The Week Ahead: Will Shannon, Bridenstine Make The Jump?
More political moves expected within Okla. GOP
By SEAN MURPHY, Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The dust still hasn’t settled on Oklahoma’s 2014 political landscape after U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn triggered a landslide within the state Republican Party with his announcement that he planned to forego his final two years in office.
All eyes are focused on whether Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon and first-term U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, both rising GOP stars with growing national profiles, decide to enter the race for Coburn’s soon-to-be vacant seat. Neither Shannon nor Bridenstine returned telephone messages on Friday, but both have said they are seriously considering the race.
U.S. Rep. James Lankford, a two-term Republican congressman from Edmond, already has announced his candidacy, throwing open his 5th District U.S. House seat and setting off another scramble by GOP hopefuls looking to replace him. Lankford has risen quickly among the GOP leadership in the House and is currently the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, the fifth-ranking House post.
Lankford’s ties to House leadership and his vote in support of compromises reached with Senate Democrats have drawn criticism from fiscally conservative political action groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund and Club for Growth. That type of criticism could provide an opening for Shannon or Bridenstine to try and position themselves to the right of Lankford.