OCPAC Discusses Conservative Senate Rankings
This week, Charlie Meadows from OCPAC discussed the Oklahoma Constitution’s rank of conservative Senators. Charlie’s email is below.
++ THE MOST & LEAST CONSERVATIVE IN THE OKLAHOMA SENATE
There Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper released the Conservative Index scores for all lawmakers this past week, so I want to show how they rank in comparison to themselves. I will do the Senate this week and the House next week. After each Senator’s name will be 2 numbers. The first number is their score for this year’s session. The second number is their lifetime average which is used for ranking purposes to break any ties from this year’s score.
The first list will be the 36 Senate Republicans
1. Anthony Sykes 93 93 Moore area
2. Nathan Dahm 90 90 Broken Arrow
2. Kyle Loveless 90 90 S. OKC & Mustang
4. Cliff Aldridge 90 75 Choctaw
5. Greg Treat 83 84 N.W. OKC
6. Ron Sharp 80 80 Shawnee & Luther
6. Rob Standridge 80 80 S. Moore & Norman
8. Josh Brecheen 80 78 Durant & south central OK
9. David Holt 80 65 N.W. OKC
10. Bill Brown 73 80 Broken Arrow
11. Frank Simpson 73 72 Ardmore
12. Bryce Marlett 73 67 Woodward & West
13. Cliff Branan 73 66 Nichols Hills to Warr Acres
14. Rob Johnson 73 62 Kingfisher, N. Yukon to W. Edmond
15. Gary Stanislawski 70 76 Tulsa & Jenks
16. Kim David 73 73 Porter area
16. A.J. Griffin 73 73 Logan, Noble, Pawnee & most of Kingfisher Counties
18. Rick Brinkley 70 71 Owasso
19. Larry Boggs 70 70 McAlester area
19. Wayne Shaw 70 70 Grove area
21. Mike Schulz 70 69 Altus to Weatherford
22. John Ford 70 65 Bartlesville
22. Ron Justice 70 65 Chickasha
24. Don Barrington 70 61 Lawton
25. Eddie Fields 70 60 Ponca City and East
26. Clark Jolley 66 69 Central Edmond and East
A score of 63 or below automatically determines a RINO nominee. It should also be noted that most of these RINO nominees have a score with a multiple of 3 in the first number which means they failed to vote on the key votes that make up the index. As an example Senator Newberry had a 52 and Senator Coates had a 42 which means each of them failed to cast a vote on 4 of these important issues. Senator Mazzei missed 6 key votes and probably should return a significant portion of his pay to the state of Oklahoma. Had these Senators have voted conservative on these issues they would have earned an additional 7 points for each conservative vote. Had they have voted liberal, they would lose an additional 3 points for each liberal vote. They may have a valid reason to miss. However, I suggest it is fair to ask them why they weren’t casting votes to represent their constituents on these important issues, they owe their constituents a reasonable answer.
27. Mark Allen 63 66 Poteau area
28. Cory Brooks 63 63 Purcell to Duncan
29. Brian Bingman 59 61 Sapulpa
30. Dan Newberry 52 66 Tulsa
31. Ralph Shortey 49 68 South Central OKC
32. Patrick Anderson 49 60 Enid area
33. Brian Crain 49 50 Tulsa
34. James Halligan 49 52 Stillwater
35. Mike Mazzei 48 68 Tulsa
36. Harry Coates 42 45 Northern Seminole and Lincoln counties
OCPAC members selected Senator Anthony Sykes as lawmaker of the year and Senators Nathan Dahm and Cliff Aldridge tied for runner-up lawmaker of the year. Senate freshman of the year went to Senator Nathan Dahm. Senators Kyle Loveless and Rob Standridge tied for runner-up freshman of the year. The RINO award for 2013 went to Senator James Halligan (RINO-Stillwater) and the RINO runner-up goes to Senator Dan Newberry (RINO-Lite of Tulsa).
The following list ranks the 12 Democrat Senators.
1. Tom Ivester 66 45 Elk City area & East
Senator Ivester automatically wins the DINO (Democrat In Name Only) award. Here is an idea, I would trade Senator Ivester for Harry Coates any day of the year! Based on their lifetime scores, one is intellectually honest in his political registration, the other isn’t.
2. John Sparks 50 29 Norman & Southeast Cleveland county
3. Earl Garrison 43 35 Muskogee area
4. Sean Burrage 43 34 Claremore
5. Charles Wyrick 36 26 Fairland
6. Randy Bass 33 30 Lawton
7. Susan Paddack 30 37 Ada and southern Seminole county
8. Roger Ballenger 30 21 Okmulgee
9. Jerry Ellis 29 34 Valliant & southeast Ok
10. Jabar Shumate 23 27 North Tulsa
11. Al McAffrey 23 13 Downtown OKC
12. Connie Johnson 20 12 Northeast OKC
Next week I will show the rankings for the House and also score the Governor according to this year’s Index.
++ CHALLENGING INCUMBENTS & OPEN SEATS FOR 2014
Only occasionally does OCPAC recruit a candidate to run for office and then they still have to compete for our support in a Republican primary race. However, we want to advertise the races in which we would consider supporting a candidate in the primary or general election races of 2014. When challenging an incumbent Republican a candidate must prove to us that they are more conservative than the incumbent and that they are a viable candidate, meaning an ability to raise a reasonable amount of funds on their own and a willingness to work hard and smart.
Following are the OPEN seats due to term limits:
DISTRICT 42, currently held by Senator Cliff Aldridge. The area includes Midwest City, Del City, Choctaw and parts of S.E. OKC. I am not aware of any Republican candidates running at this time.
DISTRICT 40, currently held by Senator Cliff Branan. The area includes The Village, Warr Acres, parts of north central OKC and Nichols Hills. There are at least 3 candidates running for this seat at this time.
DISTRICT 28, currently held by Senator Harry Coates. The area includes Chandler, Stroud Wellston, Sparks, Meeker, Prague, Seminole and Tecumseh. I believe there is at least one candidate so far with a state rep also looking at the race.
The following are Republican incumbents who scored a 63 or below. OCPAC will consider any and all Republican candidates that decide to challenge any of these candidates. However, again, any challenger will have to prove to us that they are more conservative than the incumbent and have some degree of viability. Please realize, challenging and winning any of these following races will be difficult.
DISTRICT 4, currently held by Senator Mark Allen. The area includes Poteau, Carlisle, Sallisaw, Moffett, Brent, Fort Coffee, Rock Island, Shady Point and Wister.
DISTRICT 12, currently held by Senator Brian Bingman. The area includes Sapulpa, Manford, Kellyville, Shamrock, Mounds, Bristow, and Slick.
DISTRICT 44, currently held by Senator Ralph Shortey. The district includes south central and southwest OKC.
As a reader of these e-mails you may decide to step up and run for one of these seats or perhaps you know of a conservative person who lives in one of these districts and as such you will encourage them to run. Oklahoma will not become a more conservative state without a more conservative senate. If you have not joined OCPAC as yet for 2013, please consider doing so at this time. Our dues paid by our members are how we raise the funds to contribute to those outstanding candidates running for the state legislature. Instructions on how to join follow my sign off.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com