2007 Oklahoma RINO Index Senate Version Feedback
Last week we received several emails from House legislators concerning the scoring for the 2017 Oklahoma RINO Index which was unexpected as the Index had yet to be published for the House. It turned out that one of the links in one of our articles contained a list of votes that contained one error, from another group, so it was heartening to see that some of the legislators were paying attention even to the links in our articles. As it wasn't our doing we made sure to respond but also contacted the organization responsible, and they promptly fixed the error.
The Senate RINO Index also upset a few "butt hurt" RINO supporters, upset that their "guy" was exposed as a liberal or tax and spend Republican. Another was upset that there weren't any 2nd Amendment bill listed.
Chips fall where they may, it is the politician that casts the votes, we just use House and Senate voting records to publicize their actions. If they are exposed as liberal, so should they be labeled. One would think that the butt hurt supporters would expend their wrath on the politician, not the messenger. One the gun bills, had any of the bills been of major importance, as in if they curtailed our rights, they would have been on the list of bills to be considered. But all of the gun bills this year were pro 2nd Amendment rights so voting for them was a good thing albeit it is true that the bills were of varying quality and usefulness. Why would anyone advocate rewarding a politician for voting right? In our opinion the RINO Index is a list of bad votes, not a pat on the back for what they should be doing anyway.
The OCPA Conservative Index does things differently. Their index is a list of positive votes and as such the legislators have long since learned to manipulate the group. Bills are filed that stand no chance of being passed or bills that do nothing once they are passed and OCPA has always taken the bait and swallowed it whole. The list is highly slanted toward religion and anti abortion, both fine reasons to have concern on a bill, but leaving off massive amounts of corporate welfare legislation, tax increases, and fee increases leaves the list watered down.
One year the OCPAC list omitted the major Obama Care/Fallin Care bill. The next year a half dozen long recognized legislators such as Rep. Mike Ritze and Rep John Bennett were labeled as RINOs! Insane and irresponsible, the mark of a list that was winnowed down by a mob instead of a select group of thinkers wanting to boil the bills down based upon damage and relevancy.
Political supporters can be strange people. They aren't unlike the sports fanatics that get bent out of shape when their team is slandered or defeated, as if they base their entire self worth on how a "team" is viewed despite them personally having nothing to do with the performance of the team. But these poor souls get their only self worth through the association with what they perceive as winners so being labeled a loser cuts to the bone and they lash out.
In the end the Sooner Tea Party RINO Index is based solely upon Republican Party Platform criteria. In fact, as the GOP voted by narrow margins to NOT enforce the GOP Party Platform were are pretty much the only organization in the state willing to call a spade a spade. If people get upset, they should be upset, just not with us. If they are, too bad.
One of the greatest examples of the power of the RINO Index has been the turnaround of Senator Mark Allen who once had rankings of 20 to 40 on the index and is now a continuous high ranking conservative Senator. Allen came in at #5 from the top, a solid 70 points out of 100. That happened because one STP article was published endorsing his Democrat opponent in the 2014 General Election, which the liberal Democrat promptly published in a half page ad in the county newspaper. One County GOP was livid at the time but later apologized and admitted that we had singlehandedly turned Senator Allen around and Allen learned that there are consequences for following Senate leadership blindly.
