Members and friends of the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action
Committee (OCPAC)

+ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
+ ANNOUNCEMENTS
+ STATE COMMITTEE MEETING AND GOV RACE


+ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 11th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our first order of
business will be to recognize all of our veterans, as well as any
reservist, guard or active duty members of the military. Our speaker
this week will be Dr. Everett Piper, President of Oklahoma Wesylean
University in Bartlesville. This year they have opened campus
locations in OKC and Tulsa. Dr. Piper has recently written a book, THE
WRONG SIDE OF THE DOOR - WHY IDEAS MATTER. He suggested to me in an e-
mail that is could be sub-titled, The Arrogance of the Academy, The
Pride of Politics and the Pathology of the Intellect. The book has
been endorsed by Chuck Colson and Dr. Piper is currently touring the
nation holding workshop debates regarding its premise and the power of
truth. We had him speak about 5 years ago, and found him to be an
intellectual gem as well as a powerful speaker. Don’t miss hearing him
if at all possible.

One other item and no surprise, since AARP endorsed President Obama
and the Democrat’s plan for the government to take over health care. I
propose the following deal. Anyone bringing their destroyed AARP
membership card to Wednesday’s meeting, or better still destroy it in
front of everyone, they will receive a free copy of the book, THE LAW
by Frederic Bastiat. If you bring a stamped and addressed envelope to
an alternative seniors organization for the contents of your destroyed
AARP card you will also receive a copy of the booklet, NOT YOURS TO
GIVE, about Davy Crockett, when he was a congressman from Tennessee.

About 18 or so years ago, I was a member of a group working to
completely reform education in Oklahoma. Our legal council was then
Senator Don Rubottom (R-Tulsa). The organization AARP was mentioned
and he leaned over to me and suggested it was his opinion that AARP
was the most dangerous organization in America. I responded with a
similar opinion. The reason, is simple. Once you understand how the
ideals of socialism flesh out into public policy and programs, it was
easy to see that this mammoth organization has been promoting
socialism for many years.

I started getting their propaganda when I turned 50 and have been
diligent to return responses with their prepaid postage to burn up as
much of their money as possible as well as be able to vent my opinions
to them about their sorry organization. They are very slow learners as
I just received another of their mail outs about 2 weeks ago. It is
not enough to just curse the darkness, good and honorable citizens are
going to have to opt out of that which is wrong and immoral. No matter
about a few shekels on some kind of a service they may provide, please
get out of this socialist promoting organization now.

+ ANNOUNCEMENTS

GUTHRIE AREA - The Logan County Republican Party will host a meeting
Monday evening November 9th, for Republicans and conservative
Democrats. The time is 7:00 p.m. and the location is Community Church,
located on the Northwest corner of the intersection of I-35 and
Seward Road. We will hear from State Representative Jason Murphey
about up-coming legislative issues. The keynote speaker will be Toby
Pedford. Mr. Pedford and his wife Lori have 3 young children. Toby is
a professional in the insurance and financial services market. Mr.
Pedford was a delegate to the Republican National Convention last year
and has been the emcee of at least 3 of the recent tea parties at the
State Capitol. Toby will talk about the various conservative movements
and what vision and goals the Republican party needs to take to
restore our nation to greatness. Toby is an inspirational speaker, if
you live in the North Edmond and Logan County area don’t miss this
meeting.

TULSA CITY ELECTIONS - Tuesday November 10th the polls will open for
the election of a new mayor for Tulsa as well as city councilmen and a
city auditor. The mayor’s race is between a liberal Republican, Dewey
Bartlett, and an ultra liberal Democrat ideologue, Tom Adelson who
currently is a State Senator from Tulsa. I was ready to suggest it
didn’t matter that much who won and in fact, if Adelson were to win,
we would have a chance to pick up another Republican Senate seat in a
special election.

However, the more I talked with conservative leaders in Tulsa as well
as several Republican Senators, I have come to believe there is enough
difference between the two to recommend voting for Bartlett. This was
partly influenced by a meeting conservative leaders had with Dewey
where he promised to give an ear to conservative concerns. Only time
will tell if he honors his promise. It was a good sign that he
attended the presentation this past Saturday morning to hear Larry
Pratt, founder of Gun Owners of America (GOA), along with
Representative Mike Ritze and Senator Randy Brogdon.

Tulsa Republicans had the opportunity to pick a more conservative
candidate in the primaries, but didn’t. Therefore, the race is now
between the lesser of two liberals. If I lived in Tulsa, I would
reluctantly vote for Dewey Bartlett and hope the conservatives can
move him toward the right. Log on to http://www.ok-safe.com/Website/Default.aspx?id=5&pageid=61
to access a survey on social and fiscal policy questions asked of all
the candidates.

OKC - There will be a meeting this Thursday evening, November 12th,
at the Character First Center, 520 West Main in downtown OKC and
starting at 7:30 p.m.. Mr. Art Thompson, CEO of the John Birch
Society, will give his presentation: EXPOSING TERRORISM - INSIDE THE
TERROR TRIANGLE. Mr. Thompson will reveal that since 9/11 the face of
terrorism has been mostly Islamic. But Islam is only one part of the
terror triangle, and not the most important part. Mr. Thompson reveals
and documents the players who back, boost, and drive terrorism and
explains how America is focusing on the enemy on the surface.

Attend to discover the constitutional solutions to the problem of
terror. Learn the vital role you can play in making sure we are not
trading our liberty for temporary security. The cost for Adults is $10
at the door or $5 for students. Please make every effort to arrange
your priorities to attend.

+ STATE COMMITTEE MEETING AND GOV RACE

As State Committee Man from Logan County, I attended the Republican
state committee meeting this past Saturday. The most discussed issue
was about party officers getting involved in primary races. There is
no rule on this issue, but the debate was whether officers should
support one candidate over another? If an officer does so, should it
be only as an individual and not as a party official?

Truth is all activists are politically aggressive and therefore it is
very difficult to expect people not to support a candidate they
believe would be the best person to be elected. It was suggested that
all candidates be given a fair chance to be heard by the less involved
voters and that any support given by officials be done so as an
individual.

With the calendar heading toward the primaries the tensions will mount
between supporters of particular candidates, perhaps with the
Governor’s race becoming the most intense. Therefore I thought I would
give an analysis at this point in the race.

First I am surprised that there are only 2 candidates in the race thus
far. Since a statewide race is such a beast to run and manage, I would
suggest that anyone not in the race thus far will not be a viable
candidate. The only exception might be a candidate with a high name
identification or a ton of personal money.

So far the race is between U.S. Representative Mary Fallin and State
Senator Randy Brogdon (R-Owasso). The race is shaping up to be a
classical contest between a candidate (Fallin) that the more moderate
and wealthy establishment Republicans are more nearly to be behind and
a candidate (Brogdon) that grass root conservative activists are more
likely to be behind. Fallin is doing very well raising money and
recently was nearing 2,000 donors. One of the ways to get a large
number of donors is to simply ask for donations as low as $10 of which
she has done. Brogdon, while behind in amount raised, almost doubled
his funds in the last quarter and is raising enough to be a viable
candidate. Brogdon’s strength is his army of volunteers. They quit
counting after they had over 1,600 people go to his web-site to sign
up a volunteers. His challenge will be to effectively use them.

One advantage Brogdon has is his ability to work full time on the
race, sometimes attending and speaking at 4 to 5 functions per day.
Whereas, Fallin, has to be in Washington serving as a Congresswoman.
Therefore, she is probably having to pay staff to do much of the work
in her campaign which is probably why she has already spent $433
Thousand of the $872 Thousand she has raised. That is not to say that
Fallin is without supporters, when she had the opening of her campaign
headquarters in OKC she had around 100 people attend which is a good
number.

Let me make a suggestion. The beauty of a primary is to have an
opportunity to discover and support the candidate who would make the
BEST governor. Satisfy yourself with that answer and work and
contribute to that candidate. If that candidate loses in the primary,
you can then support the winner as either Fallin or Brogdon will be a
far better governor than either of the Democrats running.

The purpose of a political campaign is to draw distinctions between
candidates. As that plays out don’t get emotional and turn on the
eventual winner. I know them both well enough to know this will be a
race between a more pragmatic conservative and ideological
conservative.

Anyone with any political sense knows Fallin is the huge favorite
since she won the statewide race for Lt. Governor 3 times before she
went to Washington. Already some of her supporters are engaging in a
whisper campaign that Brogdon is a wonderful fellow, but he cant’s win
in the general election because he doesn’t have the name
identification that Mary has. Therefore, they are saying, that you
will be wasting your time and resources in supporting Brogdon.

That seems reasonable until you examine political history. Anytime a
strongly favored candidate fails to execute a knock-out in the
primaries, they are in trouble. In 2001 there was a special election
to fill the vacated seat formerly held by Steve Largent. Cathy Keeting
was a huge favorite to win the primary but came in a distant second to
an unknown State Representative by the name of John Sullivan. To avoid
even further embarrassment and an almost sure loss in the primary run-
off she withdrew from the race and Sullivan went on to defeat the
Democrat.

Perhaps a more relevant historical race to the primary between Fallin
and Brogdon would be one of many years ago. The very well known giant
in that race was Democrat Clem McSpadden. An upstart and unheard of
young legislator by the name of David Boren forced McSpadden into a
run off. That is all the media and press could talk about, it earned
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free media for Boren. He
went on to defeat McSpadden and easily won the election for Governor.

If Senator Brogdon is able to pull off the biggest primary up-set
since that race of 40 or so years ago, it will have the same effect. A
victory or Mary Fallin will earn Brogdon 2 million dollars worth of
free press. All the press and media in the state will talk about is
this formerly unknown Brogdon fellow that upset the heavily favored
Fallin.

The conditions are such that whichever candidate wins, they are likely
to win in November. So again I suggest, determine who would be the
best person between Brogdon and Fallin to govern in a very difficult
climate of an ever growing federal government and its impositions upon
the states. Figure out which candidate better understands the tenants
of liberty and free enterprise. Which candidate is better qualified to
shake up the self serving power structure in the state and which
candidate is more likely to be controlled by such. Support that
candidate and may God help us to have the wisdom to put that person in
office.

As I have said earlier, I will not take a public stand on a candidate
until after they come to OCPAC for our interview process. They both
deserve a fair opportunity to make their case before people who are
still in the process of making up their mind as to who they will
support.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com