The Senate 34 Race Reveals A Stench
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Last week we published two stores covering the two candidates for Senate District 34, one on the Democrat and the other on the Republican in the race. As you might recall we offered no endorsement in the race. The Republican McLain, did have some indications that he was fairly conservative and he did defeat one of the RINO candidates in a tough primary, the guy had been swarmed by the John Birch Society state leaders and usually that means the kiss of death for a campaign.
Dossett had special interest donations coming out the yahzoo, attorneys, realtors, and educators, lots of lobbyists connected to or sympathetic to the State Chamber of Commerce. We fully expect to see a surge in donations on the last campaign report once it becomes pubic record and those donations will be from the State Chamber crowd.
Several online blogs and the Oklahoman editorial column claimed this was a defeat for a conservative but none of the sources showed how much support the Democrat received from the State Chamber. But with the election comes the district changing party hands for the first time since 1990, a district dominated by Republicans and therein lies another story.
It was a 6% win, meaning a shift of 3.1% would have reversed the result. The Democrat was a popular teacher and coach, an Air National Guard veteran. Still the Democrats will hold a mere 9 seats out of 48 seats in the Senate and several of the existing Democratic senators are term limited in the coming year. Like the Dank district election party reversal this shows that the Republican brand has become sullied and putting an R behind your name isn’t a sure fire way of winning an election.
