Taylor Ads Given Truth Test
Claims made in Taylor’s campaign ad mostly true
BY ZACK STOYCOFF World Staff Writer
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Editor’s note: The Tulsa World is examining the accuracy of television ads for each of the mayoral candidates.
A new television campaign ad’s bold list of claims about former Mayor Kathy Taylor’s accomplishments in office largely passes the muster of a Tulsa World fact check – with one or two exceptions.
In the ad, which began airing last week, Taylor rattles through the obvious highlights of her 2006-2009 administration – ONEOK Field and the Fix Our Streets initiative – while throwing in the more obscure claims that she “rescued” downtown’s BOK Center and “put more police on the streets than ever before or since.”
This, she says, she accomplished while planting the seeds for the city’s current success and refusing to allow Tulsa to slow down during the recession.
Although the latter, more subjective claims have varying degrees of truth, the list of specific accomplishments – obscure or otherwise – is mostly hard to dispute. The police claim may be the lone exception in that category.