Election recap, Nathan Dahm Removal effort, and Fauda
Gentle reader,
The election has happened. Let's start out talking about a few particular races rather than go through everything that happened:
If any individual group
takes responsibility for Greg McCortney's loss on Tuesday night, they are gaslighting you and full of shit. McCortney lost for three very important reasons: 1) He was about to be pro tem, figured that would carry him, and didn't work as hard as he needed to to keep his seat. That's not disputable. Go ask Eric Cantor how that worked for him. 2) McCortney was actively involved in the "I hate Stitt" caucus in the Senate, and was about to take the reins of that group from Treat. People don't care about fights with the Governor, and want the government to work, particularly when they are all in the same party. The Senate wasn't helping that as currently structured, and voters sent a message. 3) The Chickasaw government got caught off guard assuming everything was ok until it was too late, and didn't put an effort in to protect him. Game, set, match, Jill Daugherty loses the new office she had been measuring for.
If Adam Pugh thinks he's the right person to be Pro Tem, that's a bad idea, and he's wrong. Julie Daniels would be a strong choice, and so would Casey Murdock. But more of the same "I hate Stitt" leadership isn't the right path.
That Dude Wendy Steerman
went down in flames. It was predictable. And she's about to get a rude awakening, because nearly everything on her campaign finance reports were in-kinded by her. All it takes is a complaint to the Ethics Commission by one or several of our readers, and we'll see who was donating to her personal account to pay for the things she claims to have in-kinded to herself. Krems already went down last week for shady efforts to prop her up, now it's her turn directly.
Julie was Julie. Despite efforts to paint her as a bed wetting liberal, we all know that's not true, and so did the voters. She's a conservative champion in the senate, and we're lucky to have her back for four more years.
Jessica Garvin's loss
was also predictable, but another huge loss for the Chickasaw Nation. She was much more moderate than McCortney, but did whatever he told her. She had to be coaxed into letting the ban on Ranked Choice Voting go through, and voted opposite of the Governor on the major issues throughout her time. That said, she is a great person to be around. Kind, friendly, but not what was needed from a Republican the Senate. We wish her the best.
Don't try to tell us
that we need liberty lovers at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. By it's very nature, the OCC is set up to regulate monopolies and allow them to operate. Do you want six sets of power lines in your alley? No? Then the OCC just isn't the place for loving liberty. It's for holding utilities to close margins and stop them from building unnecessary power plants. On the Oil and Gas side, it's for resolving disputes in a way that allows wells to be drilled and royalties to flow. So picking some liberty-loving schmuck over Brian Bingman, who is extremely familiar with what the OCC does, how it operates, and has experience in the industry, was a bad idea. We swear, sometimes we think the Action Figures pick losers because it helps their cred. Bingman was the right pick here and was always going to be the guy. Get over it!
Speaking of picking losers,
Paul Bondar spent more than $400 per vote received. That's embarrassing. What's more embarrassing is that for all of the ads, he got 25% of the vote. Here are the results from the past few primaries against Tom Cole, where the opponents DIDN'T spend millions of dollars:
- 2024 (Bondar): 25%
- 2022 (James Taylor): 27%
- 2020 (James Taylor): 15%
- 2018 (James Taylor): 35%
We could go further back, but we don't need to because the point is made: Bondar wasted his own money, and likely the Russian money that Roger Stone funnelled to him, to absolutely no benefit. It also likely didn't help to have Ryan Walters endorse Bondar. Dude is toxic, and looking at polls of Republicans, he likely dragged Bondar down. Did Walters do this at the behest of his action figure friends? Yes. Did it help him? No. Will it make the Tom Cole alumni network work to defeat Walters in whatever he tries to do next? Absolutely. Better start putting in teaching applications in Texas, Ryan. Maybe you can live with Matt Langston and his paramour in their Georgetown, TX mansion that state money paid for.
Dear Leader Wayne Hill has done what we thought he'd do.
We expected it a little later in the summer, but he did it nonetheless. Hill filed for removal of Chairman Dahm, and called a meeting on June 29th. He did it wrong, but whatever. Do they have the votes? It's a really high bar to meet, but you pull this trigger you better have the ammo to pull it off, or you're neutered going forward.
The basis of the removal arguments are horribly thin, but that doesn't matter to action figures. They are also trying to do it by "resolution," which as we've said in the past, has no binding authority. Rather than go point by point or procedurally issue them a beat down, we will share the OKGOP removal rule, and highlight important considerations (the underlines are ours):
RULE 19(h) Removal of Officers, Committee Member, and Delegates: Except as otherwise specifically provided in these rules, any officer, committee member or delegate of any organization, committee, delegation, or unit of the Oklahoma Republican Party, may at any time be removed in the same manner and by the same power or authority by which one was appointed or elected. Any County Chairman or Vice Chairman, or any member of the State Committee, or any Congressional District Committee, may be removed at any time for cause by a majority vote of the entire existing membership of the County Committee of their County. The State Chairman, Vice Chairman, National Committeeman, or National Committeewoman may be removed at any time for cause by a majority vote of the entire existing membership of the State Committee. Causes for removal shall include but not be limited to the following: 1. Misappropriation of funds under the rules of the Republican Party; 2. Failure to follow the rules of the Oklahoma Republican Party; 3. Conviction of a felony; and 4. Publicly supporting or endorsing an opponent of candidates of the Republican Party. Any such removals, except as to precinct officers as provided under Rule 5(f) and any removals authorized under Rule 6(f), may be ordered only after ten (10) days' notice in writing has been given to the person charged, stating the cause and time and place of hearing thereon, and after the person has had the opportunity to present evidence, witnesses, and to be heard personally and by counsel.
SO, how should this actually go? By rule, the state committee needs to approve charges at a meeting, then set another meeting no sooner than 10 days to hold the "trial." The vote to remove, by rule, requires 50% OF THE ENTIRE STATE COMMITTEE rather than 50% of whoever shows up. This isn't about quorum. So the state committee roster has more than 300 members. That means that HALF of the full membership must vote to remove. You don't meet that, you fail. Given attendance at the last few state committee meetings, we don't think they will be able to pull off more than 150 votes to remove, but we'll see. And we of course believe that they'll disagree with the procedure laid out here, and try to cheat their way into removal. But that's not how it works.
One of our favorite shows is "Fauda" on Netflix. Fauda in Arabic means "chaos." Wayne and the Action Figures are sowing Fauda without any real successful option at the end.
With love,
CW/CM/SC/WB
