Two 'Evils', But One Is Worse

THE RACE FOR GOVERNOR

A TRUE CHOICE BETWEEN THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS

THE WATCHMAN

It's getting tight in the race to become our next Governor. What drew us to this story was this article from the NON-DOC newsletter. The debate barely mentioned agriculture in our state and concentrated on education. Included was the discussion that Mr. Edmondson wanted to fix the formula that education gets while Mr. Stitt wants to raise teacher's pay. Both ideas are tax increases coming in the near future. The only mention of a

third-party candidate was as a joke by Mr. Edmondson. Needless to say, the third-party candidate wasn't at the debate.

We next found this article on Mr. Edmondson's campaign web site. It's an appeal to get people looking at his candidacy. First, there is no mention of what party he is running for. Secondly, we found the following on his web site. "Why he's running, Mr. the former Attorney General writes that he is running because the Oklahoma way is under attack by big corporations and the wealthy who have put their interest first at the expense of most Oklahoman's, I'm running to take on Wall Street, take on the powerful, take on our legislature, take on anyone – from either party that isn't putting the people of Oklahoma first. I've done it my whole life." He claims he wants to protect schools. Health care, seniors, working people and children, and bring back good jobs that benefit communities.

We must ask if he is tough enough to do the job? The biggest detriment to bringing jobs to Oklahoma is the vast Turnpike system we have. Is he truly willing to let the current turnpikes to continue in operation until their current bonds are paid off and then shut the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority down? We think not.

We then found his profile here on Wikipedia. We find it to indicate that he's worked at very few places other than in government service for his entire life. In other words, he's being deceitful. We will thank him for his service while in the military.

The next interesting article we found was this. This article verifies the information regarding his being a professional politicians. What is missing is the time period of 2011 through 2018. We have been unable to prove what or where he worked after the 2011 departure from government service.

It didn't take long for the negative ads to appear. Within the first 24 hours of his nomination we found this article. These ads are from dark money groups according to Mr. Edmondson. These ads from this group happens to be the same dark money group that was backing Mr. Cornett in his bid to gain the Republican nomination for governor. We haven't seen any evidence that they are backing Mr. Stitt, however, the simple fact that they ran the ad is enough to suspect that they are.

The next article we found was this report that appears to be the results of a poll conducted by Scott Rasmussen. That poll indicated that Mr. Edmondson will not be successful in his campaign to become Governor. We urge you to open this report and read it for yourselves. It is really very interesting.

We then found this article from NewsOk. Quoting the article, it has been reported that "In campaigning for Governor, Republican's Kevin Stitt and Mick Cornett have sold themselves as potential difference makers. Stitt tout's his business acumen and the fact he's not a politician, Cornett wants to bring his experience and success as Oklahoma City's mayor."

Further quoting the article "Democratic candidate Drew Edmondson views both men the same way – as clones of Republican Governor Mary Fallin." That's an interesting statement made by the reporter. All three of them will end up pushing for tax increases. This is considered by many as the strategy Mr. Edmondson is going to use during this campaign.

Then we found from this article Fox 25, which is the local Fox station. Quoting the article Mr. Edmondson stated, "We are in a mess in just about every category of state services." Edmondson also said, "The only good news about it is the wounds are self inflicted which means they can be fixed." This is an indication that he holds the same view of this election as Mr. Stitt and Mr. Cornett, he just expresses it differently.

Then we found this article highlighting the differences in policy of the remaining two contenders. The third-party candidate was not allowed into the debate, however, him and a group of his supporters were outside the entrance.

Then we found this article on his intentions should the legislature not give him what he wants. Putting the questions before the voters is a good idea, but there is no indication of his intentions should the voters defeat the question. Will he rule by Governor's degree making us all slaves to his personal wants or not? This is dangerous territory he's entered.

Then we found this disturbing article. He wants to increase the age of an individual to purchase a so-called assault rifle. We question his knowledge of what an assault rifle is. What the lame stream media will try to convince you that an AR-15 is an assault rifle, well it's not. The difference is the select button on the rifle. The AR-15 has two settings, (a) safe or (b) semi-automatic. The assault rifles used by our military today have three selection to choose from. The first two are mentioned above but (3) is a setting for fully automatic. Of course, he's trying to show that he's a moderate Democrat, but he's not.

We found a quote from a gun store owner that says "I don't necessarily have a problem with that if two things happen. Number one they raised the voting age to 21 and number two they quit putting people in the military being shot at and killed overseas in the sandbox under 21." We agree with his sentiments.

We next found this article from the Tulsa World. Here we find that while the Republican front runners were still fighting for the nomination, Mr. Edmondson had been quietly campaigning around the state. There has been little reporting of this.

We next went to www.votesmart.org to see what information they had available. We started by going to his biography page. There was no new information on this page that we haven't already discussed.

We next went to his Political Courage page. Apparently, he is intent on not letting the public know where he stands on issues. The only information we found was how to get in touch with his campaign.

We next took a look at his ratings and endorsement page here. This is an indication that Mr. Edmondson is following the party line. To be honest, we didn't expect to find anything. In 2010 Mr. Edmondson received a rating of 93% from the NRA. In 2018 the NRA gave him a 0%. Those are the only ratings we found.

We next went to the Oklahoma Ethics Committee Home here to look at his campaign finances. We will say that these are the most accurate and complete listing of campaign finances that we have ever seen. We urge you to open the link and fill out the information to see where he's getting his campaign funds.

The next article of interest we found was this. We are fully aware that this article is a few years old, but it still is an indication of the political situation we face today. This is what happens when we elect politicians to office instead of Citizen Legislators.

Over the next two weeks we will report on the Republican and Independent who are running for the Office of Governor. This will allow you to compare the candidates.

In closing we can only say that Mr. Edmondson wants to keep the state in the clutches of big business instead of the people. He is your typical Liberal Democrat. He doesn't appear to have the inclination to raise taxes on big business but seems perfectly willing to raise taxes for those of us who live in this state. We cannot and will not endorse any candidate. Our desire is to help the citizens of Oklahoma know more about the candidates they have to vote for.