By ALEX ISENSTADT, Politico.com

Newly-minted Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel has tapped Matt Pinnell to oversee her transition team at the committee.

Pinnell, a former Oklahoma GOP chair, served as the RNC’s state parties director during the 2016 campaign. He had initially been seen as a contender for the RNC chairmanship, a post that McDaniel, the niece of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, ultimately won.

McDaniel, who is replacing White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and formally assumed the chairmanship this week, announced the decision in an email to RNC members.

“As a gifted young leader with outstanding relationships among the members of the Committee, Matt is the ideal choice to ensure continuity in the RNC’s day-to-day operations while making the adjustments that accompany a change in leadership in any organization,” she wrote.

Read the full article on Politico.com

Video: OKCFox.com

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — It was the night of Donald J. Trump’s first win.

He was on stage in New Hampshire accepting victory over his fellow Republicans in the nation’s first primary. During his speech, he took a moment to thank his staff. “Get over here,” Mr. Trump said to a man standing off camera, “Get over here.”

Emerging through the crowd was someone a national audience had never seen, but it was the man Mr. Trump wanted them to know, “Come here,” Trump said as Stuart Jolly emerged from the people behind the podium. “This is the man,” Trump said of Jolly.

“He brought me up to the microphone,” Jolly recalls, “That was quite a night, quite a night.”

Jolly, is fairly well known to people in Oklahoma’s political circles. To the national political punditry, he was virtually unknown. That’s the way he liked it. Getting on stage was not something he had planned on as the votes came in that night in New Hampshire.

“He [Mr. Trump] came by and said ‘You’re going on stage.’ And I said Mr. Trump I don’t want to go on stage he walked away and then came back and said ‘You’re going on stage,’ Jolly told FOX 25 about the night before the New Hampshire victory speech. “I said seriously Mr. trump it’s your night you get up there and then he taps me on the chest and he said ‘You’re going on stage; I wouldn’t be here without you.’”

Jolly had been hired into the Trump campaign, initially, in a much smaller role. His experience running Oklahoma campaigns was a good fit for where Trump needed help.

The southeastern states that made up “Super Tuesday” voting.

Soon, it was clear that for Trump to survive through “Super Tuesday,” he needed more early wins. Jolly’s unique brand of Oklahoma campaigning was moved to New Hampshire.

“I think what I brought to New Hampshire was focus,” Jolly said, “I focused them, I focused on the grass roots.”

Soon after the New Hampshire win Trump promoted Jolly to be his national field director.

“Mr. Trump told me, I asked him what he wanted me to do and he said win, just win. I want you to win, I hire professionals so I don’t have to tell you what to do.”

Jolly hired staff to run each state. While it was a bigger job than he had ever done before, he treated it like he had previous successes. A strategy that confused those used to a much different presidential campaign strategy.

“I think Politico criticized me or Washington Post criticized me at some point for not having national experience,” Jolly said, “It wasn’t national at all. It was a state by state by state. How I ran New Hampshire, I didn’t run Texas; How I ran Oklahoma I didn’t run Missouri.”

Jolly would leave the campaign with much of what he calls “Trump One,” the original staff members that got the campaign through the primaries. By the time he left the campaign had secured 22 primary wins. Jolly went from the campaign to a pro-Trump Super PAC where he continued doing what he had been doing; working to win.

“We focused on the grass roots and not talking about what we were doing,” Jolly said, “We did not want to incentive the other side to work harder.”

There were times during the campaign Jolly and others were discouraged. He says the discouragement came when he would watch outsiders describe what was happening with the campaign. They painted a different picture than the one he knew as an insider.

On election night, he watched from the nation’s capital. First Ohio came in for Trump, then Florida. State by state, Jolly saw his work paying off.

“I wouldn’t say stunned, but we ran through the streets of Washington D.C.; there were about 20 or 30 of us who ran through the streets screaming it was awesome.”

So how did Trump win?

It is a question that is still being debated. However Jolly believes the answer is simple. They did not target the likely voters. They went to people who had given up on voting.
“We targeted those who had not been in the process for a while who had simply been left behind.”

Jolly said 2017 will begin with major changes as the new president takes over and begins fulfilling campaign promises.

“In six months you’ll never know President Obama had been president for eight years,” Jolly predicts due to the reliance on executive orders that a President Trump can quickly overturn.

Jolly is not planning to join the administration. He plans to continue splitting his time between Oklahoma and Washington helping, at first, ensure Trump’s picks for his administration get through the Senate.

Read the complete story on OKCFox.com

TRUMP MEETINGS (3)
T.W. Shannon of Oklahoma
Rep Cathy McMorris Rodgers of WA
John F. Kelly, Marine Corps general/formerly Southern Command.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 20, 2016

Senators take oath of office

In a ceremony held on Oklahoma’s 109th birthday, 24 new and returning members of the Oklahoma State Senate were sworn into office at the Capitol Wednesday.  Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb, President of the Senate, presided over the ceremony.  The oath was administered by the Honorable John Reif, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The 13 new members taking the oath of office were Micheal Bergstrom, R-Adair; Dewayne Pemberton, R-Muskogee; James Leewright, R-Bristow; Greg McCortney, R-Ada; Roland Pederson, R-Burlington; Tom Dugger, R-Stillwater; Joe Newhouse, R-Broken Arrow; Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle; Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville; Chris Kidd, R-Addington; Dave Rader, R-Tulsa; Adam Pugh, R-Edmond; and Paul Scott, R-Duncan.

Returning members sworn in Wednesday included Wayne Shaw, R-Grove; Larry Boggs, R-Wilburton; Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa; Rob Standridge, R-Norman; Ron Sharp, R-Shawnee; Bryce Marlatt, R-Woodward; Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow; Gary Stanislawski, R-Tulsa; Dan Newberry, R-Tulsa; Kyle Loveless, R-Oklahoma City; and Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City.  Sen. Joseph Silk, R-Broken Bow, will be sworn in on Monday.

Returning members were able to file legislation for the 2017 session beginning November 15, while new members can begin filing bills on November 23.  The deadline for requesting bills is December 9.  Those measures must be filed by January 19.

The full Senate will officially convene for an organizational day on Tuesday, January 3, 2017, and the First Session of the 56th Legislature reconvenes on Monday, February 6.

The Senate website has streaming video from all committee rooms and the chamber.  Legislation, the Senate Journal, biographical information on members, high resolution photos, committee and floor agendas, votes and press releases can also be accessed at www.oksenate.gov.

-END-

The Honorable John Reif, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, administers the oath of office to newly elected and reelected members of the Senate. 

A ballot measure that would have raised the state sales tax by a penny to pay for a $5,000 pay raise for teachers and other education improvements was soundly defeated Tuesday.

Yes votes on State Question 779 were trailing no votes 581,892 (40.58 percent) to 852,110 (59.42 percent) Tuesday night, with all but one of 1,956 precincts reporting.

University of Oklahoma President David Boren, a strong backer of the measure, conceded defeat Tuesday evening.

Boren said now that voters have rejected a sales tax increase as a funding mechanism for teacher raises, it is up to the Legislature to “come up with a plan and get the job done.”

Read the complete story on NewsOK.com

Campaign spending on state elections has totaled $19.5 million thus far in 2016, with about 30 cents of every dollar going to out-of-state firms, according to a Tulsa World analysis of expenditure data.

Companies in California and Iowa were among the top recipients of spending on campaigns this year.

Top recipients of campaign spending, 2016

1. Education Petition Campaign Inc., Oklahoma City, $1,474,030
2. PCI Consultants Inc., Calabasas, California, $1,089,412
3. Majority Designs, Oklahoma City, $1,062,224
4. Victory Enterprises, Davenport, Iowa, $1,040,106
5. Skyfire Media, Oklahoma City, $582,597
6. Sadler Strategic Media Inc., Studio City, California, $479,190
7. AH Strategies, Oklahoma City, $408,698
8. Non-itemized recipients, $404,752
9. Amplified Strategies, Seattle, Washington, $396,753
10. Precision Strategies, Washington D.C., $350,000

While yard signs and postage fees make up the costs of nearly every political campaign, the top two recipients of campaign spending went to companies associated with two state questions on the Tuesday ballot.

An Oklahoma City company, Education Petition Campaign Inc., garnered the most campaign funding this year, $1.47 million, from a backer of State Question 779.
A California company, PCI Consultants Inc., ranks No. 2 in total recipients.

Read the complete story on tulsaworld.com

In a desperate move, the Yes on 779 campaign, Our Children, Our Future (OCOF), unsuccessfully sought to stifle the truth about 779 by sending a cease and desist letter to Oklahoma television stations asking them to quit airing ads which explain that less than half of the money raised by 779 is protected for teacher pay.  When the stations did not pull the ad, OCOF doubled-down and falsely claimed the ads were pulled anyway, citing KXII, a station in the Ada/Ardmore/Sherman media market as having pulled the ads.

Proving this latest lie from the campaign is an email sent at 7:51 pm on November 7, from Todd Bates, General Sales Manager of KXII states the “schedule is currently running as booked.”

The lie that a television station had pulled the ad for being false is just the latest is a series of lies from OCOF.  OCOF continues to mislead voters by claiming ‘every penny will be audited’ when their own ballot language clearly exempts the more than 100 million dollars a year dedicated to higher education funding. It is clear OCOF is either intentionally misleading voters or unable to understand the constitutional amendment as written.

The OCOF continue to falsely claim 60% of the revenue generated by the sales tax will go to teacher pay when the language says it can go to teacher pay or “otherwise address teacher and staff shortages.”  There is absolutely nothing requiring that the “otherwise addressing” staff shortages would mean teacher pay. This could be used for any variety of administrative functions, such as recruiting trips, advertising, or salaries for principals and other non-superintendent administrators.

OCOF and the supporters are clearly afraid voters are seeing what 779 is:  another scam designed by political leaders along the lines of the lottery, casino gaming and HB 1017 – all programs promised to fix education.  Tax Bill 779 falls in line with these other efforts by using k-12 education as a Trojan Horse to accomplish a different end:  in this case, it is the close to $400 million a year that is not protected for teacher pay.

##

Authorized and Paid for by Oklahoma Deserves Better

If Mayor-elect G.T. Bynum was hoping to make a splash with the unveiling of his Mayor’s Office staff, he’s succeeded.

The group is diverse and young — the average age is just shy of 35 — and sure to bring a new look and energy level to the 15th floor of City Hall.

It better, because the oldest newcomer — who is actually not a newcomer at all — is former Mayor Kathy Taylor, a woman not exactly known for lollygagging through life.

Taylor, 61, will serve as Bynum’s chief of economic development. Bynum takes office Dec. 5.

“When you look at her background as a corporate executive of a Fortune 500 company, her time as (Oklahoma’s) secretary of commerce, her time as our mayor, her time leading a foundation, and its focus on entrepreneurial activity … I do not think there is anyone in the world more qualified to lead our economic development opportunities than her,” Bynum said.

Read the complete story on readfrontier.com

ELECTION DAY Final projection for presidential race in Oklahoma:
Trump 63.6%
Clinton 31.6
Johnson 4.8https://t.co/40kRzZxeeR

— SoonerPoll (@SoonerPoll) November 3, 2016

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Rep. Markwayne Mullin are hitting the campaign trail Friday and Saturday for Donald Trump.

The Trump campaign confirmed through a release that Fallin will be in Colorado, along with former presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson, on Friday. The two will travel to Nevada and Arizona on Saturday.

U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin is also hitting the stump for Trump. The congressman from Oklahoma’s 2nd district will be in New Mexico Friday.

The Oklahomans are among a list of well-known politicians and Trump family members hitting the pavement through the weekend for the Republican presidential nominee.

Read the complete story on kjrh.com

BECAUSE the Legislature failed to do its job this year and provide K-12 teachers with a pay raise, voters are left to decide whether to do that work for them by approving State Question 779 next week. Lawmakers should be ashamed of what their inaction has wrought.

SQ 779, a proposed 1-cent increase in the state sales tax, has only served to divide Oklahomans on an issue they otherwise agree upon — our public school teachers deserve better pay as part of broader education reform. The scope of the question, and the potential downside of a permanent increase in the tax, has city leaders, chambers of commerce, business officials and others urging a “no” vote — even though they all understand that improving and reforming Oklahoma education for our children is a must, and keeping good teachers in the classroom is central to those efforts.

Teacher pay has been a white-hot topic at the Capitol, underscored by large rallies urging lawmakers to do something. Backers of the petition drive for what became SQ 779 announced their intentions in October 2015, and Gov. Mary Fallin’s original budget proposal this year included a plan to fund $3,000 raises for teachers. Yet the Legislature adjourned in May having rejected all pay raise plans, including a proposed increase in the tobacco tax.

The latter may not have been ideal, but it wouldn’t have impacted every Oklahoman. SQ 779 would. This 1-cent increase would place the combined local-state sales tax rate above 11 percent in many cities and towns, which is why the Oklahoma Municipal League opposes it. In Oklahoma City, approval would push the combined local-state tax rate to 9.375 percent, no doubt affecting voters’ willingness to potentially extend the current MAPS sales tax for future projects, or to build a new Oklahoma County jail.

Read the complete story on NewsOK.com

While there is a clear need to increase teacher pay in Oklahoma, State Question 779’s imposition of an additional 1% sales tax is a horrible method of funding those raises for a multitude of reasons that should be considered before voting on this measure.

First, this is a repressive tax. If passed, Oklahoma’s average combined state-and-local sales tax rate will be the highest permanent rate in the U.S., at 9.8%.

The rate in over 200 cities in Oklahoma will be over 10%, including Glenpool at 10.9%, Sapulpa at 10.5%, Catoosa at 10.5%, Broken Arrow (the Wagoner County portion) at 10.3%, and Skiatook at 10.2%.

Additionally, the combined sales tax burden would jump to 9.9% in Owasso, Sand Springs and Bixby, and to 9.52% in Tulsa.

Second, this will be a regressive, anti-family tax. Increasing sales taxes by over $420 per household will hurt young families already struggling to raise children. Oklahoma is one of the few states that does not exempt groceries from sales tax. Having anti-family taxes is horrible public policy.

Third, this is a misguided tax. Approximately 60% of these funds would go to other things besides classroom teacher salary increases, including over $115 million to Higher Education bureaucrats with zero taxpayer accountability.

Fourth, this is an unnecessary tax. The increased tax levy will take in $615 million annually, 2.5 times the $245 million that is needed to give every teacher a $5,000 wage increase.

More acceptable sources exist to fund teacher raises, including eliminating tax credits for wind producers, which alone would raise about $200 million, most which is reaped by companies located outside Oklahoma.

SQ 779 does not address inefficient administration of our schools. Over the past 25 years, while the number of students in Oklahoma public schools has increased 14%, the number of administrative and non-teaching personnel has increased 34%.

Reducing this administrative, non-teaching staffing level to be proportionate with student increases would be enough to fund an across-the-board teacher pay raise of more than $5,000.

Fifth, this tax should not be enshrined in the Oklahoma Constitution. The purpose of our state Constitution should be to define the basic principles of state governance. Once taxes are in the Constitution, they are guaranteed to be difficult to ever correct or reverse.

The reasons for opposing SQ 779 transcend party and ideological lines. Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives – all who care for protecting the less fortunate, supporting families, and eliminating wasteful government spending and unnecessary tax increases should agree that SQ 779 is a horrible method for addressing teacher pay.

The choice is clear. A regressive, repressive tax burden that will harm cities, businesses, and, worst of all, families – who will bear the brunt of this burden – is not something we should be proud of in Oklahoma. SQ 779 must be rejected November 8.

Brent Watson is a certified public accountant from Broken Arrow.

RSLC Releases TV Ad Supporting “Yes” on 790

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) released a TV ad featuring Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb encouraging Oklahomans to vote “yes” on State Question 790. The multiple six-figure ad buy will run in multiple markets across Oklahoma through Election Day.

“I’m proud to call Oklahoma home – a state where we love our neighbors, respect our differences and work together to make our state the best it can be,” said Lt. Governor Lamb. “These fundamental values are precisely why I believe we most vote ‘yes’ on 790 and get rid of the Blaine Amendment once and for all. Our state should always be a place where religious freedom is encouraged, where prayer is welcome before the big game, where fundamental services are available at all hospitals, and where parents have a wider range of opportunities and choices when planning their children’s education. I am hopeful that this TV ad will continue giving voters the information that they need to move our state forward by voting ‘yes’ on State Question 790 this Election Day.”

“Freedom is the most basic right we have as Americans,” said RSLC President Matt Walter. “I encourage all Oklahomans to vote ‘yes’ on 790 to ensure that this right is respected in the Sooner State. Getting rid of the Blaine Amendment is vital to ensuring that people of faith can continue to provide critical public services – from healthcare to education – that will benefit the entire state. Our new ad sheds a light on what is truly at stake this November. Oklahomans should vote ‘yes’ on State Question 790.”

“Through my work with the national Republican Lieutenant Governors Association, a caucus within the RSLC, I have found that this organization shares our conservative Oklahoma values,” Lamb added. “I am glad that I have been able to enlist their support for this critical issue that is about more than the freedom to acknowledge and display our religious heritage, but is really about protecting the ways our state works together to improve the lives of Oklahomans.”

View the TV ad here.

About the RSLC

The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) is the largest caucus of Republican state leaders in the country and the only national organization whose mission is to elect Republicans to multiple down-ballot, state-level offices. Since 2002, the RSLC has been working to elect candidates to the offices of lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state legislator, the judiciary and other down-ticket races. The RSLC has more than 150,000 donors in all 50 states. During the 2013-2014 election cycle, the RSLC was active in all 50 states and picked up ten new state legislative chambers, leading to an all-time historic high of 69 chambers controlled by Republicans. Following the 2015 elections, Republicans now hold 32 total Republican lieutenant governor seats, along with a Republican majority of secretaries of state, now at 28. The RSLC successfully expanded the Future Majority Project and Right Women, Right Now initiatives, spending more than $6 million in direct support of Republican candidates of diverse descent and women, leading to the election of 164 new candidates. Last cycle, the RSLC also launched the Judicial Fairness Initiative and the new top-level domain for the Republican Party, ‘.gop.’ To learn more about the RSLC, please visit www.rslc.gop or follow @RSLC on Twitter.

###

On Nov. 8, by voting Yes on State Question 790, Oklahomans will have the chance to directly increase their religious freedom, a rare opportunity in this age when liberal courts and governments are actively seeking to narrow religious liberties.

We support SQ 790 because it would remove from Oklahoma’s Constitution the “Blaine Amendment” a provision added in the 19th century during a time of anti-Catholic prejudice for the primary purpose of preventing Catholic schools – and Catholic orphanages, hospitals and charities – from receiving any government benefits.

These provisions, were at one time present in the Constitutions of nearly every state, and their history steeped in bigotry has never been in dispute. As the United States Supreme Court noted in Mitchell v. Helms (2000), Blaine Amendments have a “shameful pedigree” rooted in “pervasive hostility to the Catholic Church and to Catholics in general.”

Over time, these provisions have gone beyond bigotry against Catholics and been used to curtail religious freedom of all kinds. Oklahoma’s Blaine Amendment was cited by the state Supreme Court in 2015 when it ruled that the provision prohibited the display of a Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol, even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Van Orden v. Perry (2005) that a display of Ten Commandments on public property does not necessarily violate the U.S. Constitution.

Read the complete story on tulsaworld.com

Since SoonerPoll has been polling state questions since July, none has had such a dramatic shift than SQ 777.

In July, support for the state question was only polling at 53.2 percent.  At the time, some reports on the internal polling of the campaigns put the support level much higher.  In early October, the next SoonerPoll had the level of support at just 49.3 percent.

To date, SoonerPoll has been the only independent, non-partisan pollster who has publicly released polling data on SQ 777.

Read the complete story on NewsOK.com

WASHINGTON — Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb will run for governor in 2018 and be the heavy favorite. Attorney General Scott Pruitt will either run against Lamb or try again for a seat in Congress. And a long list of current and would-be officeholders will try to replace Lamb and Pruitt.

Those are the predictions of Oklahoma political experts polled by The Oklahoman with the promise of anonymity. A dozen elected officials, consultants and other campaign veterans — people who have run and won political races in Oklahoma — were asked to name the most likely candidates for the state’s highest offices two years from now; nine responded.

Aside from some high-stakes state questions on raising the sales tax, expanding liquor sales and other topics, there are few competitive or meaningful Oklahoma contests on the ballot next month.

The opposite is likely to be true in 2018.

Read the complete story on NewsOK.com