Richardson announces run for governor, seeks Republican ticket spot
Gary Richardson announced his candidacy for Oklahoma governor on Monday, launching a campaign critical of recent efforts to raise state taxes and promising to cut back on wasteful spending.
Richardson, who ran for governor in 2002 as an independent, is seeking the Republican ticket this time around.
“Folks, we are in trouble in Oklahoma,” Richardson said. “We will do an audit of every state agency, we will find out how the money is being spent and we will find out where the money is going.”
Richardson, 76, a Tulsa attorney who largely funded his own campaign in 2002, is the first Republican candidate to announce. But that probably won’t last long as next year’s open seat is expected to draw a crowded primary.
Other potential Republican candidates include Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb and State Auditor Gary Jones.
Richardson, who had been hinting at a campaign for several months, has been a critic of the state Legislature’s recent use of Rainy Day funding and last week’s vote to roll back a pending income tax cut that would have worsened the state’s financial standing during a time of a nearly $900 million budget shortfall.
Richardson acknowledged the state’s financial challenges, but said it is a product of mismanagement.
“We are not a poor state, folks, we are a state poorly run,” Richardson said. “I imagine there is waste and corruption in this state that we won’t understand until we see it.”
During his announcement at the Oklahoma History Center, Richardson painted Gov. Mary Fallin as beholden to special interest groups and pushing an unprecedented hike on state taxes.
Earlier this year Richardson released an online video that hit Fallin on her tax increase proposals and seemed to be throwing one of the first shots at Lamb, who shortly after resigned from Fallin’s cabinet in a move many saw as an attempt to distance himself from her tax policies.
Abolishing the state turnpike system was a central part of Richardson’s campaign in 2002 and it appears he will continue that call in his upcoming campaign.
“We must stop the cancer of the turnpikes,” Richardson said.
Richardson is the third candidate to announce a run for governor. Democrats Rep. Scott Inman and former state Sen. Connie Johnson are also running for governor in 2018.