Conservative mayoral candidates face Democrats and GOP
by Charles Biggs
It’s difficult to find a local politician that will hold true to his or her stated values.
This is a core reason why Tulsa voters - who are mostly conservative, Evangelical Republicans - elect liberal, humanist Democrats as mayor.
The Tulsa County Republican Party is split. One side, you have the country club Republicans, who claim to be fiscal conservatives but are socially “progressive” (translation: liberal).
This is really a small number of Republicans with inordinate power. They own big businesses and have access to the funds needed to run successful campaigns.
If they were honest, they would register as Democrats. Ex-mayor Bob LaFortune actually did a TV ad commercial for Democrat Karen Keith in her campaign for county commissioner. If he had done that in the 1960s, he would have been drummed out of office.
On the other side of the Republican Party are fiscal and social conservatives. This group is by far bigger and includes a good number of Democrats.
They are not as organized politically and therefore not as powerful. They are more concerned about raising their kids, making a living and enjoying life than engaging in clandestine political meetings in smoke-filled rooms.
Almost all Republican candidates for office in Tulsa tailor their campaigns to look like conservative Evangelicals. Once elected, they gravitate toward the power of the country club elite.
That’s how it works.
Four years ago, Mayor Kathy Taylor (a liberal Democrat) spent more than $1 million to win by a 51-49 percent over Bill LaFortune, a country club Republican who had alienated his conservative constituents.
Conservative pundits who had rightly criticized LaFortune’s administration for four years at the last minute supported him for re-election even though they didn’t trust him or believe in his policies.
Taylor is vulnerable this time. Her administration has been rocked by scandals in Public Works, the Fire Department and transportation. She broke her campaign promise of more cops on the street and crime has soared (five homicides in one weekend alone).
Who will challenge her?
You can bet that the country club Republicans will run a token candidate. Councilor Bill Martinson comes to mind. A self-proclaimed conservative, Martinson pushed for a $2 billion tax increase for streets. That’s a mind boggling figure, even for a liberal.
Another possibility is Councilor Bill Christiansen. But Chrstiansen could not even win a Republican primary for county commissioner two years ago.
Councilor John Eagleton, the closest thing to a conservative on the council, has declared that he will not run for mayor.
Former State Sen. Jim Williamson, a Republican, is considering a race for mayor. He would be risking a lot to do so. He has a successful law practice that would undoubtedly come under fire should he run. Williamson served 16 years in the legislature.
If he ran, he would win.
David O’Connor is a idealogue. He is a Republican running for mayor on a strictly grassroots level. O’Connor is a truck driver and an Army veteran who is fed up with city government.
He is being ignored by the mainstream media, which caters to the country club Republicans and powerful Democrats. When the time comes, he will be vilified and ridiculed by the liberal media - but that’s a badge of honor in Tulsa.
O’Connor told me he would throw his entire support to Williamson should he run. Unlike other candidates, O’Connor is running for the right reasons - not to grab power but to serve the people.
What Tulsa needs is a mayor with this profile: a successful South Tulsa businessman with conservative credentials and a background in municipal government.
Every mayor in Tulsa’s history has come from Midtown Tulsa. South Tulsa, which is the economic engine of the city, has always been under-represented. If you don’t think that’s true compare how many Vision 2025 projects were in Downtown and Midtown and how many were in South Tulsa .South Tulsa got a few million for the TCC south campus and that’s it.
The latest scandals prove that it’s time to clean up City Hall. Taylor is part of the problem and not the solution. Tulsans shouldn’t let the good old boys of the Republican Party pick another worthless mayor.
It’s time for conservative to rise up and “take back Tulsa.”
• A guy goes into a bar, orders twelve sodas and starts drinking them as fast as he can.
The bartender says, “Dang, why are you drinking so fast?” The guy says, “You would be drinking fast if you had what I had.” The bartender says, “What do you have?”
The guy says, “75 cents.”
• At the height of a political corruption trial, the prosecuting attorney attacked a witness. “Isn’t it true,” he bellowed, “that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?”
The witness stared out the window as though he hadn’t hear the question.
“Isn’t it true that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?” the lawyer repeated. The witness still did not respond. Finally, the judge leaned over and said, “Sir, please answer the question.”
“Oh,” the startled witness said, “I thought he was talking to you.”
• A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road.
When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He saw a man at a desk at one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, “Excuse me, where are we?”
‘This is Heaven, sir,” the man answered.
“Wow! Would you happen to have some water?” the man asked.
“Of course, sir. Come right in, and I’ll have some ice water brought right up.”
The gate began to open.
“Can my friend,” gesturing toward his dog, “come in, too?” the traveler asked.
“I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t accept pets.”
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.
As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
“Excuse me,” he called to the man. “Do you have any water?”
“Yeah, sure, there’s a pump over there, come on in.”
“How about my friend here?” the traveler gestured to the dog.
“There should be a bowl by the pump.”
The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.
”What do you call this place?” the traveler asked.
“This is Heaven,” he answered.
“Well, that’s confusing,” the traveler said. “The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.”
“Nope. That’s Hell.”
“Doesn’t it make you mad for them to use your name like that?”
“No, we’re just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.”