Offering no shortage of excuses
THE Tulsa World recently identified the state lawmakers in both chambers of the Legislature who missed the most votes this year. Numerous explanations were proffered.
Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Mustang and chairwoman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, missed more votes (25 percent) than any other House member. Senate President Pro Tem Mike Schulz, R-Altus, missed more votes (37.5 percent) than all but one senator. Sen. Kim David, R-Porter and chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Bryce Marlatt, R-Woodward and assistant floor leader, also ranked in the top five in their chamber for missed votes.
Osborn, Schulz, David and Marlatt all said involvement in budget negotiations caused them to miss legislative votes.
Other lawmakers cited family and health issues. Sen. Jack Fry, R-Midwest City, said his wife faced serious health challenges this year. Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow, said his adult daughter is facing breast cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy on Thursdays during session. Rep. Tommy Hardin, R-Madill, said a personal illness during a deadline week hurt his tally.
Meanwhile, Rep. Cory Williams, D-Stillwater, said he missed votes because he was busy trying to secure support for legislation he authored. Rep. Jason Lowe, D-Oklahoma City, said constituent meetings interfered with voting. Sen. Randy Bass, D-Lawton, who is termlimited, basically said he was job hunting.
It’s up to voters to decide if they believe those explanations. The important thing is that this information is public, and that politicians are now expected to defend their records.
Not interested
When it was announced that Megyn Kelly would interview Alex Jones on her NBC program, it prompted outrage from some quarters but mostly an “Alex who?” response from the general population. Put simply, Jones is a conspiracy theorist — perhaps better known than many of his ilk — but nonetheless, he is what he is, which is why most people have never paid any attention to him. That trend held true even when Jones was given a higher profile via Kelly’s show. According to Nielsen Media Research, the program drew far fewer viewers than U.S. Open golf coverage on Fox (no surprise there) and a rerun of CBS’s “60 Minutes.” Among 18- to 49-year-old viewers, the interview with Jones also drew lower ratings than a rerun of ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” Jones undoubtedly overhypes his public appeal. It seems NBC did the same.
A significant impact
We have written often about the important role of the arts. Any city or state is richer when it has a vibrant arts component — be that museums, arts festivals, the symphony, theater performances, etc. The arts also have a tangible monetary impact, as shown in a study released this week. The study by Oklahomans for the Arts found that spending from Oklahoma nonprofit and municipal arts organizations and audiences totaled $872.8 million during fiscal year 2015. This included $331.2 million to hire employees, buy goods, attract tourists and pay for services from local establishments. Audience members spent $541.6 million on such things as tickets, restaurants, parking, retail stores and other businesses. Project manager Kelsey Karper noted that much of the funding for arts and culture comes from government and philanthropy. “Because of that investment, it’s appropriate for them to ask what is the return on this investment?” Karper said. “So this study really answers that question.” The answer: The return is strong.
Glad to see them go?
Presidents are often more popular out of office than in it. Barack Obama began with a very high approval rating after his 2009 inaugural. But Obama’s subsequent actions quickly drove that rating down. Throughout most of Obama’s second term, his average approval rating was less than 50 percent, and often in the low 40s. Only in the final months in office did it rise above 50 percent again. Now that Obama is an ex-president, Gallup reports he has a 63 percent approval rating. Democrats may see that as a sign Americans prefer a Democratic administration to a Republican one, but Gallup also shows former President George W. Bush now has a 59 percent approval rating. And Bush left office with one of the lowest approval ratings of any recent president. Put simply, people often approve of an ex-president because he has no power.
Running against the Legislature
The various tax-and-fee increases passed by the Legislature this year did little to assuage critics of past tax cuts, but they have prompted a reaction from individuals seeking statewide office. This week, Tulsa attorney Gary Richardson, who plans to seek the Republican gubernatorial nomination next year, announced that he is filing challenges against legislation that implemented a fee for owners of electric and compressed natural gas vehicles, a bill that effectively raised the state income tax via freezing the standard deduction (which was previously adjusted annually for inflation) and a tax increase on car purchases. Richardson argues all three measures were enacted in violation of state constitutional restrictions on revenue increases. Time will tell if those legal challenges succeed. But it’s interesting that some Republican politicians have already concluded the path to victory in statewide races now involves running against the actions of the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Evil empire
At the conclusion of a tour of North Korea in January 2016, University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier was detained at the airport in Pyongyang. The government said Warmbier had defaced a political poster and sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor. He didn’t last a year and a half. North Korea released Warmbier last week. Suffering from a brain injury, the 22-yearold was flown home to Cincinnati, comatose, and he died six days later surrounded by family. His doctors said Warmbier had suffered “extensive loss of brain tissue in all regions of his brain” consistent with prolonged oxygen deprivation. Exactly what Warmbier endured may never be known, but stories of the horrors of North Korea’s prison camps are legion. Warmier is only the latest victim of a place the U.N. Human Rights Commission, citing the Hermit Kingdom’s widespread human rights violations, said in 2014 “does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.”