++ ELECTION RESULTS
OCPAC had 4 endorsements at stake this past Tuesday and three of those
races were successful. That brings our primary total to just one race
below 50% which is just below our lifetime average. As we go into more
marginal districts, the races are more difficult as much of the low
hanging fruit has already been picked over the past few years.
Oklahoma is to the place that it doesn’t necessarily need larger
margins of Republican lawmakers, but rather a better quality of
Republican lawmaker holding office. That is a difficult challenge, but
with time and effort, it is achievable.
Congratulations to James Lankford, his 2 to 1 margin of victory was
surprising to many folks including myself. I had a lot of e-mail
responses regarding last week’s e-mail. One was in agreement with my
assessment of the race as well as my statement that if I lived in the
district, I was leaning toward voting for Mr. Lankford. This person
indicated they were so disappointed with Kevin’s non-relevant attacks
that they had decided to support Mr. Lankford, though they had
previously worked for and contributed to Kevin‘s effort. If you have
supporters and contributors abandoning a candidate and going over to
the other candidate, then I believe you can say that Kevin’s last
minute change in campaign strategy backfired and thus the reason for
such a large victory.
Kevin did come by our meeting last week to thank the many members of
OCPAC who had worked for and contributed to his effort. He indicated,
it was obvious that is was not God’s will for him to be in public
service at this time, and as such, he would concentrate on his
business and family. I have a great deal of admiration for his
attitude as he had worked very hard and invested a lot of his life and
resources in the campaign over the past year and a half. Kevin is very
smart, tough and aggressive. If he should be called at another time to
serve in public office, we must hope he will step forward to fulfill
that opportunity.
One of the biggest surprises last Tuesday night was in the Senate
District 44 race between James Davenport and Ralph Shorty. That
outcome rivals the upset of the 2004 primary and run-off elections in
the race between Jason Murphey and Dale Depue. On primary night in
2004, Murphey had 44% of the vote to Depue’s 23% in a 6 candidate
race. When the dust settled on run-off night, Depue had won with 53%
of the vote. On July 27th, James Davenport was just 3 VOTES shy of
winning in a 4 candidate race. The run-off challenger was Mr. Ralph
Shorty (strange name as he is probably 6’5”) with 38% of the vote. The
3rd and 4th place candidates both endorsed James and urged Mr. Shorty
to drop out of the race to save resources for the general election.
Surprise, surprise, it wasn’t Mr. Davenport before us last Wednesday,
as Mr. Shorty received 58% in the run-off election to Mr. Davenport’s
42% of the vote. I believe both of these men worked very hard, but I
am now convinced, that the invasion of illegal aliens is so serious to
the long time citizens of District 44, whether they be Republicans,
Democrats or Independents, that the strength of Mr. Shorty on that
issue made the difference with the Republicans last Tuesday. Ralph has
the fire in his belly and with his hard work ethic and personable
attitude he will probably go on to victory in November. Ralph was very
impressive in the interview process last week and I believe he has the
potential to be an excellent senator. If he wins, it will be a pick up
for the Republicans as he is running for the open seat previously held
by Democrat Debbie Leftwhich.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LAST FRIDAY’S GLEN BECK SHOW
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ ELECTION RESULTS
++ THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LAST FRIDAY’S GLEN BECK SHOW
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, September 1st will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our main item of
business will be discussion about the Senate candidates that have
appeared before our members over the past 3 weeks. Following a time of
discussion, our voting members will vote for those we want to support
financially. Long time OCPAC member Steve Hampton and his wife have
just returned from both the 8-28 event in Washington as well as
attending the Devine Destiny meeting the night before in the Kennedy
Center. Steve will take a few minutes to relate his impressions on the
whole weekend. Bob Donohoo will also be speaking on behalf of the
John Birch Society about a national effort to repeal Obamacare. This
is a project that is gearing up and will probably go forward for at
least the next 2 years.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - The first community meeting
sponsored by a fairly new organization, Restoring Oklahoma Public
Education (ROPE), will be held Tuesday evening, August 31st at the
Belle Isle Library in OKC. The location is on the Northwest corner of
Villa and the Northwest Expressway, with the meeting starting at 7:00
p.m. One of the real values of ROPE is the work they do exposing the
problems in Oklahoma’s public (government) schools. Part of this
meeting will be devoted to explaining the problems with SQ 744 which
will be voted on this November. Please check this organization out and
see if you want to get involved. Just remember, our children are a
target of the humanists and socialists and more importantly, Satan and
his powers of darkness. Whoever wins the battle for the minds of our
children, have a distinct advantage in the culture was during our next
generation.
* THURSDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - OKlahoman’s for Sovereignty And
Free Enterprise, www.oksafe.org will have their monthly meeting,
Thursday evening at 6:45 p.m with the location being the Hardesty
Public Library, 93rd and South Memorial in Tulsa. The topics will
include Oklahoma earmarks, how they are requested and who requests
them. They will also explain what HUBzones happen to be. This is a
fine organization and I urge folks in the Tulsa area to attend these
monthly meetings when possible.
++ ELECTION RESULTS
OCPAC had 4 endorsements at stake this past Tuesday and three of those
races were successful. That brings our primary total to just one race
below 50% which is just below our lifetime average. As we go into more
marginal districts, the races are more difficult as much of the low
hanging fruit has already been picked over the past few years.
Oklahoma is to the place that it doesn’t necessarily need larger
margins of Republican lawmakers, but rather a better quality of
Republican lawmaker holding office. That is a difficult challenge, but
with time and effort, it is achievable.
Congratulations to James Lankford, his 2 to 1 margin of victory was
surprising to many folks including myself. I had a lot of e-mail
responses regarding last week’s e-mail. One was in agreement with my
assessment of the race as well as my statement that if I lived in the
district, I was leaning toward voting for Mr. Lankford. This person
indicated they were so disappointed with Kevin’s non-relevant attacks
that they had decided to support Mr. Lankford, though they had
previously worked for and contributed to Kevin‘s effort. If you have
supporters and contributors abandoning a candidate and going over to
the other candidate, then I believe you can say that Kevin’s last
minute change in campaign strategy backfired and thus the reason for
such a large victory.
Kevin did come by our meeting last week to thank the many members of
OCPAC who had worked for and contributed to his effort. He indicated,
it was obvious that is was not God’s will for him to be in public
service at this time, and as such, he would concentrate on his
business and family. I have a great deal of admiration for his
attitude as he had worked very hard and invested a lot of his life and
resources in the campaign over the past year and a half. Kevin is very
smart, tough and aggressive. If he should be called at another time to
serve in public office, we must hope he will step forward to fulfill
that opportunity.
One of the biggest surprises last Tuesday night was in the Senate
District 44 race between James Davenport and Ralph Shorty. That
outcome rivals the upset of the 2004 primary and run-off elections in
the race between Jason Murphey and Dale Depue. On primary night in
2004, Murphey had 44% of the vote to Depue’s 23% in a 6 candidate
race. When the dust settled on run-off night, Depue had won with 53%
of the vote. On July 27th, James Davenport was just 3 VOTES shy of
winning in a 4 candidate race. The run-off challenger was Mr. Ralph
Shorty (strange name as he is probably 6’5”) with 38% of the vote. The
3rd and 4th place candidates both endorsed James and urged Mr. Shorty
to drop out of the race to save resources for the general election.
Surprise, surprise, it wasn’t Mr. Davenport before us last Wednesday,
as Mr. Shorty received 58% in the run-off election to Mr. Davenport’s
42% of the vote. I believe both of these men worked very hard, but I
am now convinced, that the invasion of illegal aliens is so serious to
the long time citizens of District 44, whether they be Republicans,
Democrats or Independents, that the strength of Mr. Shorty on that
issue made the difference with the Republicans last Tuesday. Ralph has
the fire in his belly and with his hard work ethic and personable
attitude he will probably go on to victory in November. Ralph was very
impressive in the interview process last week and I believe he has the
potential to be an excellent senator. If he wins, it will be a pick up
for the Republicans as he is running for the open seat previously held
by Democrat Debbie Leftwhich.
++ THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LAST FRIDAY’S GLEN BECK SHOW
The significant influence of Glen Beck upon many American’s and our
nation continues to increase. I watched last Friday’s TV program with
great interest. He had on air with him the great Christian historian
David Barton and 3 pastors. A Jewish Rabbi was supposed to be on the
program, but sometimes plane arrivals just don’t work according to
plans.
During the program, David Barton began to teach all those watching
about the “black robed pastors” who were the most significant
influence leading up to and for the duration of our war of
Independence which started in 1776. A modern day “black robe” or
patriot pastor movement was started just a few years ago by Pastor
Chuck Baldwin out of Florida. A little over a years ago, I believe
they had around 100 modern day black robe pastors with Oklahoma
probably having the largest number of any state. These are pastors who
commit to preach the gospel and also teach and lead their
congregations in the culture war. That number of pastors is beginning
to grow exponentially.
Also discussed on Beck’s program was the freedom pulpit initiative
which began just a little over 2 years ago with 31 pastors nation
wide. As I was watching this discussion, I mused that 2 of those 31
were Oklahoma pastors, Paul Blair at Fairview Baptist in Edmond and
Dan Fisher at Trinity Baptist in Yukon. Last year, there were probably
a little over a hundred involved and according to David Barton, there
will be several hundred participating this year. The freedom pulpit
Sunday is where pastors all across the nation on a particular Sunday
preach an election sermon and then send a copy of their sermon to the
IRS, the ACLU, the People for the American (un-American) Way and
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. They are
challenging any of these organizations and most importantly the IRS to
challenge their 501C-3 tax exempt status. So far, not a word from the
IRS.
For the August patriot pastor luncheon in OKC, the speaker was an
Alliance Defense Fund attorney from Scottsdale Arizona. It was the
largest luncheon on record with probably more than 80 in attendance.
All of these pastors were being briefed on the history of the Johnson
Amendment, its unconstitutionality and why they have freedom of speech
from behind their pulpits. This is a growing movement and as such, we
have a chance for the church to become relevant again in the public
square, rather than just fellowshipping behind the four walls of the
church.
Paul Blair founded Reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ 4 years ago and he
has now become the Director for Reclaiming America for Christ,
originally founded by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy. As such, Paul is
doing ever more traveling to other states helping them found
Reclaiming organizations. Dan Fisher probably has the best
presentation on the history of the black robe movement of anyone in
America. He starts off with a clergy’s black robe on and at the
appropriate time, pulls that off to reveal a Continental Army Uniform
of the time period of our war of Independence. At that time he goes
into a power point presentation on the history of the influence of
pastors leading up to and during the war of Independence. We will have
him do this fabulous presentation at an OCPAC meeting shortly after
the elections are over.
These are two men that Glen Beck should have on his program at some
point in time as they are both being used mightily by God in an effort
to restore America. They are being used to restore honor, which was
the theme of the Beck gathering in Washington.
The most important thing I learned from last Friday’s program was a
perspective presented by David Barton about the history of revivals or
great awakenings. What he revealed was those movements spanned several
decades, they didn’t occur at moment in time. As such, he indicated
several signs that would indicate such a revival is in process today.
If he is correct and I believe he is, that will be the only hope for
America. Without a revival, we are surely doomed to further denigrate
into oblivion.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ ELECTION RESULTS
++ THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LAST FRIDAY’S GLEN BECK SHOW
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, September 1st will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our main item of
business will be discussion about the Senate candidates that have
appeared before our members over the past 3 weeks. Following a time of
discussion, our voting members will vote for those we want to support
financially. Long time OCPAC member Steve Hampton and his wife have
just returned from both the 8-28 event in Washington as well as
attending the Devine Destiny meeting the night before in the Kennedy
Center. Steve will take a few minutes to relate his impressions on the
whole weekend. Bob Donohoo will also be speaking on behalf of the
John Birch Society about a national effort to repeal Obamacare. This
is a project that is gearing up and will probably go forward for at
least the next 2 years.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - The first community meeting
sponsored by a fairly new organization, Restoring Oklahoma Public
Education (ROPE), will be held Tuesday evening, August 31st at the
Belle Isle Library in OKC. The location is on the Northwest corner of
Villa and the Northwest Expressway, with the meeting starting at 7:00
p.m. One of the real values of ROPE is the work they do exposing the
problems in Oklahoma’s public (government) schools. Part of this
meeting will be devoted to explaining the problems with SQ 744 which
will be voted on this November. Please check this organization out and
see if you want to get involved. Just remember, our children are a
target of the humanists and socialists and more importantly, Satan and
his powers of darkness. Whoever wins the battle for the minds of our
children, have a distinct advantage in the culture was during our next
generation.
* THURSDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - OKlahoman’s for Sovereignty And
Free Enterprise, www.oksafe.org will have their monthly meeting,
Thursday evening at 6:45 p.m with the location being the Hardesty
Public Library, 93rd and South Memorial in Tulsa. The topics will
include Oklahoma earmarks, how they are requested and who requests
them. They will also explain what HUBzones happen to be. This is a
fine organization and I urge folks in the Tulsa area to attend these
monthly meetings when possible.
++ ELECTION RESULTS
OCPAC had 4 endorsements at stake this past Tuesday and three of those
races were successful. That brings our primary total to just one race
below 50% which is just below our lifetime average. As we go into more
marginal districts, the races are more difficult as much of the low
hanging fruit has already been picked over the past few years.
Oklahoma is to the place that it doesn’t necessarily need larger
margins of Republican lawmakers, but rather a better quality of
Republican lawmaker holding office. That is a difficult challenge, but
with time and effort, it is achievable.
Congratulations to James Lankford, his 2 to 1 margin of victory was
surprising to many folks including myself. I had a lot of e-mail
responses regarding last week’s e-mail. One was in agreement with my
assessment of the race as well as my statement that if I lived in the
district, I was leaning toward voting for Mr. Lankford. This person
indicated they were so disappointed with Kevin’s non-relevant attacks
that they had decided to support Mr. Lankford, though they had
previously worked for and contributed to Kevin‘s effort. If you have
supporters and contributors abandoning a candidate and going over to
the other candidate, then I believe you can say that Kevin’s last
minute change in campaign strategy backfired and thus the reason for
such a large victory.
Kevin did come by our meeting last week to thank the many members of
OCPAC who had worked for and contributed to his effort. He indicated,
it was obvious that is was not God’s will for him to be in public
service at this time, and as such, he would concentrate on his
business and family. I have a great deal of admiration for his
attitude as he had worked very hard and invested a lot of his life and
resources in the campaign over the past year and a half. Kevin is very
smart, tough and aggressive. If he should be called at another time to
serve in public office, we must hope he will step forward to fulfill
that opportunity.
One of the biggest surprises last Tuesday night was in the Senate
District 44 race between James Davenport and Ralph Shorty. That
outcome rivals the upset of the 2004 primary and run-off elections in
the race between Jason Murphey and Dale Depue. On primary night in
2004, Murphey had 44% of the vote to Depue’s 23% in a 6 candidate
race. When the dust settled on run-off night, Depue had won with 53%
of the vote. On July 27th, James Davenport was just 3 VOTES shy of
winning in a 4 candidate race. The run-off challenger was Mr. Ralph
Shorty (strange name as he is probably 6’5”) with 38% of the vote. The
3rd and 4th place candidates both endorsed James and urged Mr. Shorty
to drop out of the race to save resources for the general election.
Surprise, surprise, it wasn’t Mr. Davenport before us last Wednesday,
as Mr. Shorty received 58% in the run-off election to Mr. Davenport’s
42% of the vote. I believe both of these men worked very hard, but I
am now convinced, that the invasion of illegal aliens is so serious to
the long time citizens of District 44, whether they be Republicans,
Democrats or Independents, that the strength of Mr. Shorty on that
issue made the difference with the Republicans last Tuesday. Ralph has
the fire in his belly and with his hard work ethic and personable
attitude he will probably go on to victory in November. Ralph was very
impressive in the interview process last week and I believe he has the
potential to be an excellent senator. If he wins, it will be a pick up
for the Republicans as he is running for the open seat previously held
by Democrat Debbie Leftwhich.
++ THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LAST FRIDAY’S GLEN BECK SHOW
The significant influence of Glen Beck upon many American’s and our
nation continues to increase. I watched last Friday’s TV program with
great interest. He had on air with him the great Christian historian
David Barton and 3 pastors. A Jewish Rabbi was supposed to be on the
program, but sometimes plane arrivals just don’t work according to
plans.
During the program, David Barton began to teach all those watching
about the “black robed pastors” who were the most significant
influence leading up to and for the duration of our war of
Independence which started in 1776. A modern day “black robe” or
patriot pastor movement was started just a few years ago by Pastor
Chuck Baldwin out of Florida. A little over a years ago, I believe
they had around 100 modern day black robe pastors with Oklahoma
probably having the largest number of any state. These are pastors who
commit to preach the gospel and also teach and lead their
congregations in the culture war. That number of pastors is beginning
to grow exponentially.
Also discussed on Beck’s program was the freedom pulpit initiative
which began just a little over 2 years ago with 31 pastors nation
wide. As I was watching this discussion, I mused that 2 of those 31
were Oklahoma pastors, Paul Blair at Fairview Baptist in Edmond and
Dan Fisher at Trinity Baptist in Yukon. Last year, there were probably
a little over a hundred involved and according to David Barton, there
will be several hundred participating this year. The freedom pulpit
Sunday is where pastors all across the nation on a particular Sunday
preach an election sermon and then send a copy of their sermon to the
IRS, the ACLU, the People for the American (un-American) Way and
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. They are
challenging any of these organizations and most importantly the IRS to
challenge their 501C-3 tax exempt status. So far, not a word from the
IRS.
For the August patriot pastor luncheon in OKC, the speaker was an
Alliance Defense Fund attorney from Scottsdale Arizona. It was the
largest luncheon on record with probably more than 80 in attendance.
All of these pastors were being briefed on the history of the Johnson
Amendment, its unconstitutionality and why they have freedom of speech
from behind their pulpits. This is a growing movement and as such, we
have a chance for the church to become relevant again in the public
square, rather than just fellowshipping behind the four walls of the
church.
Paul Blair founded Reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ 4 years ago and he
has now become the Director for Reclaiming America for Christ,
originally founded by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy. As such, Paul is
doing ever more traveling to other states helping them found
Reclaiming organizations. Dan Fisher probably has the best
presentation on the history of the black robe movement of anyone in
America. He starts off with a clergy’s black robe on and at the
appropriate time, pulls that off to reveal a Continental Army Uniform
of the time period of our war of Independence. At that time he goes
into a power point presentation on the history of the influence of
pastors leading up to and during the war of Independence. We will have
him do this fabulous presentation at an OCPAC meeting shortly after
the elections are over.
These are two men that Glen Beck should have on his program at some
point in time as they are both being used mightily by God in an effort
to restore America. They are being used to restore honor, which was
the theme of the Beck gathering in Washington.
The most important thing I learned from last Friday’s program was a
perspective presented by David Barton about the history of revivals or
great awakenings. What he revealed was those movements spanned several
decades, they didn’t occur at moment in time. As such, he indicated
several signs that would indicate such a revival is in process today.
If he is correct and I believe he is, that will be the only hope for
America. Without a revival, we are surely doomed to further denigrate
into oblivion.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Monday, August 23, 2010
CHARLIE’S PICKS - 08-24-10 PRIMARY RUN-OFF ELECTION
The following endorsements for candidates are my opinions only and do
not necessarily represent the endorsements of OCPAC or any other
person or entity. They are intended to simply be an opinion for voters
who haven’t made their minds up on a particular candidate or who
simply have done little or no research on candidates. I research
candidates and issues as much as possible, yet some people may have
knowledge I am unaware of or simply have a different opinion. That is
understandable and not offensive to me in the least. I am often asked
if this information can be forwarded to others, the answer is YES. One
more item, if you would like to receive the weekly OCPAC e-mail,
simply request it at: charliemeadows7@gmail.com . I try to limit them
to once a week and your name will never be given, loaned or sold to
anyone.
FOR INSURANCE COMMISSIONER - JOHN DOAK - John Doak’s interview at
our OCPAC meeting was very strong. Senator Randy Brogdon, Mark
Costello, former Senator Don Nichols, and former Congressman J.C.
Watts along with many others have joined OCPAC in endorsing Mr. Doak.
John Doak has a great deal of experience in a variety of levels in the
insurance industry. He is a solid conservative and I believe a man of
high moral character and integrity which is a most important
qualification for this office. The insurance commissioner has enormous
regulatory powers over both small and very large businesses and as
such the person must be above reproach. I believe his opponent, John
Crawford to be corrupt, a charlatan and an opportunist. He was the
first Republican elected to this position on the coat-tails of Frank
Keating’s election to governor. During his one term in office, before
voters sent him packing in 1998, his office was under numerous
allegations of fraud, nepotism, mismanagement and corruption. The
liberal Democrat Incumbent Kim Holland really wants John Crawford to
become the nominee as she will have a field day bringing up all those
very serious allegations from the past. She will have a difficult time
defeating John Doak, but Crawford is so bad, I will even vote for
Holland over Crawford if he is the nominee as the Republican party can
not afford to put a suspected crook in office with a “R” by his name.
At the end of these picks, I am including the transcript of the FBI
informant who spoke at the OCPAC meeting last Wednesday. He was
helping with vital information regarding the investigation of Crawford
by the Justice Department and the FBI during the 90s.
FOR 2ND DISTRICT CONGRESS - CHARLES THOMPSON - OCPAC members
originally endorsed Howard Houchen in this race, but the run-off came
down to Charles Thompson and Daniel Edmonds. Howard requested our
members endorse Charles in the run-off, especially since Charles came
in second in our voting. Howard, as well as Dan Arnett have personally
endorsed Charles over Mr. Edmonds. Our members have now voted to do
so. Charles Thompson is a solid conservative and writes commentaries
frequently about the Constitution. His commentaries are always
excellent and up-hold the constitution rather than try to pervert it.
If he wins the primary run-off and then is elected in November,
Charles will be a far better Congressman than Dan Boren ever thought
of being. In addition, Charles will NOT vote for Nancy Pelosi to be
the next Speaker of the House, Dan Boren most likely will do so
again.
FOR 5TH DISTRICT CONGRESS - What to do, what to do, its up to you,
up to you? Four months ago when OCPAC members endorsed Kevin Calvey
over 5 other candidates, this race was about issues. Among the top 3
candidates, Calvey, Lankford and Thompson, there really wasn’t much
difference on issues. During the interview, I believe Kevin showed
himself a little stronger on 2 or 3 issues than James Lankford and on
the other hand James showed himself a little stronger on 1 or 2
issues. Therefore, when ideology and issues aren’t much different,
then relationships come to bare.
By the time our interview process took place, it was James Lankford’s
2nd or 3rd time to attend one of our meetings whereas, Kevin had
probably attended well over a hundred meetings over the past several
years. When little difference exists between candidates, then
relationships influence people’s decisions and I believe that had a
great deal to do with our endorsement of Kevin. In past e-mails, I
have said that either of these two men would make good Congressmen. I
have also stood by OCPAC’s endorsement of Kevin Calvey, defended Kevin
from non-relevant attacks by the Oklahoman and raised questions about
the only two concerns I have had regarding James Lankford.
However, in the past few days, this race has really turned ugly and
gone past the veil of drawing important distinctions between
candidates. It has now digressed to trying to create issues that are
irrelevant or that just simply do not represent the truth. I really
appreciate Kevin Calvey’s aggressive leadership style and his fighting
spirit, but sometimes a man’s assets can also be his liabilities. I am
speculating that internal polling has show Kevin is behind and as such
he has gone after James Lankford with allegations which I believe fail
to represent reality. Just one example is to suggest James has
denigrated his military service. I have seen no evidence of such an
effort and when Kevin suggested on a live TV interview on Friday
morning that it occurred when James called him a career politician
when he was serving in Iraq, I believe that was so overly sensitive
and off base as to be absurd.
Also, to suggest that James is soft on Islamic terrorism or on the
organization CAIR (Center for American and Islamic Relations) is also
a stretch. Months ago Kevin stated he would not talk with a
representative of that organization (I personally believe they are a
PR front for radical Muslim organizations) until they denounced their
organization. Lankford took a different tack and said he would talk
with anyone who was a constituent. That difference in approach to
members of CAIR has gone so extreme as some people believing that
James is supporting such an organization. Again, another absurd
assumption.
I am sorely disappointed as I believe Kevin has gone so far in his
attacks against James as to really “slant” information too far in an
attempt to make himself look like a victim and James like the
aggressor. James has fired back very strongly to defend his integrity
and this has now become a highly emotional and charged race, with
supporters of both candidates becoming very agitated.
Over the past few days, I have talked with James and Kevin as well as
campaign workers with both campaigns. Kevin sent me an e-mail
generated by Holly Isch, Campaign Manager - Families for James
Lankford. Technically, much of the content was documentable, but some
of it was slanted information to make Kevin look bad. One example, the
legislation Kevin introduced in 2003 to allow instate college tuition
rates to the children of illegal alien parents. Kevin’s bill did not
pass but rather a Democrat version of the bill. The next year, Kevin
came to an OCPAC meeting and confessed he had been wrong on the issue.
He said he should have listened to us and not Catholic Charities. The
next year he introduced legislation to try and rectify the issue. Does
he still support tuition breaks for such students today? Absolutely
not, but that is not the implication from the Lankford campaign.
Truthfulness and keeping issues in the realm of relevance are a
character issues. Saying anything to win if it is not truthful or
relevant is nothing more than politics as usual. I believe a majority
of voters are wanting more than that out of a candidate, but it has
become difficult for me to know what is truth as to who started what
and who is simply responding and who is trying gen-up new issues, when
they really don’t exist. It is also hard to tell what is coming from
the candidate himself and what is coming from paid staff or
volunteers. I am deeply involved in politics, if it is hard for me to
really know what is going on, can you imagine the difficulties for the
concerned voters?
I have no problem with OCPAC’s endorsement of Kevin several months ago
and I know many of our members and friends are solidly in Kevin’s
camp. We also have many in the camp of James Lankford, I know because
I hear from both sides. I don’t live in the district, but if I did, I
would be anguishing over my choice. I know and like both of these two
men and am sorely disappointed the campaign has denigrated to this
point. As I have said many times, I believe either of them would make
a good congressman. If I had to make a choice, I would now be leaning
toward Lankford, but as I said at the beginning, “what to do, what to
do, it is up to you, up to you.”
STATE SENATE, DISTRICT 44 - JAMES DAVENPORT Neither James or his
opponent Ralph Shorty have been to our interview process as yet, the
winner on Tuesday is invited to Wednesday’s meeting. However, James
has been interviewed in the past when he ran for this seat and Mr.
Shorty filled out our survey and sent it to me for review before I
published Charlie’s Picks before the primary. I believe that Mr.
Shorty sees the invasion of illegal aliens as the number one issue in
his district. On the other hand, Mr. Davenport sees it as an important
issue, but only one among many. I believe James has a greater grasp on
a broader range of issues, is a solid conservative an as such I
endorse him.
STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 27 - JOSH COCKROFT This is the district
vacated when Shane Jett ran for Congress and includes Tecumseh,
McCloud, parts of Southeastern Oklahoma county and parts of
Northeastern Cleveland county. I didn’t make a pick in the primary,
but only mentioned 3 quality candidates and one of which I was very
concerned. Josh Cockroft was one of the quality candidates. To be
honest I struggle with candidates who are 21 as I just know how much
more maturity and life experiences they will develop with a few more
years.
Josh has been working as a paid staffer for Teen Pact, organizing and
conducting events all over the U.S. This is an excellent organization
which puts on a program for mostly home school students. The program
generally includes students (13 through 19) spending a week at a state
capitol learning the process, various parts and functions of
government and learning the importance of prayer for lawmakers. They
conduct mock legislative sessions where each student must introduce
legislation, and debate for passage. It is an excellent training for
future activists. Josh’s opponent is a laid off GM worker who proudly
refers to his current membership in the United Auto Workers union. I
am too concerned that Mr. Bennett may not be a real conservative which
is why I endorse Josh Cockroft. Whoever the winner may be, he will be
invited to a future interview process to compete for our support.
STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 100 - DAVID LOOBY This is the district
vacated when Mike Thompson ran for congress. The center of the
district is probably around North Rockwell and the Northwest
Expressway. As it is a primary only, both Mr. Looby and his opponent
Elise Hall have already appeared for our interview process. In our
first vote, Mr. Looby received 1 vote more than Miss Hall, but there
were also a lot of “no endorsement” votes. That required a run-off
vote between Looby and Hall. The run-off vote was a tie. We ended up
with OCPAC making a co-endorsement in that race, but I believe it was
one of those rare times that we failed to pick the best candidate. I
have gone back over the surveys and clearly David Looby was the more
conservative on the survey and he also did better during the
interview. With that said, I believe Elise will probably win as she
has put together an excellent campaign, has sufficient financial
support, works very hard, and has a lot of volunteer support.
Elise was home schooled, much like Josh Cockroft above. Home schooled
students tend to be more directed to the study and responsibilities of
government and history than children educated in the government
schools. If a home schooled candidate has been active in a home school
co-op they will most likely have a lot of enthusiastic friends willing
to help. Voters seem to be willing to elect very young candidates to
office. Should Elise and Josh win their elections, they will join
Jason Murphey who was the first home schooled person to be elected to
the legislature, at least in modern times. Several lawmakers home
school their children which drives the liberal Democrats nuts.
Democrats know it is very difficult to indoctrinate these children and
that most home schooled children go on to be good voting
conservatives.
OTHER LIMITED DISTRICT ELECTIONS
There are several other people and issues on the ballot in various
parts of the state. I have little knowledge of most, but I want to
mention 2 as I have been involved in these efforts.
CANADIAN COUNTY COMMISSIONER DIST. # 1 - SCOTTY DEE DEATHERAGE This
district includes parts of Okarche, Piedmont, parts of Yukon and parts
of El Reno. The incumbent is a proto-typical old time Oklahoma County
Commissioner. Not likely to think outside of the box and usually
seeing tax increases as a solution for capitol problems. Scotty Dee
has been a watch dog for the citizens regarding county government.
Under criticism from Mr. Deatherage, a proposed new jail has changed
from a $25 million dollar project, down to first I believe $15 million
and now perhaps down to $8 million. Mr. Deatherage, believes the
problem can be solved with a no frills dormitory annex to the current
jail for even much less than is what is currently proposed. One
problem with all rural counties is a serious lack of funding for
roads. The only way to improve county roads is through grants.
Acquiring grants takes time and understanding of the process as well
as a commitment to expedite the process all the way to completion. I
believe Mr. Deatherage has all the ingredients to access grants and
make an excellent county commissioner.
GUTHRIE SCHOOL BOND ELECTION, JUST $90 MILLION!!! - Guthrie has
failed to pass 7 of the past 9 school bonds and I believe Tuesday’s
will be number 8 out of 10 to go down in flames. The school board is
completely out of touch with the conservative nature of the district
as they are now offering the citizens a humongous $90 million dollar
bond which will raise property taxes a minimum of 23.6% over the next
15 years. Before my neighbors and I will budge on raising property
taxes, the school district must give an accurate and through account
of their current level of revenue. In addition, the voters are most
likely to vote down anything with frills. The best thing for the
patrons of the Guthrie school district is to set create a foundation
for capitol improvements. That way all citizen who wanted to have
their property taxes raised, should just go ahead and pay the
increased taxes into the foundation. It may take a little longer to
get the improvements done, but by not having to pay the millions in
bond underwriter fees and interest, it will take much less to get the
job done than going through traditional methods.
FOLLOWING IS THE FBI INFORMANTS TALK AT OCPAC ON 08-18-2010
The following statements are the opinions of Mr. James L. Harlin FSA
CLU ChFC FLMI MAAA.
John Crawford & Mid-Continent Life
August 18, 2010
Purpose
To share my direct experience with John Crawford when he was Insurance
Commissioner. To defeat Crawford in the primary runoff August 24
because there is a strong chance that the Republican nominee will
become the next commissioner.
Opening
There are numerous examples of John Crawford’s incompetence, cronyism
and corruption. These include his weak credentials as an actuary,
channeling money to his son in a dubious technology scheme, having his
chief of staff raise campaign funds while on the payroll of a company
he illegally seized, FBI investigations, etc.
MCL
However, I want to focus on Mid-Continent Life Insurance Company. MCL
was the oldest insurance company incorporated in the State of Oklahoma
and was formed by the Stewart family around the time of Statehood.
MCL operated successfully for over 70 years in the traditional life
insurance business.
In the late 70’s a group of MCL managers designed a new product called
“Extra Life” that tried to take advantage of the hyperinflation and
inordinately high interest rates caused by the financial mayhem
created by the Carter administration. That mayhem is being repeated
today by Obama… but that’s a story for another day.
The actuary for MCL at the time this product was created was John
Crawford. He certified the financial strength of the company, the
integrity of the dividends, and the pricing of the products. He did
this certification every single year up until 1986. He did this even
though the economic circumstances changed during the Regan years to
the point that the dividends and the pricing of the product were no
longer sustainable.
In 1987, Florida Power bought MCL. Seeing Florida Power’s financial
resources, Crawford decided to increase his fees tenfold. At this
point Crawford was summarily fired.
In the early 90’s Crawford ran as a Democrat for congress (I remember
meeting Crawford at the park in Crescent on the fourth of July when he
was running) and lost. In 1994 he switched parties and rode in on the
coattails of Gov. Keating to become the insurance commissioner.
A new management team arrived at MCL in 1995, 18 years after the
“Extra Life” product was launched. Within 3 months this new management
team discovered the problem of unsustainable dividends and pricing in
the product. The management team laid out a course of action to
correct the problems in order to maintain the solvency of the company.
In 1996 the point was reached of needing to cut the dividends and
raise the rates. This plan was contractually allowed within the
provisions of the policy and was later judged by the court to be the
proper course of action.
In early 1997, as a standard of protocol, the management team
presented the plan to Crawford in a confidential meeting. Four days
later MCL’s President received a solicitation along with an offer of a
bribe from a friend of Crawford’s to channel the company to him (the
friend) in conjunction with Crawford’s support. The MCL President
refused and reported the incident to Florida Power officials.
Two months later, Crawford abused his power as commissioner to seize
the company. He demanded that Florida Power pay millions of dollars to
cover up the financial shortfall that he had mishandled when he was
the company actuary. Statements from people at the time of his firing
showed this was Crawford’s way of getting retribution against Florida
Power.
Crawford removed the entire MCL management team and proceeded to try
to prosecute them and their lawyers even though none of them designed
the product or certified to the financial integrity of the company for
the nearly two decades prior to their arrival. That prosecution was
ultimately dismissed for lack of evidence.
Each member of the MCL management team went on to establish very
successful careers. The President became the Chairman, President & CEO
of Chase Insurance, the largest bank insurance enterprise in America.
MCL’s general Counsel became the General Counsel for the National
Association of Insurance Commissioners. He now oversees the legal
framework for the entire U.S. insurance industry for every state in
the country. The Chief Actuary is now the Chief Actuary of the largest
TPA in America. The Chief Financial Officer became the CFO of a large
Oklahoma company. The marketing officer became the President of
several international insurance companies. This was a superb
management team with outstanding credentials and an impeccable record
of performance excellence.
Because of John Crawford, MCL no longer exists. Hundreds of Oklahoma
jobs were lost. The insurance industry considers Oklahoma a
“backwater” for doing business. Florida Power had an opportunity to
invest $500 million in a power related industry in Oklahoma. They
passed on this investment because of their treatment by Crawford and
his cronies. The MCL President had first-hand knowledge that Florida
Power shared their dim view of Oklahoma with many of their Fortune 500
friends.
So bottom line, all the headlines of corruption, cronyism and
incompetence surrounding John Crawford are vividly real. Oklahoma
consumers, the insurance industry, and Oklahoma businesses cannot
afford a repeat of Crawford as Insurance Commissioner.
It is imperative to defeat Crawford in this primary runoff on August
24.
Ok folks, thanks for your time and please don’t forget to vote
tomorrow, August 24th.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
not necessarily represent the endorsements of OCPAC or any other
person or entity. They are intended to simply be an opinion for voters
who haven’t made their minds up on a particular candidate or who
simply have done little or no research on candidates. I research
candidates and issues as much as possible, yet some people may have
knowledge I am unaware of or simply have a different opinion. That is
understandable and not offensive to me in the least. I am often asked
if this information can be forwarded to others, the answer is YES. One
more item, if you would like to receive the weekly OCPAC e-mail,
simply request it at: charliemeadows7@gmail.com . I try to limit them
to once a week and your name will never be given, loaned or sold to
anyone.
FOR INSURANCE COMMISSIONER - JOHN DOAK - John Doak’s interview at
our OCPAC meeting was very strong. Senator Randy Brogdon, Mark
Costello, former Senator Don Nichols, and former Congressman J.C.
Watts along with many others have joined OCPAC in endorsing Mr. Doak.
John Doak has a great deal of experience in a variety of levels in the
insurance industry. He is a solid conservative and I believe a man of
high moral character and integrity which is a most important
qualification for this office. The insurance commissioner has enormous
regulatory powers over both small and very large businesses and as
such the person must be above reproach. I believe his opponent, John
Crawford to be corrupt, a charlatan and an opportunist. He was the
first Republican elected to this position on the coat-tails of Frank
Keating’s election to governor. During his one term in office, before
voters sent him packing in 1998, his office was under numerous
allegations of fraud, nepotism, mismanagement and corruption. The
liberal Democrat Incumbent Kim Holland really wants John Crawford to
become the nominee as she will have a field day bringing up all those
very serious allegations from the past. She will have a difficult time
defeating John Doak, but Crawford is so bad, I will even vote for
Holland over Crawford if he is the nominee as the Republican party can
not afford to put a suspected crook in office with a “R” by his name.
At the end of these picks, I am including the transcript of the FBI
informant who spoke at the OCPAC meeting last Wednesday. He was
helping with vital information regarding the investigation of Crawford
by the Justice Department and the FBI during the 90s.
FOR 2ND DISTRICT CONGRESS - CHARLES THOMPSON - OCPAC members
originally endorsed Howard Houchen in this race, but the run-off came
down to Charles Thompson and Daniel Edmonds. Howard requested our
members endorse Charles in the run-off, especially since Charles came
in second in our voting. Howard, as well as Dan Arnett have personally
endorsed Charles over Mr. Edmonds. Our members have now voted to do
so. Charles Thompson is a solid conservative and writes commentaries
frequently about the Constitution. His commentaries are always
excellent and up-hold the constitution rather than try to pervert it.
If he wins the primary run-off and then is elected in November,
Charles will be a far better Congressman than Dan Boren ever thought
of being. In addition, Charles will NOT vote for Nancy Pelosi to be
the next Speaker of the House, Dan Boren most likely will do so
again.
FOR 5TH DISTRICT CONGRESS - What to do, what to do, its up to you,
up to you? Four months ago when OCPAC members endorsed Kevin Calvey
over 5 other candidates, this race was about issues. Among the top 3
candidates, Calvey, Lankford and Thompson, there really wasn’t much
difference on issues. During the interview, I believe Kevin showed
himself a little stronger on 2 or 3 issues than James Lankford and on
the other hand James showed himself a little stronger on 1 or 2
issues. Therefore, when ideology and issues aren’t much different,
then relationships come to bare.
By the time our interview process took place, it was James Lankford’s
2nd or 3rd time to attend one of our meetings whereas, Kevin had
probably attended well over a hundred meetings over the past several
years. When little difference exists between candidates, then
relationships influence people’s decisions and I believe that had a
great deal to do with our endorsement of Kevin. In past e-mails, I
have said that either of these two men would make good Congressmen. I
have also stood by OCPAC’s endorsement of Kevin Calvey, defended Kevin
from non-relevant attacks by the Oklahoman and raised questions about
the only two concerns I have had regarding James Lankford.
However, in the past few days, this race has really turned ugly and
gone past the veil of drawing important distinctions between
candidates. It has now digressed to trying to create issues that are
irrelevant or that just simply do not represent the truth. I really
appreciate Kevin Calvey’s aggressive leadership style and his fighting
spirit, but sometimes a man’s assets can also be his liabilities. I am
speculating that internal polling has show Kevin is behind and as such
he has gone after James Lankford with allegations which I believe fail
to represent reality. Just one example is to suggest James has
denigrated his military service. I have seen no evidence of such an
effort and when Kevin suggested on a live TV interview on Friday
morning that it occurred when James called him a career politician
when he was serving in Iraq, I believe that was so overly sensitive
and off base as to be absurd.
Also, to suggest that James is soft on Islamic terrorism or on the
organization CAIR (Center for American and Islamic Relations) is also
a stretch. Months ago Kevin stated he would not talk with a
representative of that organization (I personally believe they are a
PR front for radical Muslim organizations) until they denounced their
organization. Lankford took a different tack and said he would talk
with anyone who was a constituent. That difference in approach to
members of CAIR has gone so extreme as some people believing that
James is supporting such an organization. Again, another absurd
assumption.
I am sorely disappointed as I believe Kevin has gone so far in his
attacks against James as to really “slant” information too far in an
attempt to make himself look like a victim and James like the
aggressor. James has fired back very strongly to defend his integrity
and this has now become a highly emotional and charged race, with
supporters of both candidates becoming very agitated.
Over the past few days, I have talked with James and Kevin as well as
campaign workers with both campaigns. Kevin sent me an e-mail
generated by Holly Isch, Campaign Manager - Families for James
Lankford. Technically, much of the content was documentable, but some
of it was slanted information to make Kevin look bad. One example, the
legislation Kevin introduced in 2003 to allow instate college tuition
rates to the children of illegal alien parents. Kevin’s bill did not
pass but rather a Democrat version of the bill. The next year, Kevin
came to an OCPAC meeting and confessed he had been wrong on the issue.
He said he should have listened to us and not Catholic Charities. The
next year he introduced legislation to try and rectify the issue. Does
he still support tuition breaks for such students today? Absolutely
not, but that is not the implication from the Lankford campaign.
Truthfulness and keeping issues in the realm of relevance are a
character issues. Saying anything to win if it is not truthful or
relevant is nothing more than politics as usual. I believe a majority
of voters are wanting more than that out of a candidate, but it has
become difficult for me to know what is truth as to who started what
and who is simply responding and who is trying gen-up new issues, when
they really don’t exist. It is also hard to tell what is coming from
the candidate himself and what is coming from paid staff or
volunteers. I am deeply involved in politics, if it is hard for me to
really know what is going on, can you imagine the difficulties for the
concerned voters?
I have no problem with OCPAC’s endorsement of Kevin several months ago
and I know many of our members and friends are solidly in Kevin’s
camp. We also have many in the camp of James Lankford, I know because
I hear from both sides. I don’t live in the district, but if I did, I
would be anguishing over my choice. I know and like both of these two
men and am sorely disappointed the campaign has denigrated to this
point. As I have said many times, I believe either of them would make
a good congressman. If I had to make a choice, I would now be leaning
toward Lankford, but as I said at the beginning, “what to do, what to
do, it is up to you, up to you.”
STATE SENATE, DISTRICT 44 - JAMES DAVENPORT Neither James or his
opponent Ralph Shorty have been to our interview process as yet, the
winner on Tuesday is invited to Wednesday’s meeting. However, James
has been interviewed in the past when he ran for this seat and Mr.
Shorty filled out our survey and sent it to me for review before I
published Charlie’s Picks before the primary. I believe that Mr.
Shorty sees the invasion of illegal aliens as the number one issue in
his district. On the other hand, Mr. Davenport sees it as an important
issue, but only one among many. I believe James has a greater grasp on
a broader range of issues, is a solid conservative an as such I
endorse him.
STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 27 - JOSH COCKROFT This is the district
vacated when Shane Jett ran for Congress and includes Tecumseh,
McCloud, parts of Southeastern Oklahoma county and parts of
Northeastern Cleveland county. I didn’t make a pick in the primary,
but only mentioned 3 quality candidates and one of which I was very
concerned. Josh Cockroft was one of the quality candidates. To be
honest I struggle with candidates who are 21 as I just know how much
more maturity and life experiences they will develop with a few more
years.
Josh has been working as a paid staffer for Teen Pact, organizing and
conducting events all over the U.S. This is an excellent organization
which puts on a program for mostly home school students. The program
generally includes students (13 through 19) spending a week at a state
capitol learning the process, various parts and functions of
government and learning the importance of prayer for lawmakers. They
conduct mock legislative sessions where each student must introduce
legislation, and debate for passage. It is an excellent training for
future activists. Josh’s opponent is a laid off GM worker who proudly
refers to his current membership in the United Auto Workers union. I
am too concerned that Mr. Bennett may not be a real conservative which
is why I endorse Josh Cockroft. Whoever the winner may be, he will be
invited to a future interview process to compete for our support.
STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 100 - DAVID LOOBY This is the district
vacated when Mike Thompson ran for congress. The center of the
district is probably around North Rockwell and the Northwest
Expressway. As it is a primary only, both Mr. Looby and his opponent
Elise Hall have already appeared for our interview process. In our
first vote, Mr. Looby received 1 vote more than Miss Hall, but there
were also a lot of “no endorsement” votes. That required a run-off
vote between Looby and Hall. The run-off vote was a tie. We ended up
with OCPAC making a co-endorsement in that race, but I believe it was
one of those rare times that we failed to pick the best candidate. I
have gone back over the surveys and clearly David Looby was the more
conservative on the survey and he also did better during the
interview. With that said, I believe Elise will probably win as she
has put together an excellent campaign, has sufficient financial
support, works very hard, and has a lot of volunteer support.
Elise was home schooled, much like Josh Cockroft above. Home schooled
students tend to be more directed to the study and responsibilities of
government and history than children educated in the government
schools. If a home schooled candidate has been active in a home school
co-op they will most likely have a lot of enthusiastic friends willing
to help. Voters seem to be willing to elect very young candidates to
office. Should Elise and Josh win their elections, they will join
Jason Murphey who was the first home schooled person to be elected to
the legislature, at least in modern times. Several lawmakers home
school their children which drives the liberal Democrats nuts.
Democrats know it is very difficult to indoctrinate these children and
that most home schooled children go on to be good voting
conservatives.
OTHER LIMITED DISTRICT ELECTIONS
There are several other people and issues on the ballot in various
parts of the state. I have little knowledge of most, but I want to
mention 2 as I have been involved in these efforts.
CANADIAN COUNTY COMMISSIONER DIST. # 1 - SCOTTY DEE DEATHERAGE This
district includes parts of Okarche, Piedmont, parts of Yukon and parts
of El Reno. The incumbent is a proto-typical old time Oklahoma County
Commissioner. Not likely to think outside of the box and usually
seeing tax increases as a solution for capitol problems. Scotty Dee
has been a watch dog for the citizens regarding county government.
Under criticism from Mr. Deatherage, a proposed new jail has changed
from a $25 million dollar project, down to first I believe $15 million
and now perhaps down to $8 million. Mr. Deatherage, believes the
problem can be solved with a no frills dormitory annex to the current
jail for even much less than is what is currently proposed. One
problem with all rural counties is a serious lack of funding for
roads. The only way to improve county roads is through grants.
Acquiring grants takes time and understanding of the process as well
as a commitment to expedite the process all the way to completion. I
believe Mr. Deatherage has all the ingredients to access grants and
make an excellent county commissioner.
GUTHRIE SCHOOL BOND ELECTION, JUST $90 MILLION!!! - Guthrie has
failed to pass 7 of the past 9 school bonds and I believe Tuesday’s
will be number 8 out of 10 to go down in flames. The school board is
completely out of touch with the conservative nature of the district
as they are now offering the citizens a humongous $90 million dollar
bond which will raise property taxes a minimum of 23.6% over the next
15 years. Before my neighbors and I will budge on raising property
taxes, the school district must give an accurate and through account
of their current level of revenue. In addition, the voters are most
likely to vote down anything with frills. The best thing for the
patrons of the Guthrie school district is to set create a foundation
for capitol improvements. That way all citizen who wanted to have
their property taxes raised, should just go ahead and pay the
increased taxes into the foundation. It may take a little longer to
get the improvements done, but by not having to pay the millions in
bond underwriter fees and interest, it will take much less to get the
job done than going through traditional methods.
FOLLOWING IS THE FBI INFORMANTS TALK AT OCPAC ON 08-18-2010
The following statements are the opinions of Mr. James L. Harlin FSA
CLU ChFC FLMI MAAA.
John Crawford & Mid-Continent Life
August 18, 2010
Purpose
To share my direct experience with John Crawford when he was Insurance
Commissioner. To defeat Crawford in the primary runoff August 24
because there is a strong chance that the Republican nominee will
become the next commissioner.
Opening
There are numerous examples of John Crawford’s incompetence, cronyism
and corruption. These include his weak credentials as an actuary,
channeling money to his son in a dubious technology scheme, having his
chief of staff raise campaign funds while on the payroll of a company
he illegally seized, FBI investigations, etc.
MCL
However, I want to focus on Mid-Continent Life Insurance Company. MCL
was the oldest insurance company incorporated in the State of Oklahoma
and was formed by the Stewart family around the time of Statehood.
MCL operated successfully for over 70 years in the traditional life
insurance business.
In the late 70’s a group of MCL managers designed a new product called
“Extra Life” that tried to take advantage of the hyperinflation and
inordinately high interest rates caused by the financial mayhem
created by the Carter administration. That mayhem is being repeated
today by Obama… but that’s a story for another day.
The actuary for MCL at the time this product was created was John
Crawford. He certified the financial strength of the company, the
integrity of the dividends, and the pricing of the products. He did
this certification every single year up until 1986. He did this even
though the economic circumstances changed during the Regan years to
the point that the dividends and the pricing of the product were no
longer sustainable.
In 1987, Florida Power bought MCL. Seeing Florida Power’s financial
resources, Crawford decided to increase his fees tenfold. At this
point Crawford was summarily fired.
In the early 90’s Crawford ran as a Democrat for congress (I remember
meeting Crawford at the park in Crescent on the fourth of July when he
was running) and lost. In 1994 he switched parties and rode in on the
coattails of Gov. Keating to become the insurance commissioner.
A new management team arrived at MCL in 1995, 18 years after the
“Extra Life” product was launched. Within 3 months this new management
team discovered the problem of unsustainable dividends and pricing in
the product. The management team laid out a course of action to
correct the problems in order to maintain the solvency of the company.
In 1996 the point was reached of needing to cut the dividends and
raise the rates. This plan was contractually allowed within the
provisions of the policy and was later judged by the court to be the
proper course of action.
In early 1997, as a standard of protocol, the management team
presented the plan to Crawford in a confidential meeting. Four days
later MCL’s President received a solicitation along with an offer of a
bribe from a friend of Crawford’s to channel the company to him (the
friend) in conjunction with Crawford’s support. The MCL President
refused and reported the incident to Florida Power officials.
Two months later, Crawford abused his power as commissioner to seize
the company. He demanded that Florida Power pay millions of dollars to
cover up the financial shortfall that he had mishandled when he was
the company actuary. Statements from people at the time of his firing
showed this was Crawford’s way of getting retribution against Florida
Power.
Crawford removed the entire MCL management team and proceeded to try
to prosecute them and their lawyers even though none of them designed
the product or certified to the financial integrity of the company for
the nearly two decades prior to their arrival. That prosecution was
ultimately dismissed for lack of evidence.
Each member of the MCL management team went on to establish very
successful careers. The President became the Chairman, President & CEO
of Chase Insurance, the largest bank insurance enterprise in America.
MCL’s general Counsel became the General Counsel for the National
Association of Insurance Commissioners. He now oversees the legal
framework for the entire U.S. insurance industry for every state in
the country. The Chief Actuary is now the Chief Actuary of the largest
TPA in America. The Chief Financial Officer became the CFO of a large
Oklahoma company. The marketing officer became the President of
several international insurance companies. This was a superb
management team with outstanding credentials and an impeccable record
of performance excellence.
Because of John Crawford, MCL no longer exists. Hundreds of Oklahoma
jobs were lost. The insurance industry considers Oklahoma a
“backwater” for doing business. Florida Power had an opportunity to
invest $500 million in a power related industry in Oklahoma. They
passed on this investment because of their treatment by Crawford and
his cronies. The MCL President had first-hand knowledge that Florida
Power shared their dim view of Oklahoma with many of their Fortune 500
friends.
So bottom line, all the headlines of corruption, cronyism and
incompetence surrounding John Crawford are vividly real. Oklahoma
consumers, the insurance industry, and Oklahoma businesses cannot
afford a repeat of Crawford as Insurance Commissioner.
It is imperative to defeat Crawford in this primary runoff on August
24.
Ok folks, thanks for your time and please don’t forget to vote
tomorrow, August 24th.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Monday, August 16, 2010
THE OKLAHOMAN, LANKFORD AND CALVEY
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ THE OKLAHOMAN, LANKFORD AND CALVEY
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 18th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Three Republican
Senate candidates have been invited this week to our interview
process. They are Mark Allen (SD 4) from the Spiro-Poteau area, Josh
Brecheen (SD 30) from the Durant area and Sharon Parker (SD 16) from
Norman. We will finish interviewing Senate candidates on August 25th
and then vote on September 1st as to which candidates to make a
contribution. We will then spend the following 2 Wednesdays in
September interviewing House candidates and our vote for their support
will come on October 6th. We will also have the individual who was
feeding documentation to the FBI regarding possible corruption
involving John Crawford speak for about 8 minutes at the front of our
meeting.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* MONDAY EVENING - EDMOND AREA - OCPAC has endorsed John Doak for
Insurance Commissioner, I believe it will be one of the more difficult
races for Republican’s to win in November unless Mr. Doak is able to
raise sufficient funds for the general election and of course assuming
he wins the run-off election one week from Tuesday. In my next issue
of “Charlie’s Picks” (due out later this week) I will explain why it
is so important to elect a person like John Doak rather than John
Crawford.
I believe it was the Wednesday after the primary that Mr. Doak
attended our meeting to thank us for our endorsement. Our members and
friends raised almost $3,000 on the spot for Mr. Doak, none of that
was our PAC monies, just those folks attending who decided to step up
to the plate to make a difference. Many of the candidates for down
ticket state wide races have had difficulty raising money for this
year’s elections as so many people have been focused on the Governor,
Lt. Governor and Congressional races. As such I wanted to announce an
opportunity to attend a Reception for John Doak. It will be Monday
evening from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the home of Jim & Joy Harlin, 1501
Deason Drive in Edmond. RSVP is appreciated but not required, (405)
348-1147 or jharlin@cox.net . Special Guest Speaker will be recently
re-elected Corporation Commissioner, Dana Murphy. If you cannot attend
but would like to donate to John Doak’s campaign, please visit
www.votefordoak.com for a printable donation form or to donate on
line.
One more item, this past Friday the Oklahoman endorsed John Doak over
Crawford as I would expect, given their many past articles about
possible corruption when Crawford was in office several years ago. In
this race, the Oklahoman gets it right. However, should John Doak win
the Republican nomination, look for the Oklahoman to endorse the
Democrat Kim Holland in the general election in November.
You ask why? To appear to be non-partisan and rational, I believe the
Oklahoman must mix their endorsements rather than endorse all
Republicans or all Democrats. I believe they will endorse 2 Democrats,
Kim Holland and the current state Auditor being challenged by Gary
Jones. I believe they will endorse Republicans for all the other state
wide races. Time will tell if I am correct. In the mean time it is the
responsibility of the voters to do the work necessary to investigate
and support the best candidates for the office.
* TUESDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa area Republican
Assembly will have their monthly meeting Tuesday evening with Dinner
at 6 and the speaker at 7:00 p.m. The location is the Golden Corral on
71st street and Mingo in Tulsa. The speaker will be Janet Barresi, the
Republican nominee for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Janet will talk about what she will do if elected. Questions will be
taken from the audience. I believe Janet is the best candidate the
Republicans have ever had running for this office and we really need
to support her. Those attending will be impressed with her grasp on
the office and her plans if elected.
++ THE OKLAHOMAN, JAMES LANKFORD AND KEVIN CALVEY
In last week’s e-mail I suggested the attack on Calvey had begun and
was coming from the Oklahoman, Oklahoma’s largest and only state wide
newspaper (sold in every county). I suggested the motive for the
attack was because Kevin took a position against MAPS III, believing
people needed a tax cut during a recession. I also stated my struggle
with James Lankford’s position that he would not interject himself
into local matters as a candidate or elected official in Congress. I
also questioned his ability to remain independent since he was now
being supported by many of the central planners in OKC. About 3 hours
after the e-mail went out I received a call from James Lankford and we
had an excellent conversation.
He explained his position on local and federal issues as follows: He
said he has a passionate belief on SQ 744, the huge spending increase
for teachers but will not make his thoughts known as it is a state
issue and not a federal issue. On the other hand, he will publicly
support the state question to opt-out of Obamacare as that has federal
ramifications. If James holds true to his convictions on these kinds
of issues, I will respect him for such. However, when a person is
running for office, they are going to represent people and as such
people need to be able to trust them to have a consistent ideology,
sound judgment and integrity. Once that relationship of trust is
built, people often look to elected officials for their opinion on
issues, especially the controversial ones. That willingness to express
an educated opinion on issues, whether they be national, state, county
or city is leadership in my opinion. An unwillingness to do so is
lacking in my opinion. Of course people must leave room for an elected
official to be unknowledgeable, at least for a reasonable time
period, on some issues as the number of issues we face are a
multitude.
As far as James’ ability to remain independent of the central
planners, who are now answering his calls, he assured me they also
don’t like his refusal to commit to local issues. Prior to the
primary, they were largely behind Mike Thompson and now that he may
become their Congressman, many of them are trying to build
relationships with him. He has been calling Thompson’s supporters, but
James also points out that Kevin has been calling the same people
asking for their support. Ultimately, it takes a person of character
to govern according to the rule of law and the ideology of our
founding fathers to produce good government rather than becoming a
puppet for special interests, wanting wealth re-distribution. James
has convinced me, he has the character to trust him to do so, but I
will say, voters should always watch elected officials closely to make
sure they don’t violate that trust. As Ronald Reagan said, “trust by
verify.”
Now, for the Oklahoman’s treatment of Kevin Calvey. I think their
running a story about Kevin helping a vagrant walking in a rain storm
who told him about a body in a vacant building near Trosper Park was
out of place, the event happened months ago, it was irrelevant and an
attempt to raise concerns about Kevin’s character. I believe it was
yellow journalism (it was a news item, not on the editorial page) and
it stunk. The other articles raised questions about Calvey’s
contributions to his campaign, especially from an investment venture
in Russia. I was asked by several readers as to why I didn’t mention
that issue in my e-mail? I was silent because I needed to research the
issue. The following is what I found out:
Kevin’s brother led a group of investors in a capitol investment firm
in Russia which was very successful and made a huge amount of money.
Kevin was one of 4 attorneys who did legal work for the firm. In all
there were 30 service providers to this firm. One important fact he
told the Oklahoman’s reporters which didn’t make the story, was that
all 30 service providers were offered the same investment opportunity.
Kevin was not treated any differently than any of the other
professionals providing services to the new venture.
Before I continue, let me explain some different options companies
have to access professional help. Some simply hire professionals and
pay a salary. Others pay a smaller salary and provide some level of
ownership or investment in the company. In some cases, no salary is
paid and the hope for return on their time is a much larger return for
not taking a salary. The later was the choice that Kevin made and it
turned out very well for him as the venture made a very large amount
of money. One of the articles raised suspicion about a discrepancy as
to how much Kevin invested to get this return? He didn’t invest any
money, just his professional time, however, there were some fees
associated with becoming a part of the venture, kind of like a filing
fee. Kevin couldn’t remember if it was $10, $50 or perhaps a $100. It
wasn’t money put in as an investment, it was a fee to become a part of
the venture.
The FEC (federal election commission) allows a candidate to put an
unlimited amount of their personal money into their race. However,
they are very restrictive about how much others may put into a
campaign and if they catch a candidate laundering contributions as if
it were their own money, they could put them in prison. Also, the SEC
(securities and exchange commission) is becoming very aggressive
toward corporate leadership who might “raid” the profits for their
personal use and thus cheat the stockholders out of their just
dividends. However, the venture Kevin reaped profits from was not a
publicly traded company. Therefore, the investing partners can reap
any profits they want from such a venture.
Therefore, I believe the whole purpose of the article was to raise
doubts about Kevin, for the purpose of defeating him on August 24th.
On the Sunday, August 15th the editorial page in the Oklahoman
endorsed James Lankford, primarily because Kevin opposed Maps III. No
surprise here. Following are a couple of statements from their
endorsement. Speaking of Lankford they said: “He’s a solid
conservative but not a reactionary. He doesn’t substitute ideology for
intelligence.” (That is a fair criticism of many ideologues as we
sometime are so intent on the perfection of our ideology that we are
unreasonable when it comes to the steps it might take to transition
from a place in time to where we need to go. However, a person without
an ideology is like a life boat adrift without an anchor, like a
puppet dangling from the strings of various special interests.) The
Oklahoman went on to say, “He understands that most issues have
nuances and that taking a firm position has consequences.” (I believe
that was a warning to any future candidate or office holder for that
matter, that standing in the way of the special interests of the
Oklahoman and the OKC central planners can be your unraveling.)
The Oklahoman also said: “Last year, Calvey took a position on MAPS 3,
joining an anti-progress chorus that failed to defeat the initiative.
Calvey was on the wrong side of the issue and it was ill-advised for a
congressional candidate to take any stand on Maps 3.” (At that time
congressional candidates Jeff Cloud and Tom Cole came out in favor of
Maps 3. Can anyone show me a word of criticism in the Oklahoman about
their support for Maps 3?)
Not all that the central planners do turns out bad. However, my
problem is that in many cases they are quite willing to use taxpayers
dollars rather than their own money as they re-shape our community and
along the way serve themselves at the same time.
My opposition to MAPS 3 wasn’t based on a tax cut for the people as
much as other problems. A new convention center, the kayak course and
the senior wellness centers are businesses and should be in the
private sector, not government owned and competing against similar
businesses owned by people in the private sector. I don’t have so much
of a problem with the river improvements, the extension of hiking and
bike trails or the public park as they are public use venues. However,
I do believe the park, the wellness centers and especially the light
rail system will cost the city a large increase in maintenance costs
above any amount brought in from those venues. I also believe he state
fair board’s operations are hidden and unaccountable to the public.
Until proven otherwise, I believe all improvements to the fair grounds
should come from the revenues generated by that entity and not more
tax dollars.
Years ago, I was one of the biggest defenders of the Oklahoman,
believing they were conservative and fair on their editorial page as I
would see editorials published on both sides of an issue. On a
comparative basis, they are more conservative than say the Tulsa World
or most other large city newspapers, but I also believe they are not
as conservative as they used to be. Eight years ago, I was involved
with Tim Green’s race for Attorney General. The editorial page of the
Oklahoman was in Denise Bode’s camp and as such wrote a hard hitting
editorial against Tim Green. Tim responded with an op-ed piece which
the Oklahoman refused to print.
At that time I began to have a different perspective on the Oklahoman.
In addition, I believe the main purpose of a newspaper is to expose
corruption and good old boy deals and honor what is good. However,
once a newspaper or their ownership engages in other businesses (such
as the Bass Pro’s Stores or the OKC Thunder) they run the risk of
losing their objectivity and the paper may become a tool for their own
self interests rather than exposing anything untoward.
When the Oklahoman ran the article about Kevin’s investment and the
money he made of which he has now put into his campaign, the Oklahoma
had sent to them an editorial from one of the prominent men associated
with the venture. So far the Oklahoman has not printed that ob-ed
piece, but I have obtained it and have permission from the author. I
will print it in its entirety and exactly as it was sent to the
Oklahoman.
“Dear Editor:
Your recent article on Kevin Calvey’s work for, and investments in,
Baring Vostok, the company run by Kevin’s brother, Mike Calvey, left
out important details which paint the Calveys in an unfair light. I
wish your reporter would have called me, as Kevin suggested, as I
could have cleared up your misconceptions. Unfortunately, your
reporter never did.
I am a native Oklahoman and a former astronaut who commanded four
space missions, including the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission, and the
former Deputy Chief of Staff for the Air Force for research and
development. I also serve as an advisor to Baring Vostok, as have two
former US Ambassadors. We agreed to become advisors to Baring Vostok
because of the firm’s successful investment track record and Mike
Calvey’s impeccable reputation.
Kevin Calvey is also a man of impeccable integrity. After brief and
successful service in the State Legislature, at age 40, he left
everything to serve our country in Iraq. The Army recognized Kevin’s
achievements in Iraq by awarding him the prestigious Bronze Star
Medal.
Before deploying to Iraq and since his return, Kevin did legal work
for his brother and Baring Vostok. As a legal service provider, Kevin
was entitled to a share in a limited partnership in one of Baring
Vostok’s investment funds. Thirty other service providers and
employees participated in the carried interest program on the same
terms, a fact which was told to your reporter, but which he failed to
mention. Carried interest programs for employees and service
providers are standard practice in the private equity industry, which
also went unmentioned. Further, the implication that funds from these
investments dominate the Calvey campaign is simply wrong. The vast
majority of Kevin Calvey’s congressional campaign funds come from over
2000 individual contributors, including myself.
For you to treat a decorated Iraq War veteran like Kevin Calvey as you
did in your article is beneath the dignity of your paper.”
Thomas P Stafford
Lieutenant General (USAF Retired)
Oklahoma City.
I have written a lot on this race and let me say, many members and
friends of OCPAC are supporting one or the other of these 2
candidates. Many people have had time to hear and get to know both of
these candidates and they will make their decision based on their own
efforts. I am convinced either of them are a better choice than the
voters had in the run-off for this seat 4 years ago.
However, the voting members of OCPAC have endorsed Kevin Calvey based
on the interview of the candidates and our knowing Kevin for many
years. Kevin made some mistakes during his time in office, but has
admitted such mistakes which takes a person of character to do so.
The real difference in the race is the experience of Kevin Calvey and
his aggressiveness to get out front on issues, such as filing a
lawsuit against the federal government regarding Obamacare and his
leadership in exposing the Center for American and Islamic
Relationships (CAIR) as little more than a front group for radical
Islam. He has also taken on the Oklahoma Bar Association in their
perceived attempts to change the code of judicial conduct to inhibit
conservative lawyers from sitting as judges. Kevin believed the
attempt by the OBA was to allow more homosexuals to sit as judges His
opposition to MAPS 3 was simply an example of leadership.
James Lankford is a man of integrity and has accomplished a lot in the
private sector. He is smart and I believe he is more of an ideologue
than the Oklahoma believes, at least I hope he is. The main difference
is that James is running from the standpoint of a citizen legislator,
but unproven at this time in the realm of government. Kevin is running
from the standpoint of proven leadership in the realm of government
and politics. Therefore, I would suggest making up your mind based on
these perspectives and not the BS (Blue Smoke) published in the
Oklahoman because they were mad at Kevin because he didn‘t support
their taxpayer funded pet project.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ THE OKLAHOMAN, LANKFORD AND CALVEY
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 18th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Three Republican
Senate candidates have been invited this week to our interview
process. They are Mark Allen (SD 4) from the Spiro-Poteau area, Josh
Brecheen (SD 30) from the Durant area and Sharon Parker (SD 16) from
Norman. We will finish interviewing Senate candidates on August 25th
and then vote on September 1st as to which candidates to make a
contribution. We will then spend the following 2 Wednesdays in
September interviewing House candidates and our vote for their support
will come on October 6th. We will also have the individual who was
feeding documentation to the FBI regarding possible corruption
involving John Crawford speak for about 8 minutes at the front of our
meeting.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* MONDAY EVENING - EDMOND AREA - OCPAC has endorsed John Doak for
Insurance Commissioner, I believe it will be one of the more difficult
races for Republican’s to win in November unless Mr. Doak is able to
raise sufficient funds for the general election and of course assuming
he wins the run-off election one week from Tuesday. In my next issue
of “Charlie’s Picks” (due out later this week) I will explain why it
is so important to elect a person like John Doak rather than John
Crawford.
I believe it was the Wednesday after the primary that Mr. Doak
attended our meeting to thank us for our endorsement. Our members and
friends raised almost $3,000 on the spot for Mr. Doak, none of that
was our PAC monies, just those folks attending who decided to step up
to the plate to make a difference. Many of the candidates for down
ticket state wide races have had difficulty raising money for this
year’s elections as so many people have been focused on the Governor,
Lt. Governor and Congressional races. As such I wanted to announce an
opportunity to attend a Reception for John Doak. It will be Monday
evening from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the home of Jim & Joy Harlin, 1501
Deason Drive in Edmond. RSVP is appreciated but not required, (405)
348-1147 or jharlin@cox.net . Special Guest Speaker will be recently
re-elected Corporation Commissioner, Dana Murphy. If you cannot attend
but would like to donate to John Doak’s campaign, please visit
www.votefordoak.com for a printable donation form or to donate on
line.
One more item, this past Friday the Oklahoman endorsed John Doak over
Crawford as I would expect, given their many past articles about
possible corruption when Crawford was in office several years ago. In
this race, the Oklahoman gets it right. However, should John Doak win
the Republican nomination, look for the Oklahoman to endorse the
Democrat Kim Holland in the general election in November.
You ask why? To appear to be non-partisan and rational, I believe the
Oklahoman must mix their endorsements rather than endorse all
Republicans or all Democrats. I believe they will endorse 2 Democrats,
Kim Holland and the current state Auditor being challenged by Gary
Jones. I believe they will endorse Republicans for all the other state
wide races. Time will tell if I am correct. In the mean time it is the
responsibility of the voters to do the work necessary to investigate
and support the best candidates for the office.
* TUESDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa area Republican
Assembly will have their monthly meeting Tuesday evening with Dinner
at 6 and the speaker at 7:00 p.m. The location is the Golden Corral on
71st street and Mingo in Tulsa. The speaker will be Janet Barresi, the
Republican nominee for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Janet will talk about what she will do if elected. Questions will be
taken from the audience. I believe Janet is the best candidate the
Republicans have ever had running for this office and we really need
to support her. Those attending will be impressed with her grasp on
the office and her plans if elected.
++ THE OKLAHOMAN, JAMES LANKFORD AND KEVIN CALVEY
In last week’s e-mail I suggested the attack on Calvey had begun and
was coming from the Oklahoman, Oklahoma’s largest and only state wide
newspaper (sold in every county). I suggested the motive for the
attack was because Kevin took a position against MAPS III, believing
people needed a tax cut during a recession. I also stated my struggle
with James Lankford’s position that he would not interject himself
into local matters as a candidate or elected official in Congress. I
also questioned his ability to remain independent since he was now
being supported by many of the central planners in OKC. About 3 hours
after the e-mail went out I received a call from James Lankford and we
had an excellent conversation.
He explained his position on local and federal issues as follows: He
said he has a passionate belief on SQ 744, the huge spending increase
for teachers but will not make his thoughts known as it is a state
issue and not a federal issue. On the other hand, he will publicly
support the state question to opt-out of Obamacare as that has federal
ramifications. If James holds true to his convictions on these kinds
of issues, I will respect him for such. However, when a person is
running for office, they are going to represent people and as such
people need to be able to trust them to have a consistent ideology,
sound judgment and integrity. Once that relationship of trust is
built, people often look to elected officials for their opinion on
issues, especially the controversial ones. That willingness to express
an educated opinion on issues, whether they be national, state, county
or city is leadership in my opinion. An unwillingness to do so is
lacking in my opinion. Of course people must leave room for an elected
official to be unknowledgeable, at least for a reasonable time
period, on some issues as the number of issues we face are a
multitude.
As far as James’ ability to remain independent of the central
planners, who are now answering his calls, he assured me they also
don’t like his refusal to commit to local issues. Prior to the
primary, they were largely behind Mike Thompson and now that he may
become their Congressman, many of them are trying to build
relationships with him. He has been calling Thompson’s supporters, but
James also points out that Kevin has been calling the same people
asking for their support. Ultimately, it takes a person of character
to govern according to the rule of law and the ideology of our
founding fathers to produce good government rather than becoming a
puppet for special interests, wanting wealth re-distribution. James
has convinced me, he has the character to trust him to do so, but I
will say, voters should always watch elected officials closely to make
sure they don’t violate that trust. As Ronald Reagan said, “trust by
verify.”
Now, for the Oklahoman’s treatment of Kevin Calvey. I think their
running a story about Kevin helping a vagrant walking in a rain storm
who told him about a body in a vacant building near Trosper Park was
out of place, the event happened months ago, it was irrelevant and an
attempt to raise concerns about Kevin’s character. I believe it was
yellow journalism (it was a news item, not on the editorial page) and
it stunk. The other articles raised questions about Calvey’s
contributions to his campaign, especially from an investment venture
in Russia. I was asked by several readers as to why I didn’t mention
that issue in my e-mail? I was silent because I needed to research the
issue. The following is what I found out:
Kevin’s brother led a group of investors in a capitol investment firm
in Russia which was very successful and made a huge amount of money.
Kevin was one of 4 attorneys who did legal work for the firm. In all
there were 30 service providers to this firm. One important fact he
told the Oklahoman’s reporters which didn’t make the story, was that
all 30 service providers were offered the same investment opportunity.
Kevin was not treated any differently than any of the other
professionals providing services to the new venture.
Before I continue, let me explain some different options companies
have to access professional help. Some simply hire professionals and
pay a salary. Others pay a smaller salary and provide some level of
ownership or investment in the company. In some cases, no salary is
paid and the hope for return on their time is a much larger return for
not taking a salary. The later was the choice that Kevin made and it
turned out very well for him as the venture made a very large amount
of money. One of the articles raised suspicion about a discrepancy as
to how much Kevin invested to get this return? He didn’t invest any
money, just his professional time, however, there were some fees
associated with becoming a part of the venture, kind of like a filing
fee. Kevin couldn’t remember if it was $10, $50 or perhaps a $100. It
wasn’t money put in as an investment, it was a fee to become a part of
the venture.
The FEC (federal election commission) allows a candidate to put an
unlimited amount of their personal money into their race. However,
they are very restrictive about how much others may put into a
campaign and if they catch a candidate laundering contributions as if
it were their own money, they could put them in prison. Also, the SEC
(securities and exchange commission) is becoming very aggressive
toward corporate leadership who might “raid” the profits for their
personal use and thus cheat the stockholders out of their just
dividends. However, the venture Kevin reaped profits from was not a
publicly traded company. Therefore, the investing partners can reap
any profits they want from such a venture.
Therefore, I believe the whole purpose of the article was to raise
doubts about Kevin, for the purpose of defeating him on August 24th.
On the Sunday, August 15th the editorial page in the Oklahoman
endorsed James Lankford, primarily because Kevin opposed Maps III. No
surprise here. Following are a couple of statements from their
endorsement. Speaking of Lankford they said: “He’s a solid
conservative but not a reactionary. He doesn’t substitute ideology for
intelligence.” (That is a fair criticism of many ideologues as we
sometime are so intent on the perfection of our ideology that we are
unreasonable when it comes to the steps it might take to transition
from a place in time to where we need to go. However, a person without
an ideology is like a life boat adrift without an anchor, like a
puppet dangling from the strings of various special interests.) The
Oklahoman went on to say, “He understands that most issues have
nuances and that taking a firm position has consequences.” (I believe
that was a warning to any future candidate or office holder for that
matter, that standing in the way of the special interests of the
Oklahoman and the OKC central planners can be your unraveling.)
The Oklahoman also said: “Last year, Calvey took a position on MAPS 3,
joining an anti-progress chorus that failed to defeat the initiative.
Calvey was on the wrong side of the issue and it was ill-advised for a
congressional candidate to take any stand on Maps 3.” (At that time
congressional candidates Jeff Cloud and Tom Cole came out in favor of
Maps 3. Can anyone show me a word of criticism in the Oklahoman about
their support for Maps 3?)
Not all that the central planners do turns out bad. However, my
problem is that in many cases they are quite willing to use taxpayers
dollars rather than their own money as they re-shape our community and
along the way serve themselves at the same time.
My opposition to MAPS 3 wasn’t based on a tax cut for the people as
much as other problems. A new convention center, the kayak course and
the senior wellness centers are businesses and should be in the
private sector, not government owned and competing against similar
businesses owned by people in the private sector. I don’t have so much
of a problem with the river improvements, the extension of hiking and
bike trails or the public park as they are public use venues. However,
I do believe the park, the wellness centers and especially the light
rail system will cost the city a large increase in maintenance costs
above any amount brought in from those venues. I also believe he state
fair board’s operations are hidden and unaccountable to the public.
Until proven otherwise, I believe all improvements to the fair grounds
should come from the revenues generated by that entity and not more
tax dollars.
Years ago, I was one of the biggest defenders of the Oklahoman,
believing they were conservative and fair on their editorial page as I
would see editorials published on both sides of an issue. On a
comparative basis, they are more conservative than say the Tulsa World
or most other large city newspapers, but I also believe they are not
as conservative as they used to be. Eight years ago, I was involved
with Tim Green’s race for Attorney General. The editorial page of the
Oklahoman was in Denise Bode’s camp and as such wrote a hard hitting
editorial against Tim Green. Tim responded with an op-ed piece which
the Oklahoman refused to print.
At that time I began to have a different perspective on the Oklahoman.
In addition, I believe the main purpose of a newspaper is to expose
corruption and good old boy deals and honor what is good. However,
once a newspaper or their ownership engages in other businesses (such
as the Bass Pro’s Stores or the OKC Thunder) they run the risk of
losing their objectivity and the paper may become a tool for their own
self interests rather than exposing anything untoward.
When the Oklahoman ran the article about Kevin’s investment and the
money he made of which he has now put into his campaign, the Oklahoma
had sent to them an editorial from one of the prominent men associated
with the venture. So far the Oklahoman has not printed that ob-ed
piece, but I have obtained it and have permission from the author. I
will print it in its entirety and exactly as it was sent to the
Oklahoman.
“Dear Editor:
Your recent article on Kevin Calvey’s work for, and investments in,
Baring Vostok, the company run by Kevin’s brother, Mike Calvey, left
out important details which paint the Calveys in an unfair light. I
wish your reporter would have called me, as Kevin suggested, as I
could have cleared up your misconceptions. Unfortunately, your
reporter never did.
I am a native Oklahoman and a former astronaut who commanded four
space missions, including the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission, and the
former Deputy Chief of Staff for the Air Force for research and
development. I also serve as an advisor to Baring Vostok, as have two
former US Ambassadors. We agreed to become advisors to Baring Vostok
because of the firm’s successful investment track record and Mike
Calvey’s impeccable reputation.
Kevin Calvey is also a man of impeccable integrity. After brief and
successful service in the State Legislature, at age 40, he left
everything to serve our country in Iraq. The Army recognized Kevin’s
achievements in Iraq by awarding him the prestigious Bronze Star
Medal.
Before deploying to Iraq and since his return, Kevin did legal work
for his brother and Baring Vostok. As a legal service provider, Kevin
was entitled to a share in a limited partnership in one of Baring
Vostok’s investment funds. Thirty other service providers and
employees participated in the carried interest program on the same
terms, a fact which was told to your reporter, but which he failed to
mention. Carried interest programs for employees and service
providers are standard practice in the private equity industry, which
also went unmentioned. Further, the implication that funds from these
investments dominate the Calvey campaign is simply wrong. The vast
majority of Kevin Calvey’s congressional campaign funds come from over
2000 individual contributors, including myself.
For you to treat a decorated Iraq War veteran like Kevin Calvey as you
did in your article is beneath the dignity of your paper.”
Thomas P Stafford
Lieutenant General (USAF Retired)
Oklahoma City.
I have written a lot on this race and let me say, many members and
friends of OCPAC are supporting one or the other of these 2
candidates. Many people have had time to hear and get to know both of
these candidates and they will make their decision based on their own
efforts. I am convinced either of them are a better choice than the
voters had in the run-off for this seat 4 years ago.
However, the voting members of OCPAC have endorsed Kevin Calvey based
on the interview of the candidates and our knowing Kevin for many
years. Kevin made some mistakes during his time in office, but has
admitted such mistakes which takes a person of character to do so.
The real difference in the race is the experience of Kevin Calvey and
his aggressiveness to get out front on issues, such as filing a
lawsuit against the federal government regarding Obamacare and his
leadership in exposing the Center for American and Islamic
Relationships (CAIR) as little more than a front group for radical
Islam. He has also taken on the Oklahoma Bar Association in their
perceived attempts to change the code of judicial conduct to inhibit
conservative lawyers from sitting as judges. Kevin believed the
attempt by the OBA was to allow more homosexuals to sit as judges His
opposition to MAPS 3 was simply an example of leadership.
James Lankford is a man of integrity and has accomplished a lot in the
private sector. He is smart and I believe he is more of an ideologue
than the Oklahoma believes, at least I hope he is. The main difference
is that James is running from the standpoint of a citizen legislator,
but unproven at this time in the realm of government. Kevin is running
from the standpoint of proven leadership in the realm of government
and politics. Therefore, I would suggest making up your mind based on
these perspectives and not the BS (Blue Smoke) published in the
Oklahoman because they were mad at Kevin because he didn‘t support
their taxpayer funded pet project.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
HAS THE ATTACK ON KEVIN CALVEY FINALLY STARTED?
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENT
++ BILLIONS IN NEW FEDERAL DEBT FOR LOCAL EDUCATION
++ BROGDON ENDORSES FALLIN, WHAT ABOUT HIS SUPPORTERS?
++ HAS THE ATTACK ON KEVIN CALVEY FINALLY STARTED?
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 11th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. I am often asked by
people who have never attended one of our meetings whether or not non
members can attend. The answer is a resounding yes as our meetings are
very open. Not only do we have members and friends attend, we also
have enemies and spies attend at various times. We have an arrangement
with the restaurant which is, 3 pieces of pizza and all the salad you
want ‘OR’ your choice of pasta and choice of topping with all the
salad you want, with water, for $9.00. Either of the 2 preceding
choices with a soft drink, tea or coffee is just $10. Taxes and tip
are included in those prices. You may also order off the menu. Over
the next 3 weeks we will be interviewing Republican candidates for the
State Senate, then on September 1st our dues paying members will vote
to determine which of the Senate candidates who appeared before us to
support financially. Invited to attend this Wednesday are Janica
Edmonds running for Senate District 8, Kim David running for District
18 and Joshua Jantz, candidate for District 29 which includes downtown
OKC.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* THURSDAY - OKC AREA - Central Oklahoma’s large group of patriot
pastors are having their monthly meeting this Thursday, August 12th at
12 noon to take advantage of a visit by Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)
attorney, Eric Stanley from Scottsdale Arizona. The ADF is an
organization specializing in protecting Christian’s civil liberties as
well as supporting the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Stanley’s specialty is
the “pulpit freedom initiative.” Paul Blair wanted me to encourage any
pastor to attend this meeting, and even bring a few of his church
deacons or elders along to the meeting. The location is Twin Hills
Golf and Country Club which is located about 3 blocks East of I-35 on
Northeast 36th Street. I believe the salad buffet only is $8 and the
full buffet is $12. The food is excellent and the time together for
pastors and their church leaders is educational and the fellowship is
most encouraging.
* THURSDAY - OKC AREA - The organization, Break Free For Lunch,
has been meeting for the past few months at the Character Training
Center, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. Their speaker this Thursday
will be Mr. Gordon Lawrence of Washington DC, another attorney with
the Alliance Defense Fund. The meeting starts at 12 noon and the
luncheon is free to all first time attendees. Lunch is $8 for all
others. For more information log onto, www.breakfreeforlunch.com
++ BILLIONS IN NEW FEDEERAL DEBT FOR LOCAL EDUCATION
Congress is busily working to violate the Constitution again with a
proposed $30 BILLION dollar piece of legislation to send to the states
to be used for paying teachers and keeping the states from making
significant cuts in education. There are 2 reasons I suggest the
measure is unconstitutional. First, according to the Constitution, all
spending, funding and taxation legislation must originate in the U.S.
House. This measure was passed in the Senate first last week with I
believe 2 Republicans going along with the Democrats. The second
reason is Education is not one of the 18 enumerated powers granted to
the Federal Government in Article I Section 8 of the Constitution.
According to the Constitution and the 10th Amendment, education is
only in the purview of the states and not the Federal government.
I would suggest the real motive behind Obama and his Democrat lackeys
in Congress desiring to “PRINT” another $30 Billion and send that to
the states is to keep the powerful indoctrination system (known as
“public education”) in place and functioning. I would suggest, that
through the UN’s Unesco program which has been interfacing with
America’s education system and driving many of the problems within our
classrooms, that the Federal Government’s involvement into local
education is far more problematic than valuable. Ronald Reagan ended
our relationship with Unesco and then George W. Bush, unfortunately
restored that relationship.
While I thank God for every brave and alert Christian or conservative
who decides to teach in the government schools, government education
is a broken system which costs too much and fails to produce a quality
product. Rather than begging for federal dollars, we should be telling
the feds to keep out of our business.
++ BROGDON ENDORSES FALLIN, WHAT ABOUT HIS SUPPORTERS?
This past Wednesday, Senator Brogdon arrived at our meeting around
12:30 following a meeting and press conference with U.S.
Representative Mary Fallin. Randy had several conversations with Mary
before last Wednesday and has been assured she would have the
convictions to stand up to the federal government when and where
needed. She also expressed several other conservative positions and if
elected only time will tell as to what degree she lives up to her
word. However, the question is should Randy’s supporters now be
willing to at least vote for Mary as well as possibly support her in
additional ways. I guess everyone will have to determine their own
course of action, but let me express my thought processes on the
issue.
Following the OCPAC meeting which resulted in our endorsement of Randy
Brogdon for Governor, I began to make the case that the race was not
between good and bad, but rather between good and better. I eventually
modified my suggestion that the race was between “OK” and better,
maybe “much better.” As a result of that analysis, my assessment about
Mary being good or maybe just OK, means I consider her at least OK and
as such better than Jari Askins. In addition, I had a fair amount of
success convincing Fallin supporters who agreed that Randy would make
a better governor, to switching their support to Brogdon under this
premise. Under a primary and primary run-off system a person can vote
for Randy Brogdon and if he doesn’t win, then support Mary in the
General election!
To be consistent and avoid hypocrisy, I now must support Mary for the
general election. I know it is hard to invest time and resources
supporting Randy and being completely convinced that Randy was the man
for the time, the more conservative and the more passionate and
courageous for the task and then be asked to lay that down and now
support Mary. The question is, are we going to be citizens ruled by
our emotions or are we going to evaluate this from a position of
reason and strong probabilities that Mary will be much more friendly
toward conservatism than Jari Askins? Case in point, just what are
Jari’s positions regarding Oklahoma’s opt out of Obamacare that we
will be voting on in November? Mary is very supportive of that state
question. Please consider these thoughts, many of the problems we face
today are because Americans make decisions out of emotions rather than
facts, reason and rational judgment. I hope we will subject our
emotion in this case to what is the logical choice and that is Mary.
One more thought, the Oklahoman’s lead editorial on Sunday, August the
8th was titled: “After making a dent, what’s next for tea party?”
With the exception of one error (Brogdon was not term limited), a
fabricated perspective (the controversy over militias was a media
created hysteria and never an agenda item of Oklahoma tea parties or
of Senator Brogdon) and at least one other poor perspective. Other
than that, the rest of the editorial was quite good. Following are
some excerpts:
“Brogdon, from Owasso, wasn’t well known statewide before the tea
party momentum began to build. He parlayed his message of limited
government and states’ rights into a solid run for the GOP nomination.
One high-ranking Republican we spoke with before the primary said
Brogdon could win the race if he had more money.
As it turned out, Brodgon (their spelling not mine) finished with 39
percent of the vote in the primary. Fallin won it with 54%. A 15-point
win is nothing to scoff at (rounded off, it was a 55% to 45% victory
for Fallin, a 10 point win, as Brogdon’s 39% along with Mr. Jackson
and Mr. Hubbard receiving 6% meant that 45% of the voters didn’t want
to vote for Mary) but many expected her to have an easier time,
especially given her profile - two-term U.S. House member and popular
former three-term lieutenant governor with much greater name
recognition.
Brogdon’s presence forced Fallin to defend her conservative bona fides
instead of spending more time out-lining her plans for governor…”
Now to the point of the high-ranking Republican telling the Oklahoman
that if Randy would have had more money he could have won. Let me say
this, Randy received 96,000 votes. If every person who voted for Randy
would have contributed just $10 to his campaign, he would have had a
half million dollars more than he raised. He could have had a real
presence on TV and radio and no doubt in my mind, at least forced Mary
into a run-off where she would then have lost.
My point is not to re-hash the election so much, but rather to
challenge us as citizens to contribute to good candidates. The best
way to take lobbyists and big money out of politics is for the average
citizen to contribute to good candidates so they have the resources to
communicate with the electorate and not have to rely on big money. In
the past I have suggested at least budgeting a little money each month
for citizenship duties. Over a 2 year period of time, citizens would
have enough saved to contribute at least small amounts to candidates
or join an organization such as OCPAC to leverage their impact on the
process.
++ HAS THE ATTACK ON KEVIN CALVEY FINALLY STARTED?
Early on, Kevin Calvey was the front-runner in the 5th District
Congressional race. Talking with Kevin months ago, he indicated he
knew he would be attacked, he just didn’t know from how many
directions the attacks would come.
I have believed for some time that the Oklahoman would be against
Kevin. In my opinion, the multiple news articles in Sunday’s Oklahoman
regarding Kevin was just the start of a subtle effort to raise doubts
in the minds of voters regarding Calvey. Particularly the totally
irrelevant article about stopping to help a vagrant in a driving rain
storm near a park known to be a bee hive of activity for homosexuals
and the fact that the vagrant told Kevin about a dead body in a vacant
building… yada, yada, yada.
Here is the deal, Mark Shannon asked Kevin on air during the
controversial debate regarding Maps III if he supported the extension
of the sales tax? Kevin’s answer was no because he believed that
during a recession, the citizens could best benefit from a tax cut. I
am of the opinion, that Clay Bennett, a member of the family who owns
the Oklahoman, is probably out there urging the business community to
oppose Calvey and support James Lankford for Congress. It is also my
understanding that former Mayor Kirk Humphreys is going to host a fund
raiser for James Lankford. If that information is correct, you
couldn’t have a better picture of the central planning establishment
working to capture the ear and service of Lankford and thus begin
their efforts to be served by a Congressman.
Even though OCPAC endorsed Kevin Calvey, I have had a great deal of
respect for James Lankford and the campaign he has conducted. Up until
now, his campaign has primarily been financed by people who have never
before contributed to political races. He has truly brought a whole
new group of people into the process, at least to a deeper level of
commitment than just being a voter.
I know how seductive these powerful central planners can be and am
very concerned as to whether or not James can be independent with
their support should he win? Will he have the ability to say no when
they want some pork for a pet project? Will James continue to care
about excessive spending and huge deficits? This is where is gets
really tough to be in elected office.
During the debate on Maps III, all of the then known candidates were
against the proposition except Mike Thompson who told me he had a
strong opinion but wouldn’t dare share it with anyone and James
Lankford who wouldn’t say if he were against or for the measure as he
didn’t believe a person in Congress should interject himself into
local matters. I always struggled with that answer as I don’t believe
that to be leadership. I suspect James’ answer was partly determined
based on advice from a political consultant. Real leadership will
always get out front and lead. Kevin did that and now is at risk from
those special interests who may be the primary beneficiaries from the
extension of the sales tax.
This run-off election could go either way, so please consider these
perspectives and consider as to why the Oklahoman may not support
Kevin Calvey. It is all the more reason for me to want to support
Kevin as I believe he is not the candidate of what I might suggest are
the OKC central planners.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ ANNOUNCEMENT
++ BILLIONS IN NEW FEDERAL DEBT FOR LOCAL EDUCATION
++ BROGDON ENDORSES FALLIN, WHAT ABOUT HIS SUPPORTERS?
++ HAS THE ATTACK ON KEVIN CALVEY FINALLY STARTED?
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 11th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. I am often asked by
people who have never attended one of our meetings whether or not non
members can attend. The answer is a resounding yes as our meetings are
very open. Not only do we have members and friends attend, we also
have enemies and spies attend at various times. We have an arrangement
with the restaurant which is, 3 pieces of pizza and all the salad you
want ‘OR’ your choice of pasta and choice of topping with all the
salad you want, with water, for $9.00. Either of the 2 preceding
choices with a soft drink, tea or coffee is just $10. Taxes and tip
are included in those prices. You may also order off the menu. Over
the next 3 weeks we will be interviewing Republican candidates for the
State Senate, then on September 1st our dues paying members will vote
to determine which of the Senate candidates who appeared before us to
support financially. Invited to attend this Wednesday are Janica
Edmonds running for Senate District 8, Kim David running for District
18 and Joshua Jantz, candidate for District 29 which includes downtown
OKC.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* THURSDAY - OKC AREA - Central Oklahoma’s large group of patriot
pastors are having their monthly meeting this Thursday, August 12th at
12 noon to take advantage of a visit by Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)
attorney, Eric Stanley from Scottsdale Arizona. The ADF is an
organization specializing in protecting Christian’s civil liberties as
well as supporting the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Stanley’s specialty is
the “pulpit freedom initiative.” Paul Blair wanted me to encourage any
pastor to attend this meeting, and even bring a few of his church
deacons or elders along to the meeting. The location is Twin Hills
Golf and Country Club which is located about 3 blocks East of I-35 on
Northeast 36th Street. I believe the salad buffet only is $8 and the
full buffet is $12. The food is excellent and the time together for
pastors and their church leaders is educational and the fellowship is
most encouraging.
* THURSDAY - OKC AREA - The organization, Break Free For Lunch,
has been meeting for the past few months at the Character Training
Center, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. Their speaker this Thursday
will be Mr. Gordon Lawrence of Washington DC, another attorney with
the Alliance Defense Fund. The meeting starts at 12 noon and the
luncheon is free to all first time attendees. Lunch is $8 for all
others. For more information log onto, www.breakfreeforlunch.com
++ BILLIONS IN NEW FEDEERAL DEBT FOR LOCAL EDUCATION
Congress is busily working to violate the Constitution again with a
proposed $30 BILLION dollar piece of legislation to send to the states
to be used for paying teachers and keeping the states from making
significant cuts in education. There are 2 reasons I suggest the
measure is unconstitutional. First, according to the Constitution, all
spending, funding and taxation legislation must originate in the U.S.
House. This measure was passed in the Senate first last week with I
believe 2 Republicans going along with the Democrats. The second
reason is Education is not one of the 18 enumerated powers granted to
the Federal Government in Article I Section 8 of the Constitution.
According to the Constitution and the 10th Amendment, education is
only in the purview of the states and not the Federal government.
I would suggest the real motive behind Obama and his Democrat lackeys
in Congress desiring to “PRINT” another $30 Billion and send that to
the states is to keep the powerful indoctrination system (known as
“public education”) in place and functioning. I would suggest, that
through the UN’s Unesco program which has been interfacing with
America’s education system and driving many of the problems within our
classrooms, that the Federal Government’s involvement into local
education is far more problematic than valuable. Ronald Reagan ended
our relationship with Unesco and then George W. Bush, unfortunately
restored that relationship.
While I thank God for every brave and alert Christian or conservative
who decides to teach in the government schools, government education
is a broken system which costs too much and fails to produce a quality
product. Rather than begging for federal dollars, we should be telling
the feds to keep out of our business.
++ BROGDON ENDORSES FALLIN, WHAT ABOUT HIS SUPPORTERS?
This past Wednesday, Senator Brogdon arrived at our meeting around
12:30 following a meeting and press conference with U.S.
Representative Mary Fallin. Randy had several conversations with Mary
before last Wednesday and has been assured she would have the
convictions to stand up to the federal government when and where
needed. She also expressed several other conservative positions and if
elected only time will tell as to what degree she lives up to her
word. However, the question is should Randy’s supporters now be
willing to at least vote for Mary as well as possibly support her in
additional ways. I guess everyone will have to determine their own
course of action, but let me express my thought processes on the
issue.
Following the OCPAC meeting which resulted in our endorsement of Randy
Brogdon for Governor, I began to make the case that the race was not
between good and bad, but rather between good and better. I eventually
modified my suggestion that the race was between “OK” and better,
maybe “much better.” As a result of that analysis, my assessment about
Mary being good or maybe just OK, means I consider her at least OK and
as such better than Jari Askins. In addition, I had a fair amount of
success convincing Fallin supporters who agreed that Randy would make
a better governor, to switching their support to Brogdon under this
premise. Under a primary and primary run-off system a person can vote
for Randy Brogdon and if he doesn’t win, then support Mary in the
General election!
To be consistent and avoid hypocrisy, I now must support Mary for the
general election. I know it is hard to invest time and resources
supporting Randy and being completely convinced that Randy was the man
for the time, the more conservative and the more passionate and
courageous for the task and then be asked to lay that down and now
support Mary. The question is, are we going to be citizens ruled by
our emotions or are we going to evaluate this from a position of
reason and strong probabilities that Mary will be much more friendly
toward conservatism than Jari Askins? Case in point, just what are
Jari’s positions regarding Oklahoma’s opt out of Obamacare that we
will be voting on in November? Mary is very supportive of that state
question. Please consider these thoughts, many of the problems we face
today are because Americans make decisions out of emotions rather than
facts, reason and rational judgment. I hope we will subject our
emotion in this case to what is the logical choice and that is Mary.
One more thought, the Oklahoman’s lead editorial on Sunday, August the
8th was titled: “After making a dent, what’s next for tea party?”
With the exception of one error (Brogdon was not term limited), a
fabricated perspective (the controversy over militias was a media
created hysteria and never an agenda item of Oklahoma tea parties or
of Senator Brogdon) and at least one other poor perspective. Other
than that, the rest of the editorial was quite good. Following are
some excerpts:
“Brogdon, from Owasso, wasn’t well known statewide before the tea
party momentum began to build. He parlayed his message of limited
government and states’ rights into a solid run for the GOP nomination.
One high-ranking Republican we spoke with before the primary said
Brogdon could win the race if he had more money.
As it turned out, Brodgon (their spelling not mine) finished with 39
percent of the vote in the primary. Fallin won it with 54%. A 15-point
win is nothing to scoff at (rounded off, it was a 55% to 45% victory
for Fallin, a 10 point win, as Brogdon’s 39% along with Mr. Jackson
and Mr. Hubbard receiving 6% meant that 45% of the voters didn’t want
to vote for Mary) but many expected her to have an easier time,
especially given her profile - two-term U.S. House member and popular
former three-term lieutenant governor with much greater name
recognition.
Brogdon’s presence forced Fallin to defend her conservative bona fides
instead of spending more time out-lining her plans for governor…”
Now to the point of the high-ranking Republican telling the Oklahoman
that if Randy would have had more money he could have won. Let me say
this, Randy received 96,000 votes. If every person who voted for Randy
would have contributed just $10 to his campaign, he would have had a
half million dollars more than he raised. He could have had a real
presence on TV and radio and no doubt in my mind, at least forced Mary
into a run-off where she would then have lost.
My point is not to re-hash the election so much, but rather to
challenge us as citizens to contribute to good candidates. The best
way to take lobbyists and big money out of politics is for the average
citizen to contribute to good candidates so they have the resources to
communicate with the electorate and not have to rely on big money. In
the past I have suggested at least budgeting a little money each month
for citizenship duties. Over a 2 year period of time, citizens would
have enough saved to contribute at least small amounts to candidates
or join an organization such as OCPAC to leverage their impact on the
process.
++ HAS THE ATTACK ON KEVIN CALVEY FINALLY STARTED?
Early on, Kevin Calvey was the front-runner in the 5th District
Congressional race. Talking with Kevin months ago, he indicated he
knew he would be attacked, he just didn’t know from how many
directions the attacks would come.
I have believed for some time that the Oklahoman would be against
Kevin. In my opinion, the multiple news articles in Sunday’s Oklahoman
regarding Kevin was just the start of a subtle effort to raise doubts
in the minds of voters regarding Calvey. Particularly the totally
irrelevant article about stopping to help a vagrant in a driving rain
storm near a park known to be a bee hive of activity for homosexuals
and the fact that the vagrant told Kevin about a dead body in a vacant
building… yada, yada, yada.
Here is the deal, Mark Shannon asked Kevin on air during the
controversial debate regarding Maps III if he supported the extension
of the sales tax? Kevin’s answer was no because he believed that
during a recession, the citizens could best benefit from a tax cut. I
am of the opinion, that Clay Bennett, a member of the family who owns
the Oklahoman, is probably out there urging the business community to
oppose Calvey and support James Lankford for Congress. It is also my
understanding that former Mayor Kirk Humphreys is going to host a fund
raiser for James Lankford. If that information is correct, you
couldn’t have a better picture of the central planning establishment
working to capture the ear and service of Lankford and thus begin
their efforts to be served by a Congressman.
Even though OCPAC endorsed Kevin Calvey, I have had a great deal of
respect for James Lankford and the campaign he has conducted. Up until
now, his campaign has primarily been financed by people who have never
before contributed to political races. He has truly brought a whole
new group of people into the process, at least to a deeper level of
commitment than just being a voter.
I know how seductive these powerful central planners can be and am
very concerned as to whether or not James can be independent with
their support should he win? Will he have the ability to say no when
they want some pork for a pet project? Will James continue to care
about excessive spending and huge deficits? This is where is gets
really tough to be in elected office.
During the debate on Maps III, all of the then known candidates were
against the proposition except Mike Thompson who told me he had a
strong opinion but wouldn’t dare share it with anyone and James
Lankford who wouldn’t say if he were against or for the measure as he
didn’t believe a person in Congress should interject himself into
local matters. I always struggled with that answer as I don’t believe
that to be leadership. I suspect James’ answer was partly determined
based on advice from a political consultant. Real leadership will
always get out front and lead. Kevin did that and now is at risk from
those special interests who may be the primary beneficiaries from the
extension of the sales tax.
This run-off election could go either way, so please consider these
perspectives and consider as to why the Oklahoman may not support
Kevin Calvey. It is all the more reason for me to want to support
Kevin as I believe he is not the candidate of what I might suggest are
the OKC central planners.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
ELECTION RESULTS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENT
++ ELECTION RESULTS
++ INFORMATION ABOUT OCPAC
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 4th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Though he is
expected to arrive a little late, Senator Brogdon will drop by our
meeting to fill us in on some of his possible aspirations, now that
the election is over. Senator Brogdon will also meet with Mary Fallin
on Wednesday to determine if he will endorse her. I talked with him on
Monday and the endorsement is not a given. We will also vote regarding
the possibility of making a financial contribution to Senator Todd
Lamb in his Lt. Governor’s race. Our by-laws only allow us to
contribute to statewide candidates we endorsed during our interview
process and only if they get into the general elections. The one
exception is any candidate who came to our interview process but did
not get our endorsement, if they win the primary our members will vote
to determine if we will contribute to their general election. So far
Scott Pruitt, Janet Barresi, Mark Costello and if he wins in the run-
off, John Doak all qualify for our support. However, Mark Costello has
indicated he will not receive any contributions from a PAC, even a
general interest PAC like OCPAC who does not employ any lobbyists.
Mary Fallin and Ken Miller didn’t attend our interview process, so
they are ineligible for our financial support. In the gubernatorial
election cycle we set aside up to 25% of our dues monies for state
wide races. We have over $10,000 available for those races. If time
permits, we will view a new DVD produced by the John Birch Society
titled, CONSTITUTION SI, AMNESTY NO!
++ ANNOUNCEMENT
The Southwest Radio Ministries is sponsoring the WAKE UP AMERICA
CONFERENCE this coming Friday and Saturday, August 6 & 7 at the
Clarion Meridian Hotel & Convention Center. The location is just South
of the I-40 service road on the West side of Meridian in OKC. The
doors open at 8:00 a.m. on Friday for registration with a welcome at
8:30 and the first speaker at 8:50 a.m.. The conference will dismiss
at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and re-convene at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and
dismiss at 5:00 p.m.. The cost to attend the entire conference is a
very reasonable $25.
Speakers will be noted author Dr. Noah Hutchings, Dr. Larry
Spargimino, Dr. Kenneth Hill, retired OU professor and author Dr. Ed
Blick, Pastor Dan Fisher from Trinity Baptist Church in Yukon, State
Representative Sally Kern, Dr. Christian Wei, from the underground
church movement in China, Dr. Rick Scarborough with Vision America,
Pastor William Temple, a founding father re-enactor and Dr. John
Morris who will be speaking on creation research.
“The goal for the 2010 Oklahoma City Conference will be to send each
attendee home with a better understanding of their own responsibility
and mission to save this once great Christian nation. We will be
addressing subjects related to restoring the guiding Biblical
principals ordained by God: Family, Church, and Government. These
subjects will be considered from the Biblical, historical, spiritual,
and prophetic perspective” - Dr. Noah W. Hutchings, event organizer.
This should be another outstanding conference similar to the recent Re-
claiming America for Christ conference. OCPAC will have a table at the
conference and I hope to see as many folks there as possible.
++ ELECTION RESULTS
Of all the OCPAC endorsed candidates we lost 11 races, won 7 and still
have 3 in run-off races. In my many years of activism I have been
involved in many grassroots campaigns against the Republican
establishment candidates. Some of those campaigns include Mike Fair,
Jerry Pierce and Jerry Brown in races for Governor. Others have
included Tim Green, and James Dunn (Dunn was a general election but
many establishment Repbulicans didn’t support him) for Attorney
General.
Usually the establishment candidate gets 60 percent or more of the
vote. Mary Fallin is one of the highest profile establishment
candidates to ever run for Governor, with her 12 years as Lt. Governor
and current position as a member of Congress. However, she could only
garner a little more than 54% of the vote, which is the lowest number
ever for an establishment candidate.
I believe the reasons are as follows. Randy Brogdon is probably the
most charismatic candidate with substance the grassroots have had to
support in all these years. He inspired the largest number and most
effective use of grassroots volunteers I have ever seen. He was able
to raise just enough money to be viable and I believe if he had been
able to raise another $200,000 for media buys and would have had
another 3 months, Randy would have won or at least been in a run-off
with Mary.
The other factor is the rise of the tea party and 912 movements. These
folks have come into the process alongside groups like OCPAC, members
of the John Birch Society, members of OK-SAFE, Eagle Forum and others
to make a difference. None of the above mentioned groups are
interested in blindly supporting a candidate simply because they have
the word “Republican” by their names. There is an awakening going on
in America and many of these newly awakened people are studying the
constitution, our history and are saying “we want constitutional
substance” and not just a lot of fluff. If these people will stay
involved and bring others into the process of resorting America, we
can bring this nation back from the brink of disaster. However, that
challenge will take time, resources and great effort as well as God’s
blessings on those efforts.
++ INFORMATION ABOUT OCPAC
Every time I do a Charlie’s Picks, I receive a lot of requests from
people to be added to our weekly e-mail list. However, this time the
number of people requesting to be added was far more than any other
time in the past. While not everyone agrees with all of the Picks, I
received so many expressions of thanks from people looking for
information about candidates. I finally got everyone added to our list
late last night. With so many new people on the list, I wanted to tell
a little about OCPAC.
We have been an organization for a little over 12 years now, but
before our organizing we were a debating society for the previous 7
years. We have now met for lunch EVERY Wednesday but one for the past
19 years. Christmas day, our only miss, has fallen on a Wednesday only
1 time in the past 19 years. Over the past 5 election cycles we have
raised and contributed a little over $100,000 to 72 different
candidates and 37 of those have been elected to office. We are on
track to raise over $40,000 for this year’s election cycle.
We are not interested in supporting likely winners with the word
Republican by their names. We are looking for candidates who are truly
conservative, limited government constitutionalists with Judeo/
Christian values. We want to help those kind of candidates win their
elections. All of the money we raise comes from our dues paying
members. We have 3 basic levels of membership, the basic at $50 per
year, the Elephant Provider level at $180 per year or a $15 per month
checking account draft and the Elephant Provider and RINO Hunter level
at $360 per year or a $30 per month checking account draft.
All OCPAC members are volunteers and as such there is very limited
overhead. Almost all of the dues paid by members goes for candidates
or a limited amount is sometimes spent to try and hold elected
Republicans accountable for the conservative rhetoric they espouse
when they want our votes, but sometimes stray from conservative
positions when elected.
Last year we had a record breaking membership of 217 dues paying
members. As of the end of July, we now have 261 dues paying members,
another record breaking year. We now have 3,800 people receiving our
weekly e-mail on a direct basis and God only knows how far it gets
forwarded. The volunteer who maintains our blog informed me over the
weekend that over the past 3 weeks we have gone from 11,000 to 16,000
hits. Most Democrats don’t like us and we have our friends as well as
detractors within the Republican party.
OCPAC has grown every year in size and influence. My personal reward,
other than doing what I believe God has called me to do, is the many
fine people I get to know and communicate with both on line and more
importantly in person. If you would like to join our efforts by
becoming a dues paying member, please do so now. We will have several
fine candidates to support in the general elections and almost every
penny of your dues will go to support those candidates that survive
our interview process, lovingly known as the “inquisition.” To join,
see the instructions following my sign off.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ ANNOUNCEMENT
++ ELECTION RESULTS
++ INFORMATION ABOUT OCPAC
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 4th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Though he is
expected to arrive a little late, Senator Brogdon will drop by our
meeting to fill us in on some of his possible aspirations, now that
the election is over. Senator Brogdon will also meet with Mary Fallin
on Wednesday to determine if he will endorse her. I talked with him on
Monday and the endorsement is not a given. We will also vote regarding
the possibility of making a financial contribution to Senator Todd
Lamb in his Lt. Governor’s race. Our by-laws only allow us to
contribute to statewide candidates we endorsed during our interview
process and only if they get into the general elections. The one
exception is any candidate who came to our interview process but did
not get our endorsement, if they win the primary our members will vote
to determine if we will contribute to their general election. So far
Scott Pruitt, Janet Barresi, Mark Costello and if he wins in the run-
off, John Doak all qualify for our support. However, Mark Costello has
indicated he will not receive any contributions from a PAC, even a
general interest PAC like OCPAC who does not employ any lobbyists.
Mary Fallin and Ken Miller didn’t attend our interview process, so
they are ineligible for our financial support. In the gubernatorial
election cycle we set aside up to 25% of our dues monies for state
wide races. We have over $10,000 available for those races. If time
permits, we will view a new DVD produced by the John Birch Society
titled, CONSTITUTION SI, AMNESTY NO!
++ ANNOUNCEMENT
The Southwest Radio Ministries is sponsoring the WAKE UP AMERICA
CONFERENCE this coming Friday and Saturday, August 6 & 7 at the
Clarion Meridian Hotel & Convention Center. The location is just South
of the I-40 service road on the West side of Meridian in OKC. The
doors open at 8:00 a.m. on Friday for registration with a welcome at
8:30 and the first speaker at 8:50 a.m.. The conference will dismiss
at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and re-convene at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and
dismiss at 5:00 p.m.. The cost to attend the entire conference is a
very reasonable $25.
Speakers will be noted author Dr. Noah Hutchings, Dr. Larry
Spargimino, Dr. Kenneth Hill, retired OU professor and author Dr. Ed
Blick, Pastor Dan Fisher from Trinity Baptist Church in Yukon, State
Representative Sally Kern, Dr. Christian Wei, from the underground
church movement in China, Dr. Rick Scarborough with Vision America,
Pastor William Temple, a founding father re-enactor and Dr. John
Morris who will be speaking on creation research.
“The goal for the 2010 Oklahoma City Conference will be to send each
attendee home with a better understanding of their own responsibility
and mission to save this once great Christian nation. We will be
addressing subjects related to restoring the guiding Biblical
principals ordained by God: Family, Church, and Government. These
subjects will be considered from the Biblical, historical, spiritual,
and prophetic perspective” - Dr. Noah W. Hutchings, event organizer.
This should be another outstanding conference similar to the recent Re-
claiming America for Christ conference. OCPAC will have a table at the
conference and I hope to see as many folks there as possible.
++ ELECTION RESULTS
Of all the OCPAC endorsed candidates we lost 11 races, won 7 and still
have 3 in run-off races. In my many years of activism I have been
involved in many grassroots campaigns against the Republican
establishment candidates. Some of those campaigns include Mike Fair,
Jerry Pierce and Jerry Brown in races for Governor. Others have
included Tim Green, and James Dunn (Dunn was a general election but
many establishment Repbulicans didn’t support him) for Attorney
General.
Usually the establishment candidate gets 60 percent or more of the
vote. Mary Fallin is one of the highest profile establishment
candidates to ever run for Governor, with her 12 years as Lt. Governor
and current position as a member of Congress. However, she could only
garner a little more than 54% of the vote, which is the lowest number
ever for an establishment candidate.
I believe the reasons are as follows. Randy Brogdon is probably the
most charismatic candidate with substance the grassroots have had to
support in all these years. He inspired the largest number and most
effective use of grassroots volunteers I have ever seen. He was able
to raise just enough money to be viable and I believe if he had been
able to raise another $200,000 for media buys and would have had
another 3 months, Randy would have won or at least been in a run-off
with Mary.
The other factor is the rise of the tea party and 912 movements. These
folks have come into the process alongside groups like OCPAC, members
of the John Birch Society, members of OK-SAFE, Eagle Forum and others
to make a difference. None of the above mentioned groups are
interested in blindly supporting a candidate simply because they have
the word “Republican” by their names. There is an awakening going on
in America and many of these newly awakened people are studying the
constitution, our history and are saying “we want constitutional
substance” and not just a lot of fluff. If these people will stay
involved and bring others into the process of resorting America, we
can bring this nation back from the brink of disaster. However, that
challenge will take time, resources and great effort as well as God’s
blessings on those efforts.
++ INFORMATION ABOUT OCPAC
Every time I do a Charlie’s Picks, I receive a lot of requests from
people to be added to our weekly e-mail list. However, this time the
number of people requesting to be added was far more than any other
time in the past. While not everyone agrees with all of the Picks, I
received so many expressions of thanks from people looking for
information about candidates. I finally got everyone added to our list
late last night. With so many new people on the list, I wanted to tell
a little about OCPAC.
We have been an organization for a little over 12 years now, but
before our organizing we were a debating society for the previous 7
years. We have now met for lunch EVERY Wednesday but one for the past
19 years. Christmas day, our only miss, has fallen on a Wednesday only
1 time in the past 19 years. Over the past 5 election cycles we have
raised and contributed a little over $100,000 to 72 different
candidates and 37 of those have been elected to office. We are on
track to raise over $40,000 for this year’s election cycle.
We are not interested in supporting likely winners with the word
Republican by their names. We are looking for candidates who are truly
conservative, limited government constitutionalists with Judeo/
Christian values. We want to help those kind of candidates win their
elections. All of the money we raise comes from our dues paying
members. We have 3 basic levels of membership, the basic at $50 per
year, the Elephant Provider level at $180 per year or a $15 per month
checking account draft and the Elephant Provider and RINO Hunter level
at $360 per year or a $30 per month checking account draft.
All OCPAC members are volunteers and as such there is very limited
overhead. Almost all of the dues paid by members goes for candidates
or a limited amount is sometimes spent to try and hold elected
Republicans accountable for the conservative rhetoric they espouse
when they want our votes, but sometimes stray from conservative
positions when elected.
Last year we had a record breaking membership of 217 dues paying
members. As of the end of July, we now have 261 dues paying members,
another record breaking year. We now have 3,800 people receiving our
weekly e-mail on a direct basis and God only knows how far it gets
forwarded. The volunteer who maintains our blog informed me over the
weekend that over the past 3 weeks we have gone from 11,000 to 16,000
hits. Most Democrats don’t like us and we have our friends as well as
detractors within the Republican party.
OCPAC has grown every year in size and influence. My personal reward,
other than doing what I believe God has called me to do, is the many
fine people I get to know and communicate with both on line and more
importantly in person. If you would like to join our efforts by
becoming a dues paying member, please do so now. We will have several
fine candidates to support in the general elections and almost every
penny of your dues will go to support those candidates that survive
our interview process, lovingly known as the “inquisition.” To join,
see the instructions following my sign off.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
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