Malpractice required to close primaries a colossal failure, embarrassment for OK Dems
Do you know one of the biggest reasons Oklahoma City rules the NBA?
Actually, there’s a million.
But one of them is the Thunder turn the ball over 12.8 times per game, while opponents turn the ball over to them 17.9 times per game.
The first number ranks second in the league behind Boston’s 11.9 and the second leads the league.
The difference between the two is called turnover differential and at plus 5.1, the Thunder lead the entirety of the NBA in that, too.
If that’s news to you, congrats, you have new Thunder knowledge.
And if you’d like to adopt a pet peeve of mine, there is also this:
Sports writers, commentators, broadcasters, even coaches, almost universally, refer to receiving opponent turnovers as turnovers having been “forced,” but that’s a lie because sometimes a guy just steps out of bounds. Bring that up every time when you hear it and you can be as annoying as me.
Anyway, you get it, right?
Do no harm.
Do not do the work of your opponent.
It’s sort of the first rule, in the NBA, life and beyond.
So what’s wrong with the Oklahoma Democratic Party?
Yeah, that’s what we’re talking about.
What’s wrong with it?
Because this wasn’t a paperwork error. It was a how-not-to-get-yourself-elected error in a state that badly needs the minority party to win more elections.
A few dates and names:
Two Mondays ago, Dec. 8, Oklahoma Democratic Party Chairman John Waldron, who moonlights as the elected representative of Oklahoma House District 77, comprising a good swath of northeast Tulsa and beyond, stepped down.
“It is with sincere consideration that I announce my resignation as Chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party for personal reasons,” Waldron posted on Facebook. “With the legislative session coming up and pressing family commitments, I am handing over the reins …”
The same day, Erin Brewer, who’d been vice chair to Waldron, stepped into the top spot.
Two days after that, Dec. 10, last Wednesday, the State Election Board issued a press release that began like this:
State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax announced today that no political party filed a notice to allow Independents to vote in its primaries and runoff primaries during the 2026-2027 election years. Since no political party provided a notification to the State Election Board Secretary by the statutory deadline, all primaries will remain closed for the 2026-2027 election years.
There’s more to the story, which kind of, sort of, is ongoing.
Just don’t expect anything to change.
Don’t expect it because Ziriax has made more sense since than the state party, which is challenging the election board to reopen its primaries and runoffs, which had been open going back to 2016.
More coming on that, too, but in the meantime …
Are you @#&!$#% kidding me?
Sure, decent chance Oklahoma will again fail to elect even one Democrat to statewide office or a U.S. House or Senate seat, though I particularly like Jena Nelson’s chances of supplanting Stephanie Bice in the 5th District.
And though Rob Miller, running for state superintendent, seems like a righteous Republican dude, he’s still in the same party as Ryan Walters and dozens and dozens of feckless, do-nothing, anti-public-education legislators who will never give him the funding public education demands, so perhaps voters will turn to a Democrat there, too.
To say nothing of the fact that the state party’s ballot malpractice, presuming it stands, will damage every single Democrat running for state rep or senator, even those unopposed in their primaries.
Here’s why.
Let’s say I decided to run for lieutenant governor because it demands little, it’s hard to do much damage, pays a fine salary and the only real difference any any in the position might make, for good or ill, will be political, not policy driven, and because I enjoy politics, why not?
In that case, wouldn’t it behoove me to get independents, of which almost half a million are registered in Oklahoma, thinking about me, talking about me and eventually voting for me first in May and then August before voting for me in November?
You know, rather than wait for the general election when, not plugged into the process because they had no vote to give until November, they forget to vote at all?
Forget about turnovers for a moment and think about what births success and winning. There’s a luck component, yes, but most of all there are good habits.
Well, there’s no better way to get elected than getting voters in the habit of voting for you.
In a closed primary, Dems can only get Dems in the habit of voting for them, but not independents, and the failure to get them in the habit could be cataclysmic in tight races and this time around there could be several.
Also, the failure to keep Democratic primaries open, or even the possibility of it, creates all kinds of questions about the state party.
Waldron may have been an upgrade over his predecessor, Alicia Andrews, I have no idea, yet to not make certain the state party had secured another round of open primaries before resigning, or for Brewer to not be on top of it herself, looking out for her all-too-consumed boss, is a colossal failure.
Were it the NBA, it would be the Luka Dončić trade, only it impacts governance, which is real life, rather than sports, which are not. It’s even worse when you’re the good guys, because the other party clearly isn’t.
Back to process.
The phrasing used in Oklahoma Voice’s reporting is “The Oklahoma Democratic Party is challenging what it says is a decision by the Oklahoma Election Board to close its party primaries.”
It’s apt because the state party doesn’t appear to be suing the election board and the “what it says is a decision …” is sort of perfect because the election board doesn’t see it as a decision at all, only the enforcement of a rule.
Ziriax contends he sent the state party a reminder on Oct. 30 and a follow-up letter on Dec. 3, according to Oklahoma Voice.
Brewer told KFOR, “We voted in June at our state convention to continue keeping our primaries open to Independents and we did notify the Oklahoma Election Board of the minutes, including that decision, in August.”
But them’s not the rules.
Here’s Oklahoma Voice again:
In every odd-numbered year between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30, recognized political parties can notify the State Election Board that they have opened their primaries to independents. If a party notifies the agency, the deadline is extended to Dec. 15 for the other recognized parties to respond. If notice is not provided, primaries remain closed, according to the Oklahoma Election Board.
But Waldron had only been on the job since June and Brewer came along at the same time.
Neither had previously been tasked with keeping Democratic primaries open.
“There is a renewed energy within the Oklahoma Democratic Party,” Waldron said at the time.
A new energy, maybe, but scant attention to detail.
C’est la vie.
Such an embarrassment.