the founder of RightWingNews.com and a contributor to Townhall.com. Jamison Faught is a conservative activist from Oklahoma who blogs at MuskogeePolitico.com. Win Martin is an openly gay Washington State resident and formerly a political blogger.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the co-authors.

Bridenstine comments on Speaker vote

Congressman Jim Bridenstine Comments on the Vote for Speaker of the House

(Washington, DC, November 14, 2014)  I explained my reasoning on the vote for the Republican Conference nominee for Speaker of the House in an op-ed to be published in the Tulsa World on Friday.  I feel it is important to communicate with my constituents on this issue, and the Tulsa World is the largest newspaper in my District.  The following is the text of the op-ed:

The Speaker Vote

Rep. Jim Bridenstine

Yesterday, the Republican nominee for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives was selected in a meeting of all the Republican Members elected to serve in the 114th Congress.  The debate and vote was in a Members-only meeting to allow open discussion and build consensus for the Republican nominee who will face off against the Democrat nominee in a vote on the floor of the House in early January.

John Boehner was selected as the Republican nominee. While he is well liked by many within the Republican conference, I continue to believe that Speaker Boehner has not been sufficiently strong in challenging the President -- the most ideologically liberal and obstinate in our nation’s history.  Additionally, there are issues on which the Speaker and I continue to disagree.

An effort to replace Speaker Boehner would require several steps, each offering very little chance of success.  The first step would be to rally enough Republican dissenting votes to block a 50% + 1 vote on the floor.  The Republicans have a historically high 60-seat majority in the newly elected 114th Congress, possibly higher as midterm election vote counts continue.  With this large of a majority, the probability of securing enough dissenting votes is remote, especially after a private nomination meeting.

If 30 or more Republicans voted for someone else and Speaker Boehner did not get a 50% + 1 vote, a second private meeting of the Republican Conference would occur.  At that meeting the dissenting Members would have to withstand pressure from the balance of the Republican Conference.  The minority of Republicans would have to offer an alternative candidate who the majority of Republicans would accept.  The probability that there would be 30 or more dissenters is virtually zero, and likewise the chance that the majority of Republicans would capitulate to the minority is near zero.

If the minority of the Conference somehow prevailed, there would be another vote on the floor, again requiring a 50% + 1 majority.  This time, members of the original majority would vote against the new Republican nominee to block the minority.  The process would be in shambles, the public would be outraged, and Democrats would be strengthened.  If this impossible scenario happened, it would be the worst outcome for those of us who have been fighting for the conservative movement.

My goal has always been to do what is right for our country, regardless of the political consequences.  In my first term, with a smaller Republican majority, I voted against Speaker Boehner on the floor believing that we could deny him a 50% + 1 majority.  However, Rep. Boehner was elected as several potential dissenters succumbed to pressure.  While that effort may have been the right move under a smaller Republican majority, it is not the right move under a larger majority.

As the Speaker attempts to balance diverse political viewpoints within the Republican Conference, conservatives must encourage him to lead the Conference in repealing Obamacare, securing the southern border, balancing the budget, and blocking a bad deal with Iran that would endanger Israel and our partners in the Middle East.  I intend to send Speaker Boehner a letter letting him know that I will vote for him on the floor, but that I expect a bold stance on these issues.  Without Harry Reid as a roadblock in the Senate, there is no excuse for the House to underperform.

The midterm elections proved the vitality of the conservative movement.  We are strong and growing stronger.  As more conservatives join our ranks in a larger Republican Conference, we must continue doing all we can to advance conservative principles which enable economic growth and keep us morally grounded and militarily strong. As always, I will fiercely guard my independence, continuing to strive for what is right for our country.

Are House and Senate Republicans bringing back Earmarks?

This morning, Erick Erickson of RedState.com posted concerns about the possible return of earmarking under the new Republican majority in Congress. I recently was speaking with a top Senate aide who said almost the exact same thing. We definitely need to keep pressure on Congressional Republicans to maintain the earmark ban.

Next Week, House and Senate Republicans Might Legalize Bribery

Erick Erickson, RedState.com

Sources in both the House and Senate are expressing grave concern to me that Republicans are about to legalize bribery. If you will recall, several years ago after a host of arrests of members of Congress, indictments, and bridges to nowhere, public outrage caused Congress to ban earmarks.

The earmarks were serving as bribery. Politicians would get earmarks sent to state and local public institutions and congressional leaders would grant and withhold earmarks as bribes to get congressmen to vote particular ways.

Senate Republicans are dragging their feet and there are, according to Senate sources, strong signals the GOP intends to end the Senate earmarks ban. Just yesterday, Senate Republicans refused to approve the earmarks ban.

On the House side, Congressman Mike Rogers (R-AL) is introducing an amendment to House rules that would allow an exception to the earmarks ban for “State, locality (including county and city governments), or a public utility or other public entity.” A House source tells me Speaker Boehner has been firmly committed to keeping the earmarks ban, but worries other Republicans may latch on to Rogers’ exception.

It is worth noting that virtually all earmarks go to “State[s], localit[ies] (including county and city governments), [and] public utilit[ies].”

With Senators Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint out of the picture, the Senate seems more likely than the House to move forward on this issue. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) referred to earmarks at “the gateway drug” for big spending. The earmarks themselves were often relatively small, but they were given by leadership to members of Congress as a form of bribery to induce those members to vote for much larger spending packages.

It would be a shame for either the House or Senate to give up on the earmarks ban — particularly when outrage over Republican behavior related, in part, to corruption induced through earmarks led to their devastating losses in 2006.

You can connect to your member of Congress through the congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and express your support for continuing the earmarks ban.

'Operation Secret Ballot': the 1966 GOP Election Reform Project

Operation Secret Ballot: The 1966 GOP Election Reform Project

by Paul Hollrah (h/t to Mike McCarville at the McCarville Report)

On Tuesday evening, September 10, 1963, I attended my first meeting of the Tulsa County Young Republicans.   It was the first political meeting I’d ever attended, and as a result of attending that one meeting, and the things I learned there, my life was changed forever.

The guest speaker that evening was a man named Walter Hall, the Ballot Security Officer for the Oklahoma Republican State Committee.  In his speech Hall described in shocking detail the widespread election fraud practiced by Oklahoma Democrats in every election.  He began by saying that forty-four of Oklahoma’s seventy-seven counties had not provided a secret ballot for voters since statehood in 1907, and that local Democrats regularly used every conceivable illegal device to intimidate voters and to fraudulently control the outcome of elections.

Although state law required that one of the three election officials in every precinct must be a member of the minority party, Oklahoma Democrats systematically appointed bogus Republicans to the minority positions.  Consequently, in many precincts in those forty-four counties, all of the election officials were, in fact, Democrats.

When voters entered the polls on Election Day they found three Democrats seated behind a table.  After signing the entry log they were handed a paper ballot and a pencil, and since there were no facilities for marking ballots in secret, they were obliged to place their ballot on the table and to mark their ballot while the three election officials looked on.  If the election officials saw a voter mark his ballot for even a single Republican candidate, a number of things could happen. In many Oklahoma counties the welfare rolls were divided up by precincts and kept on the tables in the polling places on Election Day.  If a welfare recipient was so unwise as to vote for a Republican, his/her name was removed from the welfare rolls the instant the pencil marked the ballot.  If the errant voter was a state or county employee, he ran the risk of being unemployed the same day.  And if he was a property owner, he often found his property tax assessment doubled or tripled overnight.

In some counties the election officials were so brazen as to keep a trash can next to the ballot box, and any ballot with a Republican vote on it went directly into the trash can.  The only ballots in the ballot box were straight Democratic tickets.In some counties they were a bit more subtle and used a technique that Walter Hall referred to as the “lead-under-the-thumbnail” trick.  That technique involved breaking the lead from a pencil and tucking it lengthwise under a thumbnail.When the election official took a completed ballot from a voter, and the ballot contained a vote for a Republican candidate, the official merely scraped the lead across the face of the ballot, folded the ballot in the normal fashion, and placed it in the ballot box.

When the ballot boxes were opened and the ballots were removed, state law required that all ballots with “extraneous” markings be classified as “mutilated” ballots and not counted in the final tally.In other counties, election officials would allow a thumbnail to grow very long over a period of months preceding an election.  On the day of the election they would file a sharp edge on the thumbnail so that, when they took a ballot containing a Republican vote from a voter and prepared to fold it, they merely flicked the sharp nail through the edge of the paper.  Ballots with small rips and tears were considered to be “mutilated” and were discarded along with those having extraneous markings.

I was absolutely appalled at the speaker’s endless recounting of official corruption in the state’s electoral process.  It was hard for me to believe that such corrupt practices could be standard practice in the greatest democracy on Earth, in the twentieth century, but there was no reason to doubt the truth of what he said.Having been an interested observer of the Democratic Party for many years, and having learned much more about it through many friendly debates with my in-laws, I was all but convinced that the party was just another large-scale criminal conspiracy, masquerading as a political party.  After hearing Walter Hall’s presentation that evening I was absolutely certain of it.

Read the rest of this fascinating story below the jump...

Election Board says 'No' to CD2 special election

From NewsOK.com:

Board declines to hold special election in Oklahoma 2nd Congressional District 

No new election is needed in a Nov. 4 congressional race featuring a landslide victory by the Republican incumbent two days after his Democratic challenger died in a car wreck, the Oklahoma Election Board decided Wednesday.

Relying on advice from the Oklahoma attorney general’s office, the board voted 3-0 to certify the results of this and all general election contests, with the exception of a judge’s race in which a recount is to be held.
[...]
The Oklahoma Democratic Party has called for a special election in the district, which covers most of rural eastern Oklahoma. Wallace Collins, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said the party would consider a lawsuit to challenge the board’s decision.

“We will pursue our legal options to this issue because we don’t think it’s being handled correctly,” Collins said. “I understand what they’re doing but I think they’ve been given bad advice.”

Collins said he thought Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a Republican, “was predisposed to giving the opinion that was given today.”
[...]
The attorney general’s office found that federal law applying to congressional races trumps a state law that allows for a special election in a case in which a candidate dies shortly before election day.

Federal law says the general election for U.S. representatives shall be on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November — or Nov. 4 this year. Therefore, to hold a special election on a different date, as envisioned in the state law, would be impermissible in this contest, the attorney general’s office said.

Federal law does allow a state to hold a special election for a congressional office on another date in the case of the death of the winner of the election, but in this case the person who died also lost the election.

Read the full article here.

2014 Election Results Map: 2nd Congressional District

(click image to view larger)

Continuing with my Elections Results Maps, here is the 2nd Congressional District race.

Mullin's "worst" showing was in Hughes County, where he got 59.51% to deceased Democrat Earl Everett's 34.96% (his best showing). There were four counties where less than 20% of the vote went to the Democrat (Adair, Delaware, Nowata and Rogers), with Everett receiving just 15.57% in Rogers County.

If a special election is called, things look pretty dire for State Sen. Jerry Ellis, the Democrats' substitution pick. Mullin got about 72% of the vote in the area comprising his state senate district.

2014 Election Results Map: Inhofe vs. Lankford

(click image to view larger)

In this installment of my Election Results Maps series, we take a look at the U.S. Senate race. Jim Inhofe won reelection with 68% of the vote, and James Lankford took outgoing Senator Tom Coburn's spot with 67.85%. Since both had massive victories (but neither were the top percentage on Tuesday night), I decided to take a different look at things.

This map compares Inhofe and Lankford's percentages to each other. Interestingly enough, more votes were cast in Senator-elect Lankford's race (820,890) than in senior Senator Inhofe's race (820,733).

Inhofe had a higher percentage in 56 counties, while Lankford was higher in 21 counties. In four counties, Lankford received more votes than Inhofe but with a lower overall percentage. Inhofe's biggest margin was 9.06% in Coal County, while Lankford's was 4.56% in Major County. Inhofe edged out Lankford statewide by 1,164 votes.

Pretty amazing performance for Lankford, considering this was his first time on the ballot statewide, while this was Inhofe's sixth time in a statewide general election.

2014 Election Results Map: Labor Commissioner

(click image to view larger)

Continuing with my Election Results Maps series, we now come to the race for Labor Commissioner. Incumbent Republican Mark Costello defeated Democrat Mike Workman by an overwhelming 62.8% to 37.2%, a margin of just over 25%. That is just a little less than his 64.2% performance in 2010 against incumbent Democrat Lloyd Fields. Like Fields, Workman beat Costello in four counties, three of which were the same (Cherokee, Coal and Latimer).

If Costello's margins had remained the same as 2010 in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties, he would have had almost the exact same percentage as four years ago.

Democrats pick Jerry Ellis for CD2 Special Election

The Oklahoma Democratic Party appears to have selected outgoing state senator Jerry Ellis as their candidate for the possible special election in the 2nd Congressional District. Ellis was one of three individuals the party picked as finalists for the spot.

From the AP:

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Democratic Party Chairman Wallace Collins says an outgoing state senator from Valliant has been selected by the party as its candidate in a possible special election for the 2nd Congressional District seat in eastern Oklahoma.

Collins said Democratic state Sen. Jerry Ellis was picked Monday from a list of three candidates selected during a meeting of the party's central committee over the weekend. The 67-year-old Ellis served 12 years in the Oklahoma House and Senate.

Republican U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin received 70 percent of the vote in last week's general election, but the Democratic nominee, Earl Everett, died two days before the election.

Attorney General Scott Pruitt is studying the issue and is expected to brief the Oklahoma State Election Board on Wednesday, before the election results are certified.

Dems pick three potential CD2 special election candidates

The Oklahoma Democratic Party's Central Committee met Saturday to select a replacement candidate for the likely special election in the 2nd Congressional District. Yesterday, state chairman Wallace Collins announced they had narrowed down the field to three individuals.

The ODP has selected State Rep. Ben Sherrer (D-Choteau), outgoing State Sen. Jerry Ellis (D-Valliant), and Tahequah attorney Paul Shiefelbein.

Sherrer is an attorney who represents HD8, which covers portions of Mayes, Rogers, and Wagoner counties. He is in his final term as a state representative.

Ellis represents SD5, which covers Choctaw, McCurtain, Pushmataha, and portions of Atoka and LeFlore counties in far southeast Oklahoma. Ellis formerly served in the State House, but ran for SD5 two years ago, prompting a special election this year due to term limits cutting his senate term in half. Ironically, Ellis' district just went Republican.

I know nothing about Shiefelbein other than he is an attorney from Tahlequah.

Whomever the ODP ultimately selects as their replacement candidate will go up against Republican Congressman Markwayn Mullin and Indepedent Jon Douthitt, assuming a special election is called (which according to my reading of the statute is inevitable).