Drummond way ahead, Walters way behind and McCall's entry into governor's race reveals Republicans' lack of ideas
Good news for Oklahomans, I guess, if our next governor must be a Republican, it’s right now hard to imagine it won’t be attorney general Gentner Drummond, who we can hope never plays the race card again as he did last week, going after current governor Kevin Stitt for allowing Afghan refugees who risked their lives in service of the United States to settle in the state.
Embarrassing.
But who knows, his shamelessness may have won him political points, and a new poll of 500 Oklahomans with a 4.3 percent margin of error says it’s Drummond’s race to lose and, no doubt, he’s the best of the batch, though I’m curious what Chip Keating, son of Frank, might have to say should he enter the race.
The poll, brought to us by Cole, Hargrave and Snodgrass, “a nationally prominent political consulting firm,” writes the great M. Scott Carter of The Oklahoman, finds 49 percent of Oklahoma Republicans have a favorable impression of Drummond and only 13 percent a negative one, which is a whole lot better than state superintendent Ryan Walters, whose favorables top out at 30 percent and whose unfavorables measure 36.
The poll also found if the Republican primary were to take place now, Drummond would get 44 percent of the vote, Walters would get 14 percent, Keating would get 6 percent and Charles McCall, outgoing speaker of the Oklahoma house, would receive 5 percent.
So there’s that.
Also, if Walters were removed from that quartet, the poll found it would be Drummond at 50 percent, Keating at 7 and McCall at 7.
Even better, sort of, should Walters eventually jump into the race, he’s bound to spend a good deal of his time protecting his scared-of-its-own-shadow, non-critical-thinking, happy-to-be-dumb, right-wing-lunatic-fringe flank from McCall, who entered the race on Tuesday.
That’s right.
In the press release announcing he’d entered the race, McCall appeared to betray every intention, presuming it’s possible, of being just as impossible, ridiculous and preposterously unserious as Walters has been since entering the public square.
McCall is from Atoka and, you may know, just left the state legislature where he served in the house from 2013 until last year and as speaker from 2016 until departure, making him the longest serving speaker in state history, which may not be very consequential but is at least an answer to a trivia question.
Anyway, as so many Republicans do, McCall, kind of, blamed God for his refusal to leave politics, when he could have just been honest and said, “I like power, so I’m running for governor.”
Here’s how he summarized his choice to run.
“That is why, after deep prayer and heartfelt conversations with Stephanie and our sons, and the urging of others, I have officially filed to run for Governor of Oklahoma.. There will be a time soon to gather for a formal announcement where I will fully lay out a vision for even greater prosperity, but right now, I am focused on meeting with Oklahomans and listening to both their concerns and dreams for our great state.
“I truly believe God put President Trump back in the White House to save our great country and I am going to do everything I can alongside him to Make America Great Again and Keep Oklahoma Great. There is no time to waste.”
He blamed God for something, at least.
But it’s not for that kind of disingenuous schmaltz I’m writing about McCall.
Nope, it’s for the content of his announcement before the summation, which began like this:
“America is the greatest nation known to mankind. But our freedom is under attack. The left and outside forces are waging war on our way of life. They assault our faith and values. They try to destroy our families, our jobs, and radicalize our schools. I believe when liberals attack American values, they’re attacking Oklahoma values, too, And I’m ready to lead the fight to keep our state free and strong.”
Really?
That’s where a Republican who spent six terms in the state house and four as speaker, his party owning supermajorities in each of those terms, begins his run for governor?
That Oklahoma is under attack by a “left” that can’t begin to get in the way of anything a Republican majority might want to do?
And just which values is it attacking?
Faith? No.
Individual rights? No.
The rule of law? No.
Paying off the majority’s donor class for making it less expensive for private school parents to keep their kids in private schools by stealing public education funds to subsidize private education?
Well, yeah, they’re against that, but is that an Oklahoma value or just a Republican one?
Screwing the underdog, the not-rich, working families whose only sin is not contributing to Republican campaigns even though, for the most part, they keep voting for them anyway?
Is that an Oklahoma value?
Is holding your own voters in contempt an Oklahoma value or just a Republican one?
It’s just so tired.
So predictable.
So irredeemable.
Must everything be a fight or do Republicans need villains because they have no original ideas of their own?
A little more from McCall.
“As your Republican Speaker, we beat the radical left every step of the way. We delivered historic tax cuts, passed the toughest immigration laws in the nation, enacted constitutional carry, passed parental school options, banned boys from girls bathrooms and so much more.”
Funny, I remember a funding crisis, or several, because the level of courage in the state legislature has long been zero.
Sure, if your aim is to put guns in the hands of untrained, troubled and raging people who demand a weapon NOW, congratulations.
And who gives a $#%& about bathrooms beyond Republicans trying to panic their own constituents?
But whatever, list your “accomplishments” however you like, just as long you understand the lies you’re telling because you have no ideas of your own.
You beat the radical left?
There is no radical left in Oklahoma. It doesn’t exist. It never has.
Instead, Republicans like Walters, McCall and many in both houses of the legislature call any critical thinker those things because pragmatism and common sense are beyond their comprehension, their brains only big enough for “us” and “them.”
“From deporting every single illegal to building the BIGGEST, BOLDEST economy in the nation, our fight is far from over,” reads another part of McCalls’s announcement, which is a funny thing because his own business contacts would tell him “deporting every single illegal” could wreck the economy and certainly won’t help it.
Hell, he probably knows that himself.
You’d think a guy like McCall, with so much legislative experience, might have an original idea or two, or write his own authentic playbook to run for the state’s top job.
But no, just grievance, straining to reach Donald Trump’s coattail, lunging to define himself on others’ terms rather than his own.
Only by trying to curb corruption, maintain rule of law and practice good government, Drummond sets himself apart among Republicans.
Talk about a low bar.
You can be bankrupt of funds, and bankrupt of ideas.
Under complete Republican rule since Brad Henry left office in 2011, Oklahoma’s been both.
Spot on, Horning. Great stuff.
Well written summary of status quo to date. OK state is the state of David Boren, hardly the radical left now, or formerly.