The False Prophet Switches Horses
Gentle Reader:
*Before we begin, it has come to our attention that Melissa Remmington's husband passed away suddenly on Wednesday evening. Our condolences go out to her and the family. Politics is a competitive thing, but when life events happen we should pump the brakes and exhibit kindness. We hope that she can find peace in this time of difficulty.*
Now, we really had no plan
to write about the Mike Mazzei campaign. Why? Because he's just not a factor. And won't be. The reality is that he doesn't have a platform that competes with Gentner and the Speaker, or even Chip Keating. And among the purity candidates he doesn't have a clean fight due to Jake Merrick splitting the bunch. We are told that he can self-fund his race, but again, how will he catch fire among the party at-large? The Action Figure vote is a finite number in a much larger Republican Party that won't get you to next November. One of our regular contributors shared a story about when Mazzei was a state senator (back before he remade himself when he was a squish budget committee chair in the senate) attending a meeting on the sixth floor in the capitol (on the senate side there is a 6th floor down by the majority leader's office) getting out of his chair, standing against the wall, unbuttoning his pants and untucking his shirt. Now, we are told this was because he has back problems due to a car accident. But weird things like this are why this guy won't catch on.
But Mazzei thinks he's caught fire. An email went out from the campaign recently announcing that the False Prophet Jackson Lahmeyer has left his support for Chip Keating behind and now endorsed Mazzei.
Glad to know Lahmyer read our piece on Chip.
But that's not all. Mazzei has been speaking at meetings announcing his consulting team. It's not really an impressive list, honestly, but the one national name that sticks out is the guy that the false prophet pays to hang out with him, Roger Stone.
Yes, the same Roger Stone that told Paul Bondar to waste his money pretending to be from Oklahoma to run against Tom Cole.
But the Mazzei strategy is based on a hope that Stone
can bring a Trump endorsement. There are two problems with this hope:
FIRST, for more than two years, Roger Stone has not been allowed to speak to Trump without permission from one of three gatekeepers. And when he does get to speak to the President, one of those gatekeepers must be present. Sure, the false prophet has been able to pull Trump family members out to Tulsa to visit his church, but the family knows that they have to appease Stone and Lahmyer, so they offer surrogates.
SECOND, Trump likes his people to be not only loyalists, but from central casting. Is Pam Bondi really qualified to be the AG? No, but she's loyal and pretty. Should Kristi Noem really be head of Homeland Security? No, but she's loyal and pretty. Should Pete Hegseth really be Secretary of War? Maybe? But it doesn't matter because he's loyal and pretty. How does Mike Mazzei, standing against a wall with his pants unbuttoned and shirt hanging out, match up with the other three? He just doesn't.
In other words, Mike Mazzei's poor judgment, not only about thinking that he can win, but more importantly, that Roger Stone actually helps him in any way in Oklahoma or with Trump are disqualifiers for him.
In our last email we asked
you for information about the OKGOP not allowing Oklahoma County access to the Dewey Bartlett Center, where they rent space. You provided in droves. It appears that Chairman Charity and Private Pyle Vince Scofus have stripped access to the security system from the Oklahoma County Chair. So any time Oklahoma County wants in the building, they have to be "approved" by the overlords. Or set off the alarm, which is what we'd do if we were Oklahoma County.
But that's not all.
The same individuals that filled our inboxes shared that the ONLY ones paying the building owner is the Oklahoma County GOP. The OKGOP is not paying the owners to use the building. We've confirmed this after looking through disclosure filings.
There's a problem here: If there isn't some sort of payment flowing here, it is likely going to have to be an illegal in-kind contribution that will bring scrutiny from the Ethics Commission or the FEC. This doesn't sound like scrutiny that the party needs after just clearing up a major fine from the FEC. It sounds more like a major headache that can be easily resolved by doing the right thing.
Or maybe Oklahoma County should just take over the entire building. That could be a solution too.
By the way,
we haven't really highlighted it for a while, but the OKGOP reported on their last FEC filing that they have $16,000 cash on hand, and $15,000 in liabilities. In other words, they have $1000 on their balance sheet.
Enjoy your weekend!
CW/CM/SC/WB
