GOP Disunity Good For The State

Gov. Kevin Stitt energized a political foe in May 2021. Attorney General Mike Hunter resigned to avoid a “distraction” after word leaked of his affair with a state employee.

At the time, Gentner Drummond, who had lost to Hunter in the 2018 GOP primary runoff by 271 votes, thought himself the best choice to replace Hunter.

Stitt chose John O’Connor to fill the vacancy.

Drummond, who had run as an “outsider,” commented before O’Connor’s appointment:

“I have seen the results of political cronyism and we have suffered the consequences.”

So, Drummond was never a Stitt crony and, when he defeated O’Connor in last year’s Republican primary, he was not beholden to Stitt.

Shortly after taking office, Drummond told the governor that his appointment to fill a seat vacant on the state’s Veterans Committee [because Stitt fired the officeholder who did not support his reelection] was out of order, not authorized.

Drummond also nixed Stitt’s plan to have State Superintendent Ryan Walters also get paid as Secretary of Education, a cabinet position. Talk about cronyism!

At about the same time, Drummond reversed O’Connor’s rubber stamping of Stitt’s ploy to state-fund religious indoctrination, saying his predecessor’s opinion “misuses the concept of religious liberty by employing it as a means to justify state-funded religion.”

A little disunity in the Republican ranks offers a modicum of the checks and balances that a stronger Democratic presence could provide.

Democrats had no AG candidate last year, which is not surprising since their last AG candidate found many prominent state Dems proudly and loudly endorsing the now-disgraced Hunter.

Many of those same folks were quick to endorse Republican Joy Hofmeister for governor when she switched parties, but not ideology. [And, yes, I wrote supporting her all fall, but one of the cats lurking near my birdbath every morning would be better that Stitt.]

Drummond even took aim at another Oklahoma sacred cow, asking State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd in March to perform a detailed audit of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority.

His letter to Byrd read in part:

“I have had many conversations over the past few months with legislators, community leaders, private citizens and state employees who have expressed a wide array of concerns with the financial conduct of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority … These concerns include but are not limited to improper transfers between the OTA and the Department of Transportation; improper contracting and purchasing practices; and inadequate internal financial controls.”

[If Drummond is looking for another target to endear himself to Oklahomans, he could address my daily robocalls from Mina and Amber of the Medicare Department of Health Care Providers, Amy from Senior Citizen Care and Becky from Senior Services Health Care Benefits along with the gals and guys with the Desi accents who just flat out lie and say they’re calling from Medicare.]

In May of last year, two state Supreme Court justices excoriated O’Connor for failing to protect consumer interests concerning skyrocketing natural gas prices resulting from the state’s 2021 February deep freeze.

“The utility consumers that the Attorney General should be representing have effectively been left without representation,” wrote Justice Douglas L. Combs. “Their access to counsel lies with the Attorney General. Yet he has failed them.”

Oklahoma consumers were “failed” by Stitt’s hand-picked man to the tune of about $1.4 billion in rate hikes to be spread across decades. Oklahoma Watch characterized the result as: “‘Once-in-a-generation storm has Oklahoma customers paying for a generation.”

The justices concluded:

“The lack of meaningful participation at the settlement stage, the failure to file an appeal of the Corporation Commission's financing order, and the decision not to intervene in this proceeding leaves this Court with no input from the utility consumers' statutorily appointed counsel and with few options when it comes to reviewing the [Oklahoma Development Finance Authority] application to approve the bonds.”

That was the Stitt appointee in inaction.

In mid-July Drummond said he will investigate whether there was illegal manipulating of the gas market during that storm.

“As a result of the careful and diligent review of conduct during Winter Storm Uri, I discovered that several companies reaped billions of dollars at the expense of businesses and individuals who were suffering from the crippling effects of the storm,” Drummond said. “The magnitude of this scheme is staggering and unconscionable. Oklahomans can rest assured that I will do everything in my power as Attorney General to return what was taken and hold accountable those responsible.”

In February, Oklahoma Watch’s Paul Monies reported, “During the 2021 winter storm, the price of natural gas on the spot market spiked to more than 600 times pre-storm prices in the regional trading hub that serves Oklahoma. Other regional gas trading hubs, including those in Texas and Kansas, saw significant spikes during the storm. But not on Oklahoma’s scale.”

Kansas filed suit against one of those providers in February.

If Drummond can recoup any of the money gouged out of Oklahoma consumers, it will be a distinctive change from the lazy, unfair treatment they’ve received from Stitt and his circle.

Whether Drummond is acting with an eye on the governor’s mansion in 2026 is irrelevant. [His resume is sufficiently flawed to provide plenty of flak if he tries to fly higher.]

Auditor Byrd has also shown her independence streak.

Her scathing report on mismanaged pandemic emergency funds only echoed what a joint investigation by Oklahoma Watch and The Frontier had uncovered more than a year ago – and which voters chose to ignore last November.

Still, it put an official governmental seal on the overriding incompetence of Stitt’s handpicked state school superintendent and public education foe, Ryan Walters.

Steve Fair, Republican CD-4 vice chair, dissected the audit in mid-July and concluded:

“The blame for the non-compliance belongs at the feet of the governor. In a press release, Oklahoma Speaker of the House Charles McCall said as much. The speaker didn’t name the governor in the presser, but the inference is there. Attorney General Drummond weighed in on the audit, saying the people empowered to administer the GEER money did not have the qualifications or knowledge to do the job.”

As a result, Fair said, “Taxpayers sent tax dollars to Washington for Washington to send back to Oklahoma to be misused. Taxpayers then have to pay back the misused money to Washington.”

So, combine Drummond’s anti-cronyism and Byrd’s independence with state legislators consistently overriding the vetoes of their increasingly lame duck governor and we could have some interesting times ahead.

Editor’s Note: This essay was written before the Republican civil war accelerated on Monday when Gov. Stitt filed suit against House Speaker McCall and Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat in an attempt to nullify the Legislature’s lopsided overrides of two gubernatorial vetoes involving tribal compacts.

In a sometimes comical press briefing in which he discussed his legal gambit, Stitt decried lawmakers’ votes to extend tribal compact negotiations one year as “unprecedented” and a “raw legislative power” grab.

He accused the Cherokee Nation – of which he is a member – of “pressuring the Legislature” rather than negotiating with him.

And he once again declared that he won’t stand for efforts to turn much of Oklahoma into a “reservation.”

Treat called Bullstitt on Stitt’s snit in a news release that read in part:

“Plain and simple, the governor’s continued rhetoric and vitriol surrounding not only these compacts, but also our Native American Tribal partners as a whole, seeks to divide the state. It is clear at this point the governor has no end game, goal or aspirations of working with the legislature or tribes. He continues to ignore the courts, legislature and common sense.

“I want clarity on issues in the post McGirt world. The governor’s misguided actions have led to chaos and confusion, bringing us further from any kind of meaningful resolution.  

“These compacts in particular weren’t new, they weren’t unique in any way, they simply kept the exact same language as before to give him an opportunity to try and do the right thing by working with the tribes to renegotiate the compacts, while ensuring the state didn’t lose millions in revenue. He has once again failed Oklahoma. Today, history is repeating itself with the announcement of this lawsuit. I’m confident his intentions will meet the same fate as we have unfortunately witnessed, and paid for, in the past. 

“By overriding these vetoes, the legislature gave the governor another avenue and opportunity to negotiate in good faith, as we have done repeatedly. He has never accepted or appreciated our efforts and has turned his back all four million Oklahomans, the legislative process and Oklahoma’s tribal partners, costing the state millions in legal fees. This zero-sum game he is playing is a losing strategy and I hope Oklahomans and my fellow lawmakers are paying careful attention.” 

Popcorn, anyone?