Important Action Item

Two items, first an important action item and second, information
about a Tulsa school board race. This week’s regular e-mail will go
out Tuesday morning.

++ ACTION ITEM

Last week one of the member organizations of the Oklahoma
Constitutional Alliance put out a call for its members to call House
Speaker Chris Benge under the belief that Speaker Benge had pulled one
of this year’s most important pieces of legislation from being
considered. The legislation in question is HJR 1054 by Representatives
Mike Ritze and Mike Reynolds in the House and Senator Brogdon in the
Senate. The gist of the legislation calls for the citizens to be able
to vote this year to amend our state constitution to allow any citizen
or business in Oklahoma to opt out of participating in a federal
health care law, should President Obama and the Democrats be
successful in getting something passed.

Evidently many people contacted the Speaker’s office as several of you
forwarded his e-mail reply for me to see. His response explained that
he had not pulled it for consideration but that it still had an
opportunity to be heard sometime in the first 4 weeks of the session.
His final statement assured people that he strongly opposed President
Obama’s health care plan. Please let me make this important point.
Anytime you contact an elected official and that official responds and
then no longer hears from you, the elected official is under the
assumption that the response was sufficient. Let me suggest, if you
are not satisfied with the answer, contact that official again until
you are satisfied with the answer.

I did a little checking around and this is what I learned. It appears
that Speaker Benge is concerned about the number of state questions to
be on the ballot this coming November. Speaker Benge told one source
that there are already 9 questions to be on the ballot, with 13
questions held over from last year’s session and 31 pieces of
legislation coming from this year’s legislative session that are still
eligible to be placed on the ballot. Benge told the source that the
committee is “working to manage the number of state questions to avoid
overloading the ballot.”

I have been telling people for over a year now that I too am concerned
about the large number of ballot questions. However, this issue is so
important that it must be heard and hopefully pass asap. Therefore, we
must do whatever is necessary to urge Speaker Benge and the rest of
the legislature to move this issue along. Speaker Benge could
negotiate with Governor Henry to put some of the lesser important
issues, such as requiring a photo ID for voting purposes, to be put on
the ballot during the primary election. The governor has that option.

Therefore, please contact Speaker Benge’s office and ask him for an
assurance that he will use his INFLUENCE to allow HJR 1054 to be
heard. If he is really against Obama’s health care plan and wants to
protect the citizens in Oklahoma from the unconstitutional actions
that may come out of Washington, then he needs to support this
legislation. The Speaker’s Capitol number is (405) 557-7444 and his e-
mail is chrisbenge@okhouse.gov. A phone call is preferred or do both.
Speaker Benge has near dictatorial power over legislation, so no
matter where you live in Oklahoma your call is needed and important.
Please act today through Thursday.

++ TULSA SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION

I don’t normally make recommendations in school board elections as I
just don’t have time to investigate that many races. However, this
past Saturday I had the opportunity to have lunch with Dr. Lois
Jacobs, candidate for Tulsa school board district #7. Dr. Jacobs is
definitely the conservative with the most important issue being school
choice. Dr. Jacobs favors school choice and competition and her
opponent wasted district dollars by filing an unsuccessful law suit
against the state regarding funding for charter schools.

The conservative Tulsa Beacon newspaper editorial page also endorsed
Dr. Jacobs. If you live in the district 7 area of the Tulsa school
district, I urge you to go tomorrow, Tuesday the 9th to vote for Dr.
Jacobs. To find out is you live in the proper district call your
county election board, give them your address and they will give you
that information. This will be a low turnout, so your vote will be
very important.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com