Monday, June 29, 2009

Bartlett Evades Campbell's Question About Mayor

Dewey Bartlett is now running for mayor of the City of Tulsa. As such, he made an appearance on 1170 KFAQ's Pat Campbell Show on Monday. Bartlett promised Campbell that unlike Kathy Taylor, if elected he would come on Campbell's show and answer tough questions. I have a suggestion for a follow up question Campbell can ask Bartlett the next time he's on his show.

Here is an exchange that occurred between Campbell and Bartlett from the twenty minute interview. To hear the audio, click here.

Campbell: Now during your announcement the other day, you mentioned—and I want you to explain this too—if Kathy Taylor had not dropped out of the race, you wouldn’t have thrown your hat into the ring. Now why is that? Is that because she had such deep pockets, or was it because you were satisfied with the job she was doing?

Bartlett: Well…she…I think the main reason was that she has a strong support in the community. I think her election was pretty much a done deal. And I think….

Campbell: If she had run for re-election?

Bartlett: If she had run for re-election…yes. And I think it would have been very, very difficult for anybody to have a good campaign against her. She has extremely deep pockets and exhibited that in the first time that she ran for office. So I…anyway…that was the reason.

Now compare Bartlett's statement on KFAQ with the quote from Mayor Taylor's re-election campaign web site, which just hours after Bartlett's appearance on The Pat Campbell Show, has been pulled from www.taylorfortulsa.com. The link to the page is still on Michael Bates' story on Bartlett on his Batesline.com, but it now leads to an "error page." Click on the photo above to see Bartlett's glowing endorsement of Taylor, which I captured before his KFAQ performance.

Bartlett says,
"Tulsa has always had a history of great leadership from the business community. Kathy's tireless, visionary style is yet another example of non-partisan leadership that focuses on the future of Tulsa. I am proud to support her re-election efforts." Dewey Bartlett Jr., President Keener Oil and Gas Company
Can we infer from the fact that this page has been pulled from Kathy Taylor's campaign site that Dewey is no longer proud of his support for her re-election? Can we infer that Kathy Taylor is okay with his change of heart?

But the most important question now that Bartlett is announced for mayor, why is he trying convince conservative voters that he would've run against Kathy Taylor, as a republican, if she didn't have such deep pockets, when it is clear that he so enthusiastically supported her re-election?

I'll leave that for you to decide.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dewey Jr. has money too. But Jr. shot himself in the foot as he voted not to run before he convinced himself to run. (Sure wished you had that conversation on tape!) He would be Kathy Taylor reincarnated and on testosterone; you know same basic frame but with a bumper hitch and federally stimulated! Jr. will run hard, but run out of gas in the primary to a reform conservative candidate. I wonder who that might be????

Partisan bickering be damned, run Chris, run. Our City needs you, needs Mautino, needs Roscoe. Let's 'git her done". My liege, ...........your Army awaits you.

Unknown said...

I sincerely do respect Mr. Bartlett as a business leader and as a conservative Republican. With that being said, it is my understanding that he wishes to continue with the Mayor Taylor agenda.**If this is not the case, then I have been misinformed**

If Mr. Bartlett is in favor of the Mayor Taylor agenda, then nothing is going to change and government is going to continue taking more and more of our money and spending it on more and more "investing in tulsa-related" projects.
I don't know about you, but I feel that everyone of us would be better with more money in our pockets and less money in the city government's pockets. This city government has built an arena and is building a new stadium while the lights remain off in north Tulsa. As our roads crumble, these same government geniuses are working tirelessly to get that ballpark done.

We need to get focused on priorities. Streets, Bridges, Police, Fire, Lights for North Tulsa, cutting spending...
If you want to see real conservative priority focused change check out our campaign website.

If you want to see government raise taxes yet again, while ignoring our necessities and the growing illegal immigration problem do not visit our site.
- Clay For Mayor Dot Com

Anonymous said...

Dewey Bartlett Jr. is the personification of a RINO:

Republican In Name Only.

He's already lost my vote.

David Van said...

Dewey screwed his chances. He'll resort to negative campaigning. That's what he did against Savage in the special election. It failed then, it'll fail now. Dewey is not a good political leader.

I don't want any mayor who lives within 2 miles of Utica Square.

Anonymous said...

Chris I am so happy to hear your running. Good luck.