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Rep. Leslie Osborn was one of the candidates for Oklahoma House Speaker that really concerned us as her character and judgment were sorely lacking. She was a straight up Chambercrat, selling her soul along with her legislative vote long ago while posing as a conservative. But on Thursday she bowed to the inevitable and bowed out of the Speaker’s race, throwing her support to another Chambercrat, Charles McCall. Below is her letter announcing the deal made between her and McCall, and yes, something was bought and sold or it wouldn’t have happened.December 10, 2015
RE: Speakers Election
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
I wanted to reach out to you and the caucus today on the subject of the Speaker Election. The upcoming 2016 legislative session looks to be exceptionally busy with re-election filings, an overwhelming budget scenario, and the ongoing Speaker race. It is my belief that the longer the Speaker race continues the more divisive it will be to caucus unity as well as an unneeded distraction from the budget focus. After much thought and deliberation I have decided to withdraw my name from consideration and have committed to Representative Charles McCall. I did not make this decision lightly. I believe Charles will provide the unity and stability that the House desperately needs. I also believe that Charles has extensive private sector managerial experience that will be invaluable during the days ahead. We have always been a step behind the Senate with their Pro Tempore traditionally being a four year position and Charles will be able to help us with that disparity. As I have done throughout my legislative service, I have to cast a vote based upon what I think is best for the state of Oklahoma. That is why I have chosen to support Charles McCall and I hope you will do the same. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to consider my thoughts and I am especially thankful to those who pledged to support me. You are all appreciated and it is an honor to serve with you.
Rep. Leslie Osborn
At this point the Chambercrat tactics are usually to try to coerce legislators into signing a pledge card, promising their vote at the future Speaker election. The candidate unscrupulously tries to claim that they have enough votes already in their pocket to win the Speaker election but if that were the case why would they need to pressure legislators? The practice of pledge cards is NOT enshrined in House rules or in our laws, it was started by Lance Cargill back when he ran for Speaker and subsequent Speaker candidates have tried to use the tactic.
It is important to note that a lot changed when Lance Cargill resigned his leadership role due to allegations of late payment of taxes and fundraising improprieties. Cargill was replaced by the notorious Chris Benge, notorious for giving up the power of the budget process, allowing the State Senate to take over control of writing the budget despite the Constitutional requirement that all revenue bills start in the House of Representatives.
This was a long time goal of the State Chamber of Commerce and the ultra wealthy businessmen that fund the State Chamber; to steal the power of the purse strings from the House and place that power in the Senate which was easier to control using campaign donations. We suffered under a long line of weak Speakers ever since, Chris Benge, then Kris Steele, then the short lived TW Shannon term, coming out of the pit only with the election of Jeff Hickman. Now Hickman himself was initially inline after Kris Steele but he suffered defeat at the hands of TW Shannon after a bruising two year battle that left the Steele/Hickman leadership team in tatters. But Hickman learned from his time in the wilderness and came back to be a fairly decent Speaker that had learned that it was conservatives that he owed his position because without three conservative votes he would have lost the election. As s whippings are good political tools and Hickman learned and remembered.
At this point there are only four candidates left in the Speaker’s race:
Earl Sears from the Bartlesville area. Old Earl isn’t really running to win, he is running so that he retains his chairman position in the A & B committee. That is the coin he will take for joining Charles McCall’s leadership team but it is alreadly most likely too late. Osborn was his first choice as Speaker but she was under attack from the get go and I guarantee that the most likely reason for Osborn’s dropping out was the potential defection of Earl Sears over to the Charles McCall camp. Earl is a miserable RINO at heart and has little support from the freshman class or the conservative block of representatives.
Scott Martin, representing Western and Southern Cleveland County. Another Chambercrat RINO, banker by trade like Charles McCall, limited support from conservatives or freshmen House members, also in the Speaker race in an effort to create a leadership position for himself. In fact Martin is said to have already entered into negotiations several weeks ago with the McCall camp while threatening to take his supporters to the Earl Sears camp if he doesn’t personally get a nice leadership post. That of course is an empty threat as possible as Martin’s few supporters WILL choose the most conservative Speaker candidate.
John Bennett, Sequoyah County, retired from the Marines, combat veteran, very conservative and independent minded, and the best possible choice for leading the House in the coming years. No one owns John Bennett but he is fiscally conservative, socially conservative, strong anti illegal alien platform, strong welfare reform platform, and the unabashed leader in pushing back against the coming Muslim invasion of our communities. Highly respected by a lot of Republican lawmakers and Democrat lawmakers, Bennett has few enemies at the Capitol because even though he might be more conservative he has walked the path with honor and honesty.
Then we have Charles McCall. Now the State Chamber ALWAYS runs more than one candidates so that if one falls the other has a shot at winning the election. We have Scott Martin of course and Charles McCall is nearly a mirror image of both Martin and Sears. McCall is from the Atoka area, the boy was just elected in 2013 and it is an insult to the other state reps to have a third year legislator running the show.
The current Speaker, Jeff Hickman, is ostentatiously backing Earl Sears but the possibility of Sears prevailing is very low and Sears knows that he has gambled his A & B Chairmanship and has already lost the position now that Osborn and Martin are negotiating.
McCall himself is a mess:
- A former Democrat up until he wanted to run for office as a Republican
- The Chickasaw tribe has their hand so far up his backside that they can move his lips.
- McCall was defeated last year on his attempt to introduce new taxes on limestone quarries, sand quarries, and gravel operations
- Past board member State Chamber of Commerce
- Tried to give away a State Park to the Chickasaw Tribe last year but stopped by the Senate
- Spent thousands and thousands of dollars taking state legislators on junkets in his private jet in an attempt to influence their votes
- Personal friends with Democrat Dan Boren
- Supported by the largest teachers union in the state
That’s right, according to one of our sources Charles McCall was a Democrat until he decided to run for office but he switched parties as he knew a Democrat wasn’t likely to win the seat given the current political climate.
The Chickasaws have major control over the boy, getting him to attempt to give away the Boggy Depot State Park to the Chickasaw Nation and he convinced the House to allow the privatization of federally purchased land but luckily the Senate killed the measure. McCall would have handed over the deed to 588 acres despite a state constitution prohibition on giving away public assets.
McCall did his best to pass legislation last year that would have created an entirely new tax on surface mining such as sand pits, gravel quarries, and limestone quarries. Luckily it was killed before it progressed very far.
And yes, McCall was a Board member on the State Chamber of Commerce between 2002 and 2008! The State Chamber is a truly tarnished brand and hated in the House yet a few legislators are considering supporting McCall as Speaker?
During session last year and on into the late summer of this year Charles McCall spent a fortune on taking legislators on private junkets on his private plane in an attempt to buy their vote as speaker. McCall owns or controls an 11 seat turboprop plane, a 2004 Piaggio- P180, N456CM tail number, a five million dollar plane that costs around $3,000.00 per hour to operate. The plane is owned by S E Aero LLC out of Atoka and the contact person is none other than Charles McCall. Some serious money was spent on trips to Dallas, Kansas City, and on one occasion they flew to Mexico to a resort town. We have a fairly comprehensive list of the legislators that went on the trips along with what occurred on several of the trips. Is this legal? Does this list need to be published or given to the authorities? A corporation spending money on legislators in an effort to gain some sort of political support?. Or was the purpose legislative matters as the House was still in session on at least one of the trips? We are watching the Ethics Commission reports on all of those involved to see if they claim the donations and disclose the gifts by amending the second and third quarter reports. Even if it was legal, which we highly doubt, it certainly doesn’t pass the smell test as an elected official.
But by far the biggest reason to be concerned over the possibility of Charles McCall becoming speaker would be McCall’s personal relationship with Dan Boren, David Boren’s son. Dan Boren endorsed McCall on a postcard sent out during the initial election. The Indian tribes gave money freely to McCall as did oil and gas companies. It is no secret that Dan Boren is going to run for Governor and having his former Democrat buddy running the House means ruin for conservative values in Oklahoma.
Charles McCall would be a disaster for the House of Representatives. The guy is straight out controlled by the State Chamber and other special interests. Conservatives would be excluded from a place at the table and would lose control over the House. Lets hope that enough legislators wisely choose to hold off on supporting McCall until we see how things sort out in the coming year. This is going to be a year of change, professional politicians owned by special interests are being rejected by the voters, consider the presidential campaign as proof of that. Voters are sick of elections and politicians being bought and sold by the ruling class and McCall is just going to be an apologist for the Muslim community and prevent any dealing with the coming threats.
And past that, the election of Charles McCall as speaker will resume an all out battle between House leadership and the Tea Party. Everyone remembers the 2010 and 2011 fight that was politically bloody as hell with a lot of collateral damage to legislators that supported the Kris Steele regime. It seems that those memories have faded in the mind of some legislators and they need reminded of what the Tea Party can accomplish with very little money.