Dan and Dan and Cathy and Ryan and Howard and Chip and now Chip again
Gentle reader:
For those of you that read us, and for those of you that lie and say you don't read us, you know that we are not Gentner Drummond fans. Most of you are not either. And while we have some skepticism around the poll released the other day showing a tie in the Governor's race, we don't really care because — as we said in our last piece — we feel like all of the ad and mail money is being wasted right now. Really, we've been waiting for the field to shake out and it just hasn't yet. Evidence of this came yesterday with the entry of Chip Keating's governor bid.
Garvin County Chair Faith Campbell, action figure extraordinaire,
has been drinking the Kool-Aid on Chip. OCPAC gave him the floor to announce his candidacy yesterday. But for the life of us, we don't get the passion. The false prophet Jackson Lahmyer loves the guy. But should they? Two things stick out to us here:
Can he win?
Sure, we suppose he can win. Kevin Stitt beating Todd Lamb is evidence of that. So we don't rule him out. But we don't put a lot of stock in it. But if he thinks the Keating name will carry him, we aren't so sure. Dad Keating was a great Governor, and has kept close ties to conservatives for years, even when he has disagreed with them. But the party has significantly shifted since his time in office. And it turned against the Keating family almost immediately:
Cathy Keating lost her 2001 race for Congress in the primary to virtual unknown John Sullivan.
Dan Keating ran for State House Seat 71 in 2002 and had his name unanimously stricken from the election by the election board.
In 2006, Dan Keating this time ran for State Treasurer and lost in the primary 60%-40%
In the same state treasurer race, former Keating Chief of Staff Howard Barnett ran, and lost in the general election to Democrat Scott Meacham 59%-40%.
Chip Keating ran against David Dank in the HD85 primary in 2006, and was defeated.
In 2010, the Governor's son-in-law, Ryan Leonard, ran for Attorney General and didn't make it out of the primary against Scott Pruitt.
So for as beloved as Governor Keating is, the legacy hasn't transferred over to the family.
But that's not as disturbing
as the action figure alliances that he is keeping. This group is insufficient to bring him a win, and when he works to widen his base, he's going to piss off the base that feeds him. But we have one question for the action figures that are clamoring for the guy: How do you feel about his blind eye to transgender procedures at OU Health?
Beginning in 2019, Chip served on the board
at OU Health as a Director and Trustee. Security and Exchange Commission filings show him in this role at least through 2023. During his time on the board at OU the hospital advertised and performed gender transition on minors. This includes providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and performing surgeries to irreversibly mutilate at least seven children. These surgeries occurred during the years Chip was on the board, and had the ability to show his opposition to them.
And when Chip refused to stand up? The legislature and Governor stepped up and banned the mutilation in 2022.
Did he know? That's a problem. If he didn't know? As a Trustee? That shows ineptitude that we don't need in the Governor's office. They advertised it on the OU website in 2021. This happened on his watch at OU, and that's an unfortunate fact that Jackson Lahmyer, OCPAC, and Faith Campbell should be very uncomfortable with, but don't seem to be.
Speaking of the Action Figures,
Boy are they proving what we wrote in our last post. Not only do they have a "Vote No on 836" website developed by the OKGOP before the signatures have even been gathered, they are handing out flyers at the Tulsa County Fair to vote no with horrendous misspellings. We think that the flyer speaks for itself. This is not only not written by someone that can't spell, but doesn't know how to write effectively. It definitely wasn't proofread. If it was, a new team needs to work on future handouts. As we've said, we'll write about 836 at some point, but it'll be after the OKGOP leadership finally figures out how and when to develop a timely message.
Enjoy the rest of your week,
CW/CM/SC/WB
p.s. We are hearing rumblings from three sources that the OKGOP is locking Oklahoma County out of the office that they rent in the Dewey Bartlett Headquarters. If anyone has information on this, our readers would like to know.
