Tom Cole's company (CHS) has had some very high profile clients over the years. Current and former clients are Frank and Kathy Keating, Don Nickles, Wes Watkins, Frank Lucas, Steve Largent, Tom Coburn, J.C. Watts, Mary Fallin, Denise Bode, Kirk Humphries and Jeff Cloud. CHS has spread its tentacles into the party headquarters and it benefits financially from its affiliation with the Oklahoma Republican Party.

Kathy Keating was a CHS client in her failed bid to win the 1st Congressional nomination in Tulsa. Likewise, Steve Largent also used CHS in his failed gubernatorial race. That's two upsets for CHS in less than a year. Both losses received national attention as big upsets.

State Party Chairman Chad Alexander, stated that all polling services are performed by CHS. When asked if the polling was put through some sort of bidding process, Alexander said, "No, CHS is who I've worked with over four campaigns. Others may say they can do polling but CHS is the best." Really?

On November 1, just a few days before the election, the Oklahoma Republican Party released "The Sooner Survey" to their email subscribers. The Sooner Survey is a publication of CHS. The publication header stated, "Largent Maintains Lead." The opening paragraph of the survey stated, "The survey reveals that Largent has a ten-point lead over Brad Henry heading into the final days of the campaign (40% Largent vs. 30% Henry)."

The CHS poll made the following bold prediction, "Mathematically, if undecided voters either do not participate or if they break in the same manner as the rest of the electorate, Largent would enjoy a 12-point victory (49% Largent vs. 37% Henry vs. 15% Richardson) if the election were held today. While Largent must be considered a heavy favorite, the last weekend could change this margin. However, as long as Largent's voters remain motivated, Largent should win the Governor's mansion." Clearly this poll was not correct. The decision made by the Oklahoma Republican Party to use CHS exclusively for polling needs to be revisited.

According to anonymous sources, the Oklahoma Republican Party raised nearly $300,000 for polling and GOTV (Get Out The Vote) phone programs. The majority of the money was from the Inhofe and Largent campaigns with the rest of the money coming from U.S. House Representative incumbents. CHS was given the polling project without a bidding process. Rumors are that an independent pollster could have done the polling project for less than half the amount paid to CHS. Based on the polling results, the Oklahoma Republican Party screwed itself. There are several competent pollsters in Oklahoma that deserve a chance at the business. But a process of internal favoritism towards CHS locks out these companies. It's simple cronyism.

On November 15th, Alexander forcefully disagreed with the anonymous source that all of that money went to CHS though he confirmed that CHS did receive a significant amount of money from Republican State Party headquarters. Alexander stated that, indeed $300,000 was spent on GOTV activities and $30,000 on polling. But that only 20% ($60,000) of the $300,000 was handled directly by CHS. The $60,000 given to CHS was done so without a bidding process making a total of $90,000 given to CHS for their services.

What makes this so bad is that CHS uses its power to defeat good conservative Republican candidates. One needs only to look at what happened to John Sullivan in Tulsa. www.modernpatriot.net/1stpublished/Page_67x.html The Oklahoma Republican Party shouldn't be associated so closely with a company that plays the kind of politics shown in the recent past. It's time for a divorce. (Now there's an Oklahoma value!)

Oklahoma Republicans need to start asking questions about the amount of control CHS exercises over the party. In my opinion, Oklahoma Republicans must insist that CHS and the Oklahoma Republican Party file for divorce.

Let's just hope there's not a custody battle.
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Anointing Republican Candidates A Failing Strategy

Mary Fallin was considering a run for Governor. Brenda Reneau-Wynn decided to run for Lt. Governor. Tim Pope decided to run for Labor Commissioner. Tim Green declared his candidacy for Attorney General. Influential power brokers inside the Republican Party had other ideas.

Fallin (a CHS client) backed away from the governors race citing "family concerns." Was it really "family concerns" or was she told that Steve Largent (a CHS client) wanted to run and needed to step aside? And if she was told to step aside, does anyone believe she would come out and tell everyone about it? The "family concerns" reason never flew with me. Being Lt. Governor is just as demanding as the Governor's job. Which is to say that neither would end up on anyone's top ten list of most stressful jobs in America.

But I'm not buying the notion that it was too much work for Fallin. She works hard, travels the state regularly and is an active partisan. "Family concerns" exist in her present position. Many have speculated that Fallin would have won election as Governor as the Republican nominee. But we'll never know. Largent was anointed and Republican's lost.

Brenda Reneau-Wynn (not a CHS client) determined to stay the course and run for Lt. Governor. But eventually backed away saying, "It's hard to run against a Tom Cole candidate." This statement is shocking given that, in her last campaign for Labor Commissioner, Reneau-Wynn received more votes than any other Republican office holder in state history. Tom Cole's firm (Cole Hargrave Snodgrass & Associates) was credited for flexing it's influential muscles and drying up Reneau-Wynn's donor pool. Reneau-Wynn was left with the option of running for Labor Commissioner or leaving political office. Some in the Republican Party would have preferred she go away.

State Representative Tim Pope (not a CHS client) decided to run for Labor Commissioner. He ran a tough "no holds barred" primary campaign against Reneau-Wynn. Pope exposed many problems with Reneau-Wynn's performance as Labor Commissioner and she was forced to respond to the issues raised by Pope.

Former Daily Oklahoman editorial writer Patrick McGuigan used the power of the newspaper to give Reneau-Wynn political cover. A letter McGuigan sent to Republican State Legislators denouncing Pope led to his resignation and left Reneau-Wynn without media cover. McGuigan's passing forced her to respond to the charges personally. Not through surrogates. Personally, I wasn't satisfied with her explanations but Republican primary voters decided that Reneau-Wynn should be the nominee. Regardless your opinion of Reneau-Wynn, she benefited from a hard fought primary. She was definitely not the "anointed" candidate for Labor Commissioner and Republicans won in November.

When Tim Green (Not a CHS client) declared his candidacy for Attorney General, many were hopeful that Republicans could unseat Democrat incumbent Drew Edmondson. Green's legal experience and conservative ideology clearly contrasted Edmondson's record as Attorney General.

But Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode (a CHS client) decided to run against Green for the Republican Attorney General nomination. Soon the campaign became personally damaging for Green as he lost a significant part his oil and gas legal practice for staying in the race against Bode. The pressure was very real given that Bode was (and still is) one of three regulators whose job it is to regulate the oil and gas industry. Meanwhile, Bode improperly solicited the companies she regulates on the Corporation Commission. (Ethics complaint still pending.)

When this strategy failed, Bode brought forward surrogates in the form of four former State Party Chairmen (Tom Cole of CHS, Steve Edwards, Quineta Wiley and Clinton Key) who attacked Green, comparing him to Bill Clinton. Green's offense was that he had the audacity to point out that Bode didn't have any actual courtroom experience and had a very weak record as an ideological conservative. Anyone doubting her ideological softness needs only to know the name Dan Boren.

Dan Boren, a Democrat and son of Former U.S. Senator David Boren has quite a resume. In 1989 he served as a page to U.S. Senator Robert Byrd. In the summer of 1997, he served as a legislative intern to Republican Wes Watkins (a CHS client) and served as an intern at the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA). He served as Executive Assistant to Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode (a CHS client) from August 1997 to February 1998. He was the Campaign Manager for Denise Bode from February 1998 to November 1998.

On Tuesday, November 5, 2002, Democrat Dan Boren defeated Republican incumbent Mike Ervin in the race for State House District 28.

Green continued to pound away at the differences between Bode and himself. Then comes a letter from another Bode surrogate. Tom Coburn (a CHS client) defended Bode as a true conservative. But once again, Bode doesn't answer the questions directly herself. She engages a pattern of using surrogates to answer all charges.

Finally in the last days of the primary campaign, Bode brings in her husband to defend her and goes into hiding having never directly answered the questions about her record. But Republican voters bought the "Oklahoma values" television ads and sent her to the November ballot as the Republican nominee. Early on, Bode was dubbed the "anointed" candidate.

On Election Day, Bode was annihilated by Democrat Drew Edmondson. Republicans lose again.

Oklahoma Republicans must insist on real primaries. Primaries where candidates hide behind surrogates or are anointed by the party elite must be challenged by the activists within the party. But as long as these powerful political forces exercise control, I don't look for much to change.

Oklahoma Republicans may have to suffer more defeats before a coalition of grass roots conservatives step forward to put the pieces back together.
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MPC Readers Comments

As far as J.M. says on the abortion issue I would ask - What the Hell has
any of these Tony Lauinger clones done to prevent abortion? I am sick to
death (pardon the pun) of being told I have to vote for some nobody
because they are Pro-Life. Is Denise Bode Pro-Life? Not really, it just
gets her votes and that's all that matters. They USE US and I won't be
used any longer.

T.K.