OkieBrent's Soapbox

Oklahoma State Senator Andrew Rice (D-OKC, and LEADER of the State Senate Democrats) endorsed the Green Party candidate over a long-time Democrat candidate in the Oklahoma City Ward 2 election. Andrew’s sole reason – he says – was because of a group called OKC Momentum. He called them a bunch of right-wing, Sally Kern supporters. In reality, OKC Momentum opposed three right-wing, Tea Party candidates in the council races in Wards 5, 6 and 8. And they are opposing the Green Party candidate in Ward 2.

Just like OKC Momentum is supporting Democrat Charlie Swinton in the Ward 2 race, they also supported Meg Salyer in Ward 6.

Guess who Andrew Rice supported in Ward 6.

Andrew Rice is a hypocrite – period.

I’ve not written about all the municipal elections happening right now in Oklahoma.  And I have lots of friends running – in Oklahoma City, in Piedmont, in Duncan, in Elk City and in my own community of Minco.  There are some really hot races happening, especially in OKC and Minco.

This posting is about the race for Ward 2 in Oklahoma City.

Most municipal elections in Oklahoma are non-partisan races.  But when there is a good Democrat running – Democrats should support them, especially leaders and staff of the Oklahoma Democratic Party.  But that is not the case in the runoff in OKC Ward 2.

The race is between Charlie Swinton (a good, long-time Democrat) and Ed Shadid (an independent).  There were originally six candidates in the race for the election on March 1^st.  Swinton received 1,803 votes (42.78%) and Shadid received 1,461 votes (34.66%) with the other four candidates taking the remaining 22.56% of the vote.  Since no candidate received 50%, the top two now face off on April 5^th.

Shadid’s campaign manager also happens to be the “field director and community organizer” for the Oklahoma Democratic Party.  The Central Committee of the State Democratic Party should end his employment at the state party immediately. [UPDATE:  The Chairman of the ODP called and left me a message to tell me that their field director quit in January and they have now removed his name from their website]

And today, via Twitter and Facebook, Senator Andrew Rice, the leader of the Democratic Caucus in the State Senate, endorsed Shadid.  Did he do it because he doesn’t like Swinton or because Shadid is such a great guy?  No, he did not.  His sole reason, as he suggested, was because of an outside group attacking Shadid.  Senator Rice’s tweets said the funders of this outside group were a bunch of rightwingers who have supported people like Sally Kern.

First off, according to NewsOK.com and the Oklahoma Gazette, the funders of this outside group are unknown because of the status of the group and the way the money was raised.  The Oklahoma Ethics rules that apply to candidates do not apply to 527s or 501(c)(3)s.  And because of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission, these types of groups can raise and spend as much money as possible to play in politics.

But if the funders of this outside group are some of those who I think they may be (because of their past support of the MAPS campaigns in Oklahoma City) then they also donate a hell of a lot of money to Oklahoma Democrats.  I looked at just six of those individuals and groups and pulled how much money they had donated to Oklahoma Democrats since 2004.  The total I came up with is $373,650 to Democratic candidates or the Democratic PACs for the State Senate and State House ($12,200 of that amount went to Andrew Rice’s two campaigns for State Senate).

What even makes less sense about Andrew Rice’s reason for his endorsement (because of this big, bad, outside group) is the FACT that this exact same group campaigned against THREE TEA PARTY candidates in Wards 5, 6 and 8 in the March 1 election.

I strongly encourage all good Democrats to join me, Sheriff John Whetsel, District Attorney David Prater, Representative Al McAffrey, and former Commissioner Jim Roth in supporting Charlie Swinton for Ward 2 in Oklahoma City.

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This is the independent group mentioned above.  Click on image to go to their website.

 

This week is National Sunshine Week.  I am a huge fan of the Open Records and Open Meetings Acts.  As citizens of the United States, of the State of Oklahoma, of our local counties and our local municipalities, we have a right to know what our governments are doing and how they are spending tax dollars and operating business.

This past Saturday FOI Oklahoma issued their Awards for 2010.  Click on the link to see all the award winners, but two I wish to name here are Rep. Jason Murphey (R-Guthrie) who received the Sunshine Award for his sponsorship and support of bills to increase transparency in government; and, Rep. Randy Terrill (R-Moore) who received the Black Hole Award for working to keep government workers’ birth dates private.

There have been real problems here in my own little town with our current Mayor not releasing public documents.  FOI Oklahoma offers candidates the opportunity to sign an Open Government Pledge.  This week the Minco Millennium newspaper encouraged all candidates running for Mayor and City Council to sign the pledge and she will publish before the April 5th Election who did and/or did not sign the pledge.

I encourage you to learn more about Sunshine Week and Freedom of Information Oklahoma.

Oklahoma voters are a funny bunch of people.  Consider the following.

 

Oklahoma is the only state in the nation where the Obama-Biden ticket did not carry a single county.  We were the reddest of the red states in 2008.  These same voters who overwhelmingly supported the McCain-Palin ticket also returned Republican Jim Inhofe to the United States Senate, and all five Congressional incumbents – four Republicans and one Democrat.

 

The first major piece of legislation passed by the new Congress and signed by President Obama was the stimulus package – the Recovery Act.  All our Republicans in DC voted against it, only Democratic Congressman Dan Boren voted for it.  Ironically, Oklahoma ranks third in the nation in the percentage of stimulus funds on projects put out to bid, under contract or have already begun.

 

 

$87,000 of those stimulus dollars are coming to my local community – Minco, Oklahoma – in the form of a grant from the USDA Rural Development’s Rural Business Enterprise Program.  This grant money, which does not have to be paid back to the “big, bad, scary Federal Government,” is supposed to help finance new businesses and help create jobs in our little city of about 1,700 people.

 

The money has been awarded to the Minco Community Foundation, Inc. which in turn is supposed to loan the money out to help grow our economy, and then as the money is repaid to the Foundation, it shall be used again and again to help other businesses create jobs.  Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.  Thanks President Obama and Congressman Boren.  I say shame on Senators Inhofe and Tom Coburn, and Representatives John Sullivan, Frank Lucas, Tom Cole and Mary Fallin for voting against this.

 

I had never heard of the Minco Community Foundation, Inc. until Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the Foundation as one of the 145 recipients selected to receive these grants.  So I looked them up.

 

 

As an incorporated Not-For-Profit, the Foundation must be registered with the Oklahoma Secretary of State.    The original date of filing with the Secretary of State is dated October 6, 2006.  An amended Certificate of Incorporation was filed September 20, 2007.  The records state as the Entity Address: [ADDRESS NOT PROVIDED].  The registered agent is Lu A. Kindblade of Ponca City.  The three “Principals” listed as “Incorporators” are Lu Kindblade, John Hacker of Minco, and Deana Walje of Minco.  According to the Oklahoma Election Board, all three are registered Republicans.

 

Searching three separate websites that keep information about non-profit foundations, I found that Minco Community Foundation, Inc is listed at 3406 SW Clayton Road in Minco, which also is listed as Deana Walje’s home address with the Election Board, the Grady County Treasurer’s office and the Secretary of State.  Public records show that the gross receipts for Minco Community Foundation, Inc. prior to the $87,000 grant announced by the Obama Administration, was a grand total of $0.

 

 

The Chickasha Express-Star wrote on August 6, 2009, “Deana Walje likes the success rate for the Minco Community Foundation.  You can’t beat one-for-one on an $87,000 grant.”

 

Deana Walje also happens to be the Secretary of the Minco Chamber of Commerce and owner of Blossom Time Shops, which according to MANTA – a website that keeps information on small businesses, also does business as, The Minco Community Foundation.

 

 

In the August 6^th article, the Express-Star quoted Walje, “This is our first grant, the first thing we put in for.  This is to help our town, to help business people in town and to help our community grow.”

 

The newspaper also quotes Walje’s brother, Minco Mayor Keith McMullen who serves as the Foundation’s vice president (also a registered Republican).  He told the newspaper, “Those seeking loans will go through an application process like a bank and the board will approve the loans.”

 

It will be interesting to see who the Minco Community Foundation, Inc. selects as its first recipients of loans to start new businesses in Minco.  I’ll be sure and keep you updated.

 

Come to think of it, Oklahoma voters really aren’t all that funny, they’re hypocrites.  They whine and moan about our big Federal Government and all those “socialist” Democrats in charge, they vote for politicians who oppose programs that help our communities, yet they jump at the chance to take advantage of programs sponsored by those same Democrats and gladly accept the resources they provide.