OCPAC e-mail
charlie...@peoplepc.com
Our luncheon for Wednesday the 24th will be very important as we will
be voting to determine which lawmakers in the House and Senate will
receive awards for outstanding work as well as voting to determine who
will be the recipients of this year's RINO (Republican In Name Only)
awards. During this meeting we will be able to objectively observe and
discuss the performance of the legislature for the past session. In a
few weeks following this meeting we will present those awards and
inform the press of our selections. Further down in this e-mail I will
disclose those Representatives and Senators with both the highest and
lowest scores on this year's Conservative Index.
I am sending this week's e-mail a little early as I want to remind
and invite everyone to attend the BIG debate to be held Monday the 22nd
starting with lunch at 11:30 AM and the debate will begin at noon. The
location is the Hometown Buffet, Northwest 63rd and the Northwest
Highway. The subject will be the gasoline and diesel tax increase to be
voted on statewide, September 13th. Norman's State Representative
Thad Balkman and I will be debating against the tax increase and
longtime Republican activist Paul Mathews, Executive Director of the
Oklahoma Highway Users Federation, along with James Sullins, Executive
Director of the American Council of Engineering Companies, will debate
for its passage. The members of OCPAC voted unanimously to oppose the
fuel tax increase. I hope the debate, sponsored by the Northwest
Republican Club with Tom Roach as President, will be substantive,
informative and of course interesting. Come if you can.
On a most serious matter you may remember several months ago it was
discovered the Oklahoma County Library System contained several books
which promoted homosexuality in the children's section of the
libraries. Republican State Representative Sally Kern, responding to
constituent concerns, has led an effort to have those books removed
from the children's sections of the libraries to the adult sections.
Representative Kern is NOT suggesting the books be censored, banned or
burned, but a very reasonable request that they be removed from an area
of easy access to our children.
The request is SO reasonable that any sensible person would just know
there would not be opposition, right? Not the case. You must understand
the American Library Association (ALA) is an ultra liberal organization
that makes an effort to train (indoctrinate) library staff and
oversight board members to be good little liberals, so tolerant of just
about anything that they become almost incapable in setting any kind of
reasonable standards of decency and value.
This Thursday afternoon the Library Commission will meet at 3:30 PM in
the Belle Isle Library to make their final decision on where to put the
books. That wonderful organization, the ACLU (I think it should stand
for the "Anti Christian Liberties Union"), has threatened a lawsuit
if the books are moved. On the other side of the issue is the valiant
work by Sally Kern, buoyed by a poll showing 88% of the public favoring
her position. The State House also voted overwhelmingly in favor of a
resolution threatening to remove a couple of million in state funding
and Representative has also been making preparations to file a law suit
if they aren't moved.
The Oklahoma County Library System is governed by a 19 member board of
Commissioners. The Mayor of OKC is on the board and I believe appoints
about 9 of the members. Beyond that, the Mayor of each community in the
County appoints one member to represent their city. If OKC Mayor Mick
Cornett will attend the meeting and provide some leadership by urging
the re-positioning of the books they likely will be moved. I have been
told there may be 11 Commissioners leaning towards moving the books but
they are receiving enormous pressure from Republican Corporation
Commissioner Bob Anthony's wife and the homosexual community led by
Oklahoma County Commissioner Jim Roth, an acknowledged homosexual.
Therefore the question is, what are YOU, those of you who live in
Oklahoma County going to do about this showdown? Please let me be
blunt. Many conservatives and more particularly Christians spend a lot
of time learning and educating ourselves on the issues, but what good
does that do if we don't do anything with that preparation?
Attending the Thursday meeting would be helpful, but many have to work.
Perhaps a more effective action would be to call the mayor of your city
to nicely tell them you are a part of the 88% who want the books moved.
Ask your mayor if they have contacted the library commissioner they
appointed to ask them to support your position? Will you make that
call? Do you care? Or, are you one who only ponders or maybe even talks
about being the salt and light God has called us to be, the standard
for goodness in our society? In reality, are we really the salt and
light or are we actually more like the person described in Matthew
5:13? Go look that one up if you have the courage. OKC Mayor Mick
Cornett professes to be a Christian, I would suggest he really needs to
hear from his constituents.
Following will be the rankings of the top 10 most conservative
Republican House members based on their scores in this year's
Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper's Conservative Index.. The first
number following their name will be this year's score and the second
number is their lifetime average which is used in the case of a tie.
Each member receives 10 points for a conservative vote, 3 points for a
missed vote and 0 points for a liberal vote.
Number 1)Mike Reynolds-OKC 100-93, 2) John Wright-Broken Arrow 100-91,
3) Sally Kern-OKC 93-93, 4) Rex Duncan-Sand Springs 90-90, tied for 4)
Paul Wesselhoft-Moore 90-90, 6) Mike Wilt-Bartlesville 90-89, 7) Ray
Young-Yukon 83-83, 8) Gary Banz-Midwest City 80-80, tied for 8) Mike
Thompson 80-80 and number 10) Odilia Dank-OKC 70-77.
Following are those nominated for this year's RINO (Republican In
Name Only) award starting with the highest scoring nominee down to the
lowest. Fred Morgan-OKC 59-73, Ron Peters-Tulsa 53-55, Dale
DePue-Guthrie 53-53, Kevin Calvey-Del City 50-76, Tad Jones-Claremore
50-76, Tod Hiett-Kellyville 50-75, Chris Benge-Tulsa 50-74, John
Smaligo-Owasso 50-72, Fred Perry-Tulsa 50-70, Curt Roggow-Hillsdale
60-65, last year's winner of the RINO award Bill Case-OKC 50-57,
Dennis Adkins-Tulsa 50-56, Ann Coody-Lawton 50-50, Lee Denny-Cushing
50-50, Rob Johnson-Kingfisher and son of Senator Mike Johnson, last
year's winner of the Senate RINO award 50-50, Daniel Sullivan-Tulsa
50-50, Lance Cargil-Harrah 43-78, Susan Winchester-Chickasha 43-69, Dr.
Doug Cox-Grove 43-43, Kris Steele-Shawnee 40-64, Gus Blackwell-Goodwell
40-53, Don Armes-Faxon 40-43, Lisa Billy-Purcell 40-40, Brian
Bingman-Sapulpa 40-40, Jeff Hickman-Woodward 40-40, Shane Jett-Tecumseh
40-40, Terry Ingmire-Stillwater, winner of the RINO awards in both 2002
and 2003, 40-36, Chris Hastings-Tulsa 39-60, Dale DeWitt-Braman 30-57
and the lowest scoring most liberal Republican in the House is Phil
Richardson-Minco 30-30.
There were 30 Democrats that scored higher than Richardson and if you
add in those who tied with him for this year's score it would be 40
with only 4 Democrats scoring lower. Richardson participated in the
OCPAC interview process during his failed bid for a legislative seat
during the 2002 election cycle but didn't receive an endorsement or
any contribution as he scored very liberal and appeared uninterested in
learning or standing for conservative principles. Some in the party
urged us to support him as polling showed he was very close against a
long time Democrat incumbent. We refused. If Richardson is not willing
to learn and govern according to the conservative principles of the
Republican Party, then he ought to muster up the courage to become a
person of integrity and change to the Democrat Party of which he is
more nearly aligned. With a 57 seat majority we don't need him.
I will give the top 5 in the Senate and then all those nominated for
this year's RINO award. Number 1) Randy Brogdon-Owasso 100-90, 2) Jim
Reynolds-OKC 90-71, Cliff Aldridge-Midwest City 80-72, Mike
Johnson-Kingfisher, last year's RINO winner, congratulations on a big
improvement 80-53, and Mike Mazzei-Bixby 70-70 a freshman and big
improvement over the liberal Charles Ford, winner of OCPAC's 2001
RINO award.
Following are those who are nominated for this year's RINO award:
Scott Pruitt-Broken Arrow 63-68, Todd Lamb-OKC 53-53, David Myers-Ponca
City 50-60, Don Barrington-Lawton 50-50, Ron Justice-Chickasha 50-50,
Harry Coates-Seminole 50-43, Glen Coffee-OKC 49-61, and this year's
lowest scoring and most liberal Republican in the Senate, Patrick
Anderson-Enid 40-40.
Let me say in examining the scores such as those of Coffee and Pruitt
they both missed votes that had they voted would possibly have them
high enough scores to exempt them from being nominated. I point them
out because their lifetime scores don't reflect this year's
unusually low score. The same can be said of House members such as Fred
Morgan, Kevin Calvey, Tad Jones, Speaker Todd Hiett, Chris Benge, John
Smaligo, Fred Perry,and Lance Cargil.
However, most of these House members are in leadership roles of what is
now the majority party. It should make Republicans concerned that while
in the majority their scores have dropped so significantly. Next week I
hope to explore why the Republicans in the house might not be setting a
very conservative agenda.
I look forward to seeing everyone who can make either Monday's debate
or Wednesday's meeting.
Charlie Meadows
charlie...@peoplepc.com