Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Bartlett Finds Republican Supporters

I'm very happy that Dewey Bartlett, Jr. has found some Republican support for this candidacy for mayor. I was getting a little worried for him.

At a press conference called Tuesday night, Bartlett, Jr. announced the support of Todd Hiett, Fred Jordan, Mike Mazzei, Brian Bingman, Dan Sullivan, Ron Peters, Terry Simonson and Don Burdick.

This "unprecedented" action, which happens all the time, deserves very little time, but it does deserve a quick analysis. So let's take a look at who stood by him.

  • Four of the endorsers, Hiett, Jordan, Mazzei and Bingman don't even live in Tulsa and can't vote for Dewey.
  • Sullivan and Peters are the two Mid-Town Tulsa state reps. It would be political suicide to not support the candidate from Dewey's source of votes.
  • Former county chairman Terry Simonson now works for the County Commissioners. I'm out there calling for the voters not to renew the Vision 2025 tax when it comes back up for a vote. Vision 2025 is a county tax, so no surprise there.
  • Then there's Don Burdick (aka Little Donny Downtown), a man who lives downtown, moved Republican headquarters downtown for two years and moved the Tulsa Republican Men's Club to the Summit Club downtown.

Throw in that Mazzei represents Bixby, Jordan represents Jenks and Bingman represents Sapulpa, and you get a pretty good idea who they think will support the regionalism that helps the suburbs to the detriment of Tulsa.

There is statewide conservative group that gives Republican legislators ratings on their voting records. To give you some perspective, Owasso State Senator Randy Brogdon scored a 90 rating from this past session. Mazzei scored a 32, while Bingman and Peters rated a much more impressive 40!

But all in all, it's good Dewey has found some friends.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Burying Great Plains

The Tulsa World buried my campaign’ press released story about Dewey Bartlett's enthusiastic vote, while a member of the Airport Board, for Kathy Taylor's $7.1 million giveaway of Tulsan's property taxes to Bank of Oklahoma.

The settlement, voted on in a "Emergency Meeting" on June 26, 2008, was payment of the principal in full for the debt the Airport Board owed to Tulsa Industrial Authority, which in turn owed the money to BOk. The City of Tulsa was in no way a party to that lawsuit, but the mayor chose to make Tulsa a defendant so that she could legally dip into Tulsa's sinking fund, which is paid for by city property taxes.

The World hates to report on anything regarding Great Plains Airlines, so they buried the story. But hey, at least they covered it! We have been unable to find any record that the World reported on the emergency meeting, or Bartlett's vote. Here is the full text from Sunday's story:

Medlock questions Bartlett: Republican mayoral candidate Chris Medlock is questioning why fellow GOP mayoral opponent Dewey Bartlett Jr., as a Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust member, voted for Mayor Kathy Taylor's $7.1 million lawsuit settlement regarding Great Plains Airlines.

"Dewey Bartlett is claiming to be a conservative Republican," Medlock said in a pres

s release, "but he supported a Democrat mayor in one of the single biggest giveaways of taxpayer money in this city's history. Bartlett needs to explain his wasteful actions to the voters.

"This was $7.1 million of city property taxes that Tulsa didn't owe," Medlock said, "but which Kathy Taylor paid in full, to the Bank of Oklahoma."

Taylor, whom Bartlett endorsed, appointed him to TAIT. He just resigned from the board to run for mayor.

Bartlett called Medlock's press release "political rhetoric" and declined to comment further.

Let’s see if we have this straight. Dewey Bartlett is saying that a Republican opponent asking why he joined a Democrat mayor is giving away millions of taxpayer dollars is “political rhetoric?" How interesting.

He isn’t denying that he voted for the proposal as we havevideo of him doing just that on YouTube. He isn’t denying that he praised the mayor for her actions, because the video tape clearly shows he did!

So rather than just answering the question and addressing why he did it, he chose to listen to his campaign handlers and came back with the classic “non-responsive response.”

Dewey Bartlett (R) was named to the Airport Board by Kathy Taylor (D). Kathy Taylor thennames former airport Marketing Director Mary Smith (R) to the Airport Board to replace Carl Clay (R) who was an outspoken critic of the Great Plains/BOk settlement. Mary Smith was part of the team that sold Great Plains Airlines to the public, when they went after and secured $30 million in state tax credits. Mary Smith is now Bartlett's Campaign Treasurer!

Please understand, that what Dewey did was to help the current Democrat mayor (Kathy Taylor) brush under the table the single biggest scandal of the previous Democrat mayor (Susan Savage). The Bartlett campaign team made up two-fifths of the vote that needlessly gave away our property taxes to the tune of $28 for every man, woman and child in the city, and he won't even respond to the Tulsa World, who will do everything to put his response in the most positive of lights? Don't you think it's time for KRMG and KFAQ to invite Bartlett back on the air to respond to this action in this giveaway, as well as his support of Kathy Taylor's re-election before the Republicans had selected a candidate?

Don’t we expect more candor from someone who wants to be our next mayor? If he won't answer for his actions as a mayoral appointee, how can we trust that he'll answer for his actions as our mayor?

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Separating Oneself From the Pack

With nineteen candidates declaring for the Mayor's race, it's going to be harder and harder to get the kind of attention that can separate one candidate from the others.

The funny thing is, I kept thinking I was getting into the race quite late. We purposely chose to announce late, to make sure I wasn't jumping into a crowded field. Who knew that by announcing my intentions to run a full week before the end of filing, that I would end up being the second of eleven candidates. That's right, nine candidates filed in the last week.

Oh well...can't imagine there being another nine Urban Tulsa Weekly profiles, so I guess I didn't wait too long.

Many thanks to UTW writer Mike Easterling, who very faithfully and accurately recreated our hour long conversation. I think it does a very good job of capturing why I am running and I hope you'll take a few minutes to read it.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Dewey Liked Rudy 2000 Times!

With all of the controversy about Dewey Bartlett, Jr endorsing Democrat Kathy Taylor before the Republicans chose a candidate to run against her, it is refreshing to find that Mr. Bartlett also endorses Republicans. In 2007, he gave a $2,000 donation to pro-choice presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.

While I greatly respect what Mayor Giuliani did in liberal New York City as a mayor, I and many Tulsans were less than enthusiastic about having him as our president.

It does indicate one thing that seems clear. While stating that he is pro-life, Bartlett sure does support a lot of pro-abortion candidates.



Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Calling a Press Conference

Press Conference

Tulsa, Oklahoma [Tuesday, July 07, 2009]--Former Tulsa city councilor and radio talk show host Chris Medlock will hold a press conference on Wednesday, to announce his intentions regarding the upcoming Tulsa mayoral race.

Time: Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 10:00 AM

Location: Tulsa Press Club
415 S. Boston Avenue (Lobby)

Medlock will make a brief statement and then take questions from the press.

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Thursday, July 02, 2009

Is Bill Christiansen Out of the Mayor's Race?

I just got a confirmation from a second reliable source that District 8 Tulsa city councilor Bill Christiansen will not be entering the race for mayor. If this proves true, it is likely that the detailed polling that he conducted over the weekend didn't come back as very promising to his chances.

Stay tuned for more specifics.