Senator accuses leadership of retaliation
State Sen. Nathan Dahm said this week that Senate Republican leadership retaliated against him for casting a no vote on a tax hike package to pay for teacher pay raises.
The Broken Arrow Republican who is running for Congress posted his remarks in a video on his Facebook page. He could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Dahm was among four Republicans who joined eight Democrats last week in voting against a revenue package to pay for a 12.7 percent raise for teachers.
The measure, which would have generated $450 million, failed by two votes, but was held on a reconsideration motion. It was brought up during a late-night legislative session.
In his Facebook video, Dahm said one of his bills was not heard a day after he voted against the funding bill. He said that he was told he would no longer have any bills with his name on them heard on the Senate floor.
He was also told by leadership that he would no longer be able to serve as presiding officer in the Senate.
Dahm said the measure he voted against would have put almost half a billion dollars in new taxes on the backs of Oklahomans. He said he has been consistent in voting against tax hikes.
He said the action came on the Ides of March, a historic day when Roman Republic senators assassinated Julius Caesar.
“That means that my Fourth Amendment protection bill, which would prohibit the collection of metadata and tracking people and individual citizens’ data without a warrant was not heard on the Senate floor because I voted the day before against a massive tax increase,” Dahm said.
He said the state has passed the point where it needs to simply elect Republican majorities.
“We need actual conservatives elected to office,” he said. “We need people that will stand their ground, just as I have done.”
Dahm said leadership can threaten him, try to extort and blacklist him, but he will not waver on his principles.
Senate leadership did not respond Wednesday to Dahm’s remarks, but did speak generally two days earlier about retaliation.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, said Republicans who voted against the funding measure had their bills transferred to other authors.
“I was not happy with their vote on the floor,” Treat said.
However, some bills authored by Senate Minority Leader John Sparks, D-Norman, were returned to the agenda after having been removed.
“Sparks and I had a productive conversation about procedure, about where his caucus was,” Treat said. “I made the decision to put those back on in respect to the position of the minority leader of the state Senate.”