The County Clerk’s race provides the most striking choice between an idiot and an excellent public servant. 

As published in Assessing the assessor’s debate, Dean Martin is, from all indications, a [Ken] Yazel devotee running against Pat Key for Tulsa County Clerk.  Martin knows nothing about the function of the Clerk’s office.  Martin thinks he can be the figurehead and “find someone like Pat Key to run things,” as a supporter who spoke on Martin’s behalf said at a Republican Club meeting last month.

Further, Martin recently sent out an endorsement by former-State Senator Randy Brogdon saying, “Dean Martin is the kind of conservative Republican I can get behind.”  The email was a misrepresentation as it did not identify Brogdon as a FORMER Senator, but we can understand why.  Brogdon spent his entire elected career ranting about career politicians, then when term-limited in the Legislature he ran for governor and he now works for the State Insurance Commissioner.  That’s right; Randy Brogdon became what he so often damned.

By email, David Tackett, Martin’s campaign manager, wrote: “I have advised Dean not to interview…”  Tackett assured it was not personal.  We suspect he either thinks Tulsa Today readers have no minds of their own or Martin fears difficult questions.

Does he go by Dean Martin as a grasp at movie star fame? Inquiring minds would ask.  Floyd Dean Martin is listed in abundant court documents.  We wonder why there have been so many liens and judgements against him – specifically IRS number 5372 0532 92 000606 documenting a $5,904.20 dispute.  There is another issue with the Oklahoma Tax Commission regarding documentary stamps that we suspect can be explained away as a minor detail of omission, but the Tulsa County Clerk’s Office is an office of detail.  If he can’t get the paperwork right in his own life, how does Martin expect to manage a busy public office of commanded compliance to law?

We found one divorce record 29 pages long – a lot of that activity appeared highly contentious and financially irresponsible.  Problem is, Martin doesn’t want to talk about it and, if he does, what he says is often vague, but it is clear from the record, he failed to pay child support as ordered and judgement was rendered.  There is also a “Sole Ownership Certificate of Fictitious Name” that is very odd.

Martin’s campaign also lies in published campaign mailers.  It is dirty politics.  In one received today, Martin asserts “millions of taxpayers’ dollars have been wasted and state laws have been broken.”  That is false.

Software at the County Clerk’s office was purchased prior to any other office and it did not cost millions.  That software was specifically land record software for the land record office and therefore compatibility with other County software was not required or expected.

The County Clerk’s office has never denied an open record request.  Some media and individuals want all records for free, but there is a small charge or subscription allowed by law.  There is never been a legal allegation of malfeasance in regard to the Open Records Act in the County Clerk’s Office.

In the Republican Primary Tuesday August 28 for Oklahoma House District 70,  Ken Walker holds no experience of significance for office.  He is passive in personal conversation and often appears dumbstruck.  When he does speak, he agrees with his opponent on matters of substance facing the Legislature.

From campaign materials, Walker has an Associate Degree in “professional cooking,” is a 2004 Graduate of Rhema Bible Training Center, and he touts unspecific studies at Oral Roberts University, but he has fabricated endorsements in his mailings.

Walker is a salesman for a religious phone book franchise and has been endorsed by the Tulsa Beacon Publisher for whom he has written restaurant reviews.  Walker claims membership at Victory Christian Center.  His web site does not address specific issues of substance anticipated to come before the Oklahoma Legislature.

In debate, Walker says he is “defined” by “taking on the establishment” in a church experience when he was sixteen years old and of going to church “riding a bicycle in spandex.”  He shows the walking stick used when he walked across the country, apparently depending on charity by staying in private homes and visiting churches.  Walker speaks; in glittering generalities of religious nature, of the city trash debate (not a state question), and national issues important to all conservatives, but of no specific Oklahoma policy positions.

Also, as Tulsa Today wrote during the previous primary, Walker fabricated endorsements in this race you can see.  In the photos on the right you can see first the stock image found online then further right is a Walker mailer photo with an endorsement below.  The subjects in the photos never met Ken Walker.  So as an outspoken faith guy, how does Walker reconcile this issue?  He avoids the press or promises to call or doesn’t return repeated calls.  

Editorial:  In order to stop Obamacare from coming into effect, we must defund it – now. 

As
a state senator, I have spent a good portion of the past three years fighting
to protect Oklahomans from the federal intrusion known as the Affordable Care
Act, or Obamacare.  I authored the state question creating a
constitutional prohibition in Oklahoma against a mandate for insurance
coverage.  In addition, I worked to find other roadblocks against the
imposition of a federal exchange, which would limit consumer choices and
threaten private industry by expanding government administered healthcare. 

The
fight continues.  As you are aware, the Supreme Court ruled that the
Affordable Care Act is not a mandate but a tax, and is therefore legal.

Many do not realize that the Act itself provides for direct taxes, above and
beyond the new “taxes” as classified by the Supreme Court. These taxes were
included as a way to help pay for this unprecedented expansion of
government.  To make matters worse, these taxes actually discourage people
from buying private health insurance and target those most in need. 

Two
taxes in the Affordable Care Act cause me great concern.  One is a tax on
life-saving medical devices.  This is clearly an effort to ration
healthcare and, in an effort to bring down overall costs, make the
equipment less widely available.  The other, an $87 billion tax on
insurance premiums, is even more egregious. When the stated goal of the act is
to have more people covered by insurance, why in the world would you tax those
already purchasing it? 

Of
course, political gamesmanship has shaped how this tax is levied.  First,
large self-insured companies are exempt from this tax, so the burden falls
directly to small businesses and individuals.  Some families will pay an
estimated $500 more per year for insurance when this tax goes into
effect.  The burden on small businesses providing health
coverage to their employees could result in the loss of almost 250,000
jobs.  Secondly, the law is written so that if you have an HMO instead of
traditional insurance, your tax is 50 percent less than others are
paying.  Making this even more interesting is the fact that the nation’s
largest HMO, Kaiser Permanente, which is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay
area, controls much of that market. Incidentally, it is the single largest
insurer in the congressional district of former Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi.

It
is time for Congress to act and pass HR 1370 and SB 1880, two companion bills
designed to repeal the Health Insurance Tax.  We must get rid of the
health insurance tax for multiple reasons: first, the government should not
pick winners and losers through tax policy; secondly, while we could
debate whether or not government should encourage the purchase of private
insurance, we can certainly agree it should not be discouraged by an excessive
tax; and finally, we have to defund Obamacare as it is the best way to strangle
a bureaucracy that is undeniably out-of-control.