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