THE PASSING OF A GREAT AMERICAN - BILL STEMMONS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ CAROL HEFNER WINS OCPAC ENDORSEMENT
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE & AGENDA RE-FOCUS
++ DANGER AHEAD - 2011, WILL STATES CALL FOR A CON CON?
++ CLEAN UP - ILLIGIMATE JUDICAL NOMINATING COMMISSION
++ THE PASSING OF A GREAT AMERICAN - BILL STEMMONS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, December 29th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. The first part of
our program will feature one of Oklahoma’s treasures, Mr. Jim Garling.
Jim moved from Norman to Guthrie about 8 or so years ago and began
performing on some occasions with Byron Berline, 2 time national
fiddle champion. Jim teaches guitar lessons and developed a love for
Western Swing and Cowboy Music. Too few Oklahoman’s know about the
singing cowboy museum located in Gene Autry Oklahoma. It is located in
an old school house, where each school room is dedicated to a
different singing cowboy. Also, a couple of old Gene Autry movies are
shown every day in the gym. During the fall, there is a music festival
on the grounds dedicated to this nearly lost form of music. Jim will
do a few songs and a sampling of cowboy poetry. In addition we will
have 2 mystery speakers, each taking 6 or 7 minutes to speak. Jim is
going to close our meeting for us with the song Happy Trails To You.
This meeting will be a lot of fun. We haven’t had a meeting like this
since Kyle Dillingham performed for us several years ago. I am also
going to propose changing our by-laws to return to the last Wednesday
in March for the election of officers rather than during our awards
banquet. We changed our by-laws last year to move that to the awards
banquet and I just don’t believe it will fit well with a fun event
like an awards banquet. We will have some discussion on this subject
then our members will vote to change it or leave it alone.

++ CAROL HEFNER WINS OCPAC ENDORSEMENT

This past Wednesday, Carol Hefner, Kenny Goza and Greg Treat went
through our interview process and then our members voted to give Carol
our endorsement. I was not surprised she won, just a little surprised
she won on the first ballot with nearly 65% of the vote. Each of these
3 candidates have some areas where they stand very strong. However,
Carol takes a strong position on nearly every issue. In addition, she
is very personable, passionate and an excellent communicator.

She also comes across as a person who is kind, but will not be pushed
around by the lobbyists or the good ole boys who have for too long
bullied weak lawmakers into bad votes. Because there is not a run-off
in the Republican primary, I believe Carol will win this special
election, especially given the higher name ID and the fact that she is
working very hard and has sufficient finances.

Based on what I have read about Mr. Brawley, his wanting not to give
much attention at this time to social or side issues, but focus on the
economic issues would have made it hard for him to have done well at
OCPAC. Mr. Dobbs also takes that position to some degree and he
clearly stated at the high noon club forum that he is in favor of
corporate welfare. Corporate welfare is an incentive for economic
development from the central planning philosophy, but it is the enemy
of reducing taxes and regulations. You can’t give millions of dollars
away and have a low tax base at the same time.

++ OCPAC PERFORMANCE UP-DATE & AGENDA RE-FOCUS

As the year draws to an end I wanted to give a summary of our past
performance. We quit taking new memberships for 2010 somewhere around
the middle of October. We ended up with 287 dues paying members, which
went along with the 217 dues paying members during 2009. The combined
dues for those two years raised $44,300 and our PAC expenses were less
than $400. After we made our final campaign contribution in early
October we had about $17 in the bank.

We endorsed and or contributed to 35 candidates this election cycle,
with 20 of them being elected. When it comes to candidates we
contributed to for the first time, 13 of those candidates out of 19
won their elections. All 7 of the conservative incumbents we supported
won their reelections. All told, over the past 6 election cycles, we
have now contributed to 92 different candidates, based on the outcome
of the January 11th special election either 50 or 51 of them will have
won their elections.

For the 2000 election cycle, we raised $4,000, in 2002 it was $8,400,
2004 saw us raising $24,000, it was $31,000 in 2006, $33,00 for 2008
and then $44,000 for 2010. Since we are all volunteers in our efforts,
none of our dues goes for salaries and as such we have earned the
trust and respect of so many of our members who contribute to this
effort. On behalf of the OCPAC officers, our most humble thanks for
the support.

We have 25 families or single donors who have us draft their checking
accounts on a monthly basis for either $15 or $30 per month. As such
that accounts for nearly $600 per month, which forms the base of about
$7,000 per year or $14,000 for an election cycle. That is huge in our
efforts and a special thanks to those folks. Assuming those folks
continue, along with the people who have already joined for next year,
we now already have 82 dues paying members for 2011 and have already
raised over $5,000 before the end of the year. Again, thanks so much.
As of this Friday, everyone’s membership will expire except those
having their checking accounts drafted or those who have paid their
dues over the past couple of months with the intent of them applying
to 2011. If you have not joined as yet, please consider doing so at
this time.

When we first started OCPAC, the Democrats were in control of both the
House and Senate. Today, with super majorities held by Republican in
both the House and Senate, Democrats have little relevance in state
government. As such, I believe our efforts need to shift to electing a
more conservative group of Republicans. While we will always look for
and support those truly conservative Republicans in general election
races, I believe we will use a larger amount of our PAC funds to
defeat RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and replace them with
conservative Republicans.

As such, as soon as next year’s session is over, redistricting is done
and the conservative index is out, we will probably select a couple of
liberal Republican House members and a couple in the Senate as our
targets. At that time we will begin a year long effort using robotic
phone calls and direct mail pieces into the Republican households in
their districts to inform those voters about the liberalism of their
personal lawmaker. We will also suggest for one or more true
conservatives in the district to decide to run against them in 2012.

Possible targets will be Doug Cox in the House and Patrick Anderson in
the Senate. We might also include a lawmaker who would sponsor really
bad legislation such as eliminating the requirement for a 60% super
majority for school bond elections, or perhaps legislation for
Oklahoma to call for a Constitutional Convention (Con-Con) to amend
the U.S. Constitution.

Therefore, if you are faint at heart and still think our fight is only
against liberal Democrats, you might want to pause before you join
OCPAC. Because we are going to try and replace liberals with
conservatives, regardless of what designation they have by their
names. Instructions on how to become a dues paying member will follow
my sign off. Thanks again for all the support.

++ DANGER AHEAD-2011, WILL STATES CALL FOR A CON CON?

Any conservative or constitutionalist, closely watching the
performance of the federal government, should be very concerned,
knowing that the federal government is gravely ill, even terminal if
corrective action is not taken and the soo. With such concern and
frustration, people often look for ways to take shortcuts in an effort
to fix the problems.

One of the ideas to solve our problems, is a movement calling on the
various states to issue a call for a Constitutional Convention (Con
Con), with the intention of amending our U.S. Constitution. Article 5,
Section 8 of the Constitution delineates the 2 different methods to
amend our Constitution. The method that has been used for all 27 of
the current Amendments is for Congress to pass a proposed amendment
and submit it to the states for ratification. A 75% supermajority of
the states is needed under our current Constitution for ratification.

The other method is for 2/3rds of the states to issue a call for a
constitutional convention. This has only occurred once in our history.
Following our War of Independence our fledgling new country was being
governed under the Articles of Confederation. There were a few
deficiencies that existed, so the various states convened a
Constitutional Convention to tighten up those loose ends. However,
once the convention was convened, those delegates threw out the
Articles of Confederation and crafted what is now known as our
Constitution.

Some of those great minds and men of high character warned us about
the dangers of doing so again, as once convened, there would be no
guarantee of it not becoming a runaway or rogue convention. Since that
early time several U.S. Supreme Court Justices have warned that such a
convention could not be limited to a single issue, or a particular
group of issues. In other words, we could see the brilliance of those
great men thrown out the window and something very inferior put in
place, something that might not require a super majority or even a
simple majority for ratification purposes. Even respected contemporary
minds like Jude Robert Bork on the right and Harvard Professor Larry
Tribe on the left have also warned that a Con Con can’t be limited to
the purpose in which it is convened.

As a result, a week ago Wednesday, former Senator Randy Brogdon, and
current Representatives Charles Key, Mike Ritze and I went to the
Capitol where a couple of digital cameras and sound equipment were set
up. There in the House Lounge, we filmed about 40 minutes of questions
and answers, so the John Birch Society can edit it down to about 10 to
15 minutes to produce a new DVD to educate lawmakers all over the
nation as to the dangers of calling for a Con Con. It should be ready
for distribution to lawmakers as well as showing on the internet in
short order.

This is important as several organizations or entities have been
preparing model legislation to be introduced into all 50 states during
this year’s legislative sessions. This will be a very dangerous time
for the future of our nation. We in Oklahoma must stay alert and make
sure our legislature does not go down this foolish road. It was just 2
years ago that we rescinded all of Oklahoma’s previous calls for a Con
Con.

++ CLEAN UP THE ILLEGITIMATE JUDICIAL NOMINATING COMMISSION

Tomorrow, Tuesday the 28th, the Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Committee
(JDC) will meet to try and rail road through 3 names so Governor Henry
can appoint yet another liberal Justice to the State Supreme Court.
These liberal members of the court will become his greatest legacy
other than being known as the Governor that opened the gates to the
flood of gambling that currently flourishes throughout the state.

Last week, citizen watch dog and Constitutionalist Jerry Fent filed a
motion to stay this action by the JDC. The grounds for his stay were
primarily based on the fact that the Constitution requires for there
to be 2 members on the JDC from each congressional district, which
would mean the commission should have 10 members, plus an 11th so
there would be an odd number. The 11th person is selected by the
members of the JDC.

However, following the redistricting which occurred 10 years ago
following the 2000 census, we failed to reduce the number from 12
members plus 1 down to 10 members plus 1. Therefore, the make-up of
the JDC is unconstitutional. In addition, with passage of State
Question 752 on November 2nd of this year, we amended our Constitution
to add two more members, one selected by the Senate President Pro-Tem
and the other selected by the Speaker of the House. Neither of those 2
have been appointed at this time.

Fent’s motion was tough because it challenged the validity of all
sitting Justices on the Court today since 2001 and even challenged SQ
752 since it calls for there to be15 members on the JDC, which was
again based on 6 congressional districts plus 3 members rather than
the current number of 5 congressional districts.

Retiring Chief Justice Rudolph Hargrave denied Mr. Fent’s motion last
week. Hargrave had a chance to do the right thing, to slow down the
process and allow Mr. Fent’s challenge be heard on its merits, but he
chose not to do so. Therefore Hargrave’s LEGACY will be known as a
person who wasn’t interested in doing right by the constitution, but
rather as a person willing to take the heat off of his colleagues so
the rail road job could be completed. This is not a man that deserves
honor, but scorn and shame.

Earlier today, December 27th, State Senator Clark Jolley filed another
motion contesting the matter on a little different grounds. Hopefully
there will be an honorable member of the court who will do the right
thing and determine that this matter on its merits before the decision
is made to put the next person on the court. What I believe is at
stake here is an attempt to get the son of the largest trial lawyer
law firm in the state (last name is Bell) or to get Jari Askins on the
court.

Askins was a judge in Stephens County, what she isn’t saying is that
she was a special judge (appointed for overflow or minor cases) rather
than a district judge, handling the more important cases. Askins’
qualifications to sit as a Supreme Court Justice pales in comparison
to some of the others who have submitted their names.

The Good ole boy cronyism is how we get bad government. Of the 13
members of the JDC, Governor Henry has appointed 6 of them. I suspect
all 6 of those will vote for Askins and Bell to be 2 of the 3 names
forwarded on Tuesday, unless they realize they are being watched!

++ THE PASSING OF A GREAT AMERICAN, BILL STEMMONS

On Sunday afternoon, December 19th I attended the memorial service for
long time activist Bill Stemmons. Most of those in attendance were
friends of Bill from high school days forward who have been involved
in government and politics. Bill was a registered parliamentarian and
served in that function for the legislature, at state or county
conventions and for the corporate world, for their need to know how to
conduct stock holder meetings. He also taught at the college level and
even one home school cooperative of which I am aware.

Though Bill never married, he was truly a people person. While in
college he got involved in Campus Crusade for Christ and spent the
rest of his life as a true witness and encourager to those struggling
through life, as was evident from the testimonies of several who spoke
during his memorial service.

Bill volunteered countless hours working on campaigns, especially on
behalf of Mike Huckabee in his run for President in 2008. At his own
expense, Bill took time off and spent several months in Iowa as
volunteer for Huckabee. Former Governor Huckabee was most generous in
his accolades for Bill upon hearing of his passing. At 63, Bill has
gone on the be with the Lord, no longer having to fight the cancer
that ravaged his earthly flesh. Those of us who knew him will truly
miss him and Oklahoma is a little worse off without him.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com