Medlock promises reform
Former city councilor Chris Medlock believes it is time for Tulsa to take a conservative turn back to common sense.
“I feel Tulsa needs a true conservative in the race,” Medlock said.
He said he is not looking at any “shiny new projects” but he’s looking at a four-year “timeout where we focus on the basics.”
Medlock said it is time to look at new form of government for Tulsa.
“Why do we need to do that?” Medlock asked. “We have a strong mayor form of government like a lot of major cities (Chicago, New York, etc.) have. Tulsa is too small for that form of government. We have vested way too much power in a single individual. They’ve put a lot of focus on the City Council being part of the problem. The City Council is not the problem. Their job is to be the check and balance to the strong mayor form of government. Any time they actually try to do that, they get beat up by the Tulsa World and the powers-that-be in this town because the powers-that-be are the ones that put that mayor in office. That mayor is acting on that agenda.
“We need somebody to get in, seize that strong mayor form of government, and then use that position to change us to more of a form of government like Oklahoma City has, which distributes power.”
Oklahoma City has a mayor and a city manager.
Medlock said there are two political groups in Tulsa - the grassroots and the grasstops.
“Right now, the grasstops have been running things for the last 30 years,” Medlock said. “So, how have we been doing? Since 1984, we have slowly been seeing our luster fade away. We’re getting passed by other cities who are doing more unique things.
“The bottom line is that Tulsa can still thrive if we concentrate on the basics of good roads and keeping our neighborhoods safe.”
Medlock said Kathy Taylor’s decision to not run for re-election (because of a potential bid for a First District race against U.S. Rep. John Sullivan) opened the door for candidates who are not millionaires to compete.
“It opened the floodgates because she had quite a war chest,” Medlock said. “She had the support of some moderate Republicans, one (Dewey Bartlett, Jr.) of whom is going to be my chief opposition in the mayor’s race.”
Medlock said Taylor’s performance in office shows she is the “downtown mayor.”
Medlock said he is confident he can win the primary and the general election.
“Obviously, Anna Falling getting into the race is going to make that a little tougher to do,” Medlock said of his fellow Republican. “It’s going to require for us to be very focused. With the mainstream media, it’s hard for conservatives to put forward what is considered a ‘positive’ campaign because we often talk about cutting taxes and fighting crime and it all seems like negatives.”
When Medlock ran for mayor in 2006, he was outspent 10-to-1 in the Republican primary by incumbent Mayor Bill LaFortune and yet almost pulled the upset.
“The polls said we wouldn’t get out of the teens yet we pulled 35 percent of the vote (even with a third candidate, former County Commissioner Randi Miller),” Medlock said.
The primary is “winner take all.” Whoever gets the most votes - even though it may be less than 50 percent - advances to the Nov. 10 election against the Democrat.
Medlock has been endorsed by Clay Clark, a conservative Republican businessman who was going to run for mayor. Clark said he feared that he and Medlock would split their votes and perpetuate the “grasstops” dominance of city government.
In 2006, Medlock lost to LaFortune and then endorsed him in the general election. Bartlett, on the other hand, support ed Taylor, the Democrat.
“Where Dewey Bartlett gets into trouble, he was on Kathy Taylor’s website as one of the marquee names in ‘Republicans for Kathy Taylor,’” Medlock said. “What Dewey Bartlett was in effect say was, ‘I don’t care who the Republicans put up, I like Kathy Taylor better than any Republican.’
“And now he wants to be the Republican nominee.”
Medlock said G.T. Bynum, Howard Barnett and Bartlett got together and ran polling to see which of the three of them would do better in a race for mayor. That poll was taken to gauge support for non-partisan elections and a switch to at-large candidates for City Council (versus district votes).
“I think it’s time now to have a mayor who doesn’t come from Midtown and who isn’t a millionaire and who isn’t the progeny of one of these families,” Medlock said.
Medlock was a former state committee man for the GOP’s First District. He has been an alternate delegate to the last two Republican National Conventions. He or his wife has served on the Republican Executive Committee since 1994.
While a city councilor, Medlock played a major role in bringing in Tulsa Hills, a major shopping center on 71st Street at U.S. 75.
His website is www.medlockformayor.com.