DISTRICT 39 RACE HEATS UP

 PART 2

By the Watchman

In politics name recognition seems to go a long way. The other candidate for the Republican seat in Senate District 39 has a lot of name recognition. One would expect that from a former Head football coach for the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane. He was once the starting quarterback for the team. What else does he offer to the citizens of District 39?

The first article of interest we found was this Former University of Tulsa football coach Dave Rader announces bid for state senate District 39 seat - KJRH.com. With his name recognition and the troubles that Representative Sullivan was having at the time, this would have been a good time for him to hit the national political stage. We know there was a crowded field, but he stood a decent chance. Why not run for office then?

After his coaching career had ended, the citizens of Tulsa seemed to have gone all out to get him to run for the U.S. Congress. We found this article Draft Dave Rader For Congress Effort Underway | Tulsa Today. We cannot say why, but Mr. Rader couldn't be persuaded to run for the party's nomination or the citizens urging to run for the office.

The next article of interest we found was this Dave Rader for State Senate. This is from his campaign web site. If you'll notice there is nothing to indicate where he stands on the positions. He is the third politician we have seen do this this year. If you'll read the "About Dave" section you will find what he is basing his campaign on. It happens to be the same old arguments that every politician in the state of Oklahoma uses.

The next article of interest we found was this Dave Rader for Oklahoma Senate. This is his Facebook page. This is a smart move, but his opponent also has one. Both are social media savvy. In today's society you have to be.

The next article of interest we found was really intriguing. We encourage you to open this document and take a look for yourself here David Rader - Wikiwand. There are biographical information here that has never been displayed elsewhere. We urge you to open this link and read them for yourself.  You'll find items like he was drafted as a quarterback out of college by the New York Giants. Unfortunately he only played one season. As a coach at the University of Tulsa his record indicated he took his team to two bowl games winning one of them. His overall record is abysmal though. It stands at 49-80-1. Is he capable of doing better as a politician?

The next item of interest we found was this Political Notebook: Dave Rader to announce candidacy for state Senate District 39 - Tulsa World: Capitol Report. This is actually dated October 15^th, 2015. We find it remarkable at the number of individuals who indicated their candidacy for this open seat well in advance of the registration day.

The next item of interest we found was this Dave Rader - Ballotpedia. Here we find a rehash of what is in his campaign web site on his campaign themes. It all sounds good and it's what the people want to hear, but we wonder if he can really do the job. His coaching record says no.

The next article of interest we found was this David Rader - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This gives you all the information you need about his work record. We will make no judgement on it, but urge you to open the link and read the article. It tells you a lot about the man.

We next went to www.votesmart.org to see what information they might have available on Mr. Rader. We started with this page Dave Rader's Political Summary - The Voter's Self Defense System - Vote Smart. Since this is his first attempt at running for office, we didn't really expect to find much here and we were correct. There was nothing more here than what hasn't already been covered earlier in his campaign site.

We next went to the Biography page here Dave Rader's Biography - The Voter's Self Defense System - Vote Smart. He did list his athletic accomplishments and awards in this section, as he should. He worked hard for the awards that he received.

We next went to the Ratings and Endorsements page here Dave Rader's Ratings and Endorsements - The Voter's Self Defense System - Vote Smart. He did receive one rating from the National Rifle Association. It is listed below.

NRA Candidate Position on Gun Rights   64%

That is not a good rating. There are current serving Democrats that have a higher rating.

We next went to the Campaign finance page here Dave Rader's Campaign Finances - The Voter's Self Defense System - Vote Smart to see what they had on his campaign finances. We found no evidence of donations from major unions or political action committees. There was only one special interest group listed and they did not give the maximum amount. We wanted to check elsewhere.

We went to www.ok.gov to see what information they had available. We started with the list filed under the www.guardian.ok.gov and found nothing. We tried various spellings and even used both the full name and abbreviated name Dave and David Rader. There was nothing. We next went to www.ok.gov/ethicscommission to see if it had been misfiled there. Nothing on file at all. We don't think Mr. Rader is a dishonest man, but something has happened to the reports he has filed and he needs to check into them. Until we can verify those reports we cannot and will not support his candidacy.

In conclusion there are just too many holes that need to be filed in for Candidate Dave Rader to make an effective State Senator. His success to date has been on name recognition only. His campaign is based on slogans that everyone wants to hear, but have little chance of coming about with the chambercrats we have in the Senate now. As much as we respect Mr. Rader, he is not the best candidate for the job.