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M odern P atriot C hronicles
An Eleventh Commandment Free Zone
Vol. 1, Issue 10
September 20, 2002
By Craig Dawkins

McGuigan Says "Laura Boyd Is Earnest and Authentic"
The Richardson Plan
What's Up With John Erling?
Primary Post-Mortems
Endorsements Mean Everything and Nothing
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SURVEYS! SURVEYS! SURVEYS!

How will Orza's run-off loss to Brad Henry effect Steve Largent's race for governor?

Go to www.ModernPatriot.net and VOTE!
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McGuigan Says "Laura Boyd Is Earnest and Authentic"

In a recent Tulsa Today (www.TulsaToday.com) editorial, Patrick McGuigan wrote an editorial titled, "Laura Boyd: Earnest & Authentic." In the article, McGuigan lauded Boyd as a "moderate who modestly redefined "Oklahoma Democrat" views in a "point/counterpoint" opposite Mary Fallin in The Oklahoman last month, or the liberal that the lieutenant governor's allies portray -- Laura Boyd is earnest and authentic."

This analysis is somewhat puzzling coming from a person who considers himself to be the spokesman for the conservative movement in Oklahoma. Why is McGuigan heaping praise upon Boyd? She is pro-abortion, pro-homosexual special rights, pro-reparations, anti-business, pro-union, pro-big government, and a tax and spend progressive, socialist, radical leftist or whatever the latest undercover word for 'Liberal' you prefer. Yes Boyd is everything a left-wing radical ever wanted.

It is truly ironic that just a few weeks ago, McGuigan praised Tony Lauinger of Oklahoman's For Life, Inc. for being "Oklahoma's longest-serving and most respected pro-life leader." In Tony Lauinger's controversial 'interpretive' survey, Laura Boyd is listed as "Pro-Abortion voting record in State Legislature. Pro-Abortion leader in House of Representatives." Why then all this support from McGuigan?

Many recall that Governor Frank Keating was expected to accept an appointment in the Bush Administration shortly after the November 2000 election. Mary Fallin was expected to replace Keating through a constitutional promotion and then she would run for Governor. Early in 2001, Fallin announced her intentions to run for Governor. When Fallin announced her intent to run for Governor, Labor Commissioner Brenda Reneau-Wynn (McGuigan's favorite) announced that she would run for Lt. Governor. State Representative Tim Pope announced that he would run for Labor Commissioner. But wait! SCCREAAACCHH!!!

Steve Largent decided to run for Governor and Mary Fallin backed away saying that she had some family matters that needed to be tended to first. Reneau-Wynn stayed the course and insisted that she was running for Lt. Governor regardless of Fallin's intentions. But by August of 2001, Reneau-Wynn cited the difficulty in running against a "Tom Cole candidate." She backed out of the Lt. Governor's race and decided to run for Labor Commissioner once again. It is rumored that McGuigan was incensed! Word was that McGuigan was angry with Tom Cole and Mary Fallin. Suddenly, Laura Boyd was getting space on the Oklahoman Editorial page and Fallin was locked out. Of course, we all know what led to McGuigan's passing at the DailyOK.

Now McGuigan appears to be, once again, supporting Boyd for Lt. Governor. An activist friend of mine recently lamented the passing of McGuigan from the "DailyOK." He said that it was a shame that "we didn't have his conservative voice on the editorial page anymore." I just chuckled and thought to myself how thankful I was to finally have honest opinion rather than propaganda on the editorial page. People are entitled to contrary opinions. But people need to look long and hard at whatever McGuigan puts out before accepting it at face value. His agenda seems to transcend ideology.
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Are you Liberal or Conservative? Find out at www.Politopia.com .
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The Richardson Plan

Recently I picked up a copy of "The Richardson Plan." (Gary Richardson Independent for Governor.) As I perused some of the ideas in his plan, it occurred to me that his plan did indeed have some real reform ideas that should be adopted by Republicans.

His plan to eliminate personal and corporate income tax, sales tax on groceries, capital gains tax, the corporate franchise tax and the estate tax are great ideas. Another great idea is his plan for shrinking Oklahoma's government bureaucracy. His idea on making the toll roads free needs some work but is a great idea and should be adopted in some fashion.

State government increased in size during Governor Keating's terms in office. Republicans need to be honest and point to Democrats as the cause. But we also need to 'fess up' that the Governor can and should do more to curb state government growth. State government grew faster than state income during both of Keating's terms in office. The next Governor must do a better job of cutting state government.

Regardless of what one might think of Richardson's chances to win, one would be foolish to ignore the ideas that resonate with conservatives. Else Richardson could play spoiler on Election Day.
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What's Up With John Erling?

Tulsa's KRMG morning talk show host John Erling, seems to be playing political favorites on his radio program. Several callers, allowed to speak on the air during his show, expressed their concern that Erling has had a "love fest" with David Walters while berating Senator Jim Inhofe each time he is on Erling's program. After listening to the exchanges between Erling and Inhofe, it is clear that Erling takes a definite adversarial tone with Inhofe each time he interviews him.

Erling had a very congenial interview with Attorney General Drew Edmondson and then the next day took a VERY ADVERSARIAL tone with Republican Attorney General candidate Denise Bode. During the interview, Erling seemed to be answering for the Attorney General. At one time sounding like a spokesman for the Oklahoma A.G.'s office. He argued that the Boy Scouts case was a 10 th Amendment not a 1 st Amendment issue. Bode was obviously taken back during the interview. Later during his show, Erling poked fun at Bode saying that she was yelling at him while he played the clip over and over.

A little balance might be nice. Or else Erling should simply come out and say he's for the Democratic Party candidates so his audience has a clear picture of what he is trying to do each time Inhofe and Bode appear to interview. One would hope that listeners would let Erling know what they think about his slight of hand.
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Primary Post-Mortems

Here are my thoughts on a few primary races.

Party Chairman Chad Alexander did a much better job of handling the primaries than his Democratic Party equal. Chad was fair to all the candidates, allowing campaign strategies to be played out in the vote rather than injecting any personal opinions in races.

The Democratic Gubernatorial run-off race between Vince Orza and Brad Henry was interesting. Orza won both Oklahoma and Tulsa Counties and still lost the race. That's amazing. I'm quite thankful to Democrats who refused to elect their strongest candidate. Orza's loss will make it easier for Largent this fall.

The Republican Corporation Commission run-off between Jeff Cloud and Dana Murphy rallied both sides in a heated and mean-spirited campaign. Last minute phone calls to likely primary GOP voters were effective in damaging Dana Murphy's hopes of winning. The Cloud/Snyder vs. Murphy approach was also effective in making sure that Murphy wouldn't win in a run-off. Joint news conferences where both of Murphy's opponents complained that she was doing something unethical in her fund raising was smelly but appears to have been effective.

Money matters. Denise Bode outspent Tim Green almost 4 to 1. Bode outpolled Green by only 37,333 votes in a primary where 201,157 votes were cast.

Labor Commissioner trouble. The last time Brenda Reneau-Wynn ran for office, she received more votes than any other Republican state-wide candidate in history. What has happened to cause 70,511 voters in a race where over 197,000 votes were cast to vote for her opponent? The issue that stung most was allegations that Reneau-Wynn wasn't showing up for work. If she is to win this fall, she must answer the questions about this issue better than she did in the primary. Democrat crossovers might not be as forgiving as Republican voters.

The U.S. 4 th district race between Tom Cole and Marc Nuttle was thought to be a "clash of the titans" race before the primary results rolled in. But the results showed Tom Cole to be the easy winner of the contest where votes cast for 5 Republicans, including Nuttle, were unable to beat Cole in a straight up primary. Bottom line? Where many in the party pointed to this race as how Republicans should run against Republicans, Nuttle didn't differentiate himself from Cole. Saying "I'm the movement guy" didn't move voters to vote for him. And of course, Cole was greatly helped by J.C. Watts endorsement.
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Endorsements Mean Everything and Nothing

The effectiveness of endorsements is always debated. But here's my evaluation of the endorsements given in the Republican primaries and Democrat Brad Henry.

Endorsements for Steve Largent. Didn't matter. He had the office locked up the day he decided to run.
Endorsements for Mary Fallin. Didn't matter. She had it locked up from the beginning.

Endorsements for Denise Bode. Didn't matter but almost did. She won by saturating the airwaves before the election. But rumors that David Boren (former U.S. Senator and Democratic Party leader) was making phone calls to newspapers for endorsements on her behalf almost did.
Endorsements for Jeff Cloud. Mattered. JC Watts endorsement of Cloud made the difference.
Endorsements for Dana Murphy. Mattered. While I like Bob Anthony and feel he has done a great job, many of the people he regulates hate him with a passion. His involvement in the race may have caused his antagonists to rally in support of Cloud.
Endorsements for Tom Cole. Mattered big time. If JC Watts had endorsed Nuttle, does anyone doubt that Nuttle would have won?
Endorsements for Democrat Brad Henry. Mattered. Former OU/Dallas Cowboys Coach Barry Switzer and his endorsement of Henry made a difference.

JC Watts swings a mighty big stick in Republican politics. It appears that all paths to success in politics leads through Norman, Ok.