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Candidates file to run for governor of Oklahoma

Some of the candidates hoping to win the 2022 governor's race spoke after filing at the Oklahoma state Capitol.

Addison Kliewer, Oklahoman

Four years ago, a relatively unknown Tulsa businessman with no political experience jumped into the governor's race with little fanfare and an unlikelypathto victory.

Now, Gov. Kevin Stitt, 49,must fend off sevenchallengers to win a second term in office.

With the political playing field set after last week's candidate filing period, threeRepublicans,twoDemocrats, one Libertarian and one independentare vying to unseat the first-term Republican governor.

Most of Stitt'schallengers have come out swinging with criticism of the incumbent.

More:Trump-era EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt joins race to replace Jim Inhofe in U.S. Senate

But in an interview Wednesday, Stitt seemedunperturbed by his field of challengers.

Four years ago, there were 10 Republicans in the gubernatorial primary, he said.

"The more the merrier," Stitt said. "Let's have honest conversations about our past experience and how we want to lead the state."

In the June 28 Republican primary, Stitt will face Joel Kintsel, 46, Mark Sherwood, 57, and Moira McCabe, 40.

The winner of the primary will face either Democratic state schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, 57, or former Democratic Sen. Connie Johnson, 69, in the November general election. Former state Sen. Ervin Yen, 67, an independent,and Libertarian Natalie Bruno, 37, also will be on the general election ballot.

The director of the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, Kintsel recently took a leave of absence to launch his first bid for public office. He also is a a lieutenant colonel in the Oklahoma Air National Guard.

Kintsel said he first started contemplating running for governor after seeing Stitt's "abuse" toward Oklahoma's Native American tribes.

"We're all Oklahomans, we're all part of the same family," Kintsel said."I'm not from a tribal background, but I will treat all Oklahomans with civility, and respect."

Kintsel has alleged the Stitt administration is rife with corruption and cronyism. In a recent interview, he alleged the Office of Management and Enterprise Services is steering state contracts to specific contractors.

He also saidthe Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department's contracts with Swadley'sBar-B-Q to operate restaurants at some state parks are suspect. The contracts have come under scrutiny from state lawmakers and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

More: Was Swadley's state parks deal with Oklahoma too lucrative? We dive into records

In response, Stitt, who referred to Kintsel as a career bureaucrat, said he's not a fan ofname calling.

Stitt said he's not afraid to fight bureaucracy and special interest groups. He also touted his calls for audits of various state agencies, including the State Department of Education.

"A good CEO welcomes transparency," Stitt said. "That's why I've been asking for audits all over state government. We're trying to expose anything that's going on that'snot right forall fourmillion Oklahomans."

If elected, Kintsel said he would focus on public safety and improving the state's roads and bridges, although he expressed opposition toa controversial turnpike expansion in Norman that's part of the $5 billion ACCESS Oklahoma plan backed by Stitt.

Kintsel also said he plans to focus on courting support from veterans and their families.

"I have a different vision for Oklahoma," he said."It's one that's based on values, integrityfirst, service before self, excellence inall we do. Those are the values that I've lived under in the military."

Sherwood, a minister, retired police officer and naturopathic doctorwho owns a Tulsa wellness-based medical practice, is challenging Stitt from the far right.

He has criticized the governor for closing"nonessential" businesses at the start of the pandemic and said Stitt, who just signed a near-total abortion ban into law, hasn't gone far enough to abolish abortion.

McCabe is a stay-at-home mom who supports the Second Amendment, opposes abortion and has vowed to stand against federal overreach.

Although Hofmeister was a registeredRepublican up until early October, she's already the likely frontrunner in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. She's been highly critical of Stitt since launching her campaign.

Like millions of our neighbors, I am guided by faith, family, and the commonsense Oklahoma values Ive taught my four kids," she said in a statement. "But there doesnt seem to be much common sense guiding our state right now.

"Instead of working together, our governor stirs up division, pitting neighbor against neighbor. He prizes politics over people and his own self-interest over the public good."

The first Democrat to jump into the governor's race, Johnson has touted her progressive bona fides on the campaign trail. She is a longtime proponent of legalizing cannabis and has pushed for Oklahoma to abolish the death penalty.

Johnsonran unsuccessfully for governor in 2018 and for U.S. Senate in 2014.

My policy positions are clear, and I've been transparent about them my entire career," Johnson said."My entire life basically is built on Democratic values that that I hold dear."

Former state Sen. Ervin Yen, who is challenging Stitt as an independent, continued lastweek his criticism of the governor's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.An anesthesiologist and former Republican, Yen used to represent Oklahoma Cityin the state Senate.

He said Oklahoma is a top 10 state for COVID-19 cases because "our terrible vaccination rate and our state governments lack of proclaiming a statewide maskmandate ever."

'We never made that investment': Oklahoma mass release report prompts call for program funding

While most governors imposed temporary mask mandates when COVID-19 cases spiked, Stitt never imposed a statewide mask requirement.

Bruno said it's important for Oklahomans to have a third-party option this election cycle.

She also criticized the governor's rocky relationship with the tribes, and said she would have vetoed legislation to make it a felony to perform most abortions.

"I really feel like the current establishment, the current parties aren't putting forth good quality candidates that we can vote for," said the Edmond Libertarian. "We need more options."

Staff writers Ben Felder and Chris Casteel contributed to this report.

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'The more the merrier': Who looks to unseat Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2022 election? - Oklahoman.com

Throughout the Trump era it was a frequent theme of liberal commentary that their political party represented a clear American majority, thwarted by our antidemocratic institutions and condemned to live under the rule of the conservative minority.

In the political context of 2016-20, this belief was overstated. Yes, Donald Trump won the presidential election of 2016 with a minority of the popular vote. But more Americans voted for Republican congressional candidates than Democratic congressional candidates, and more Americans voted for right-of-center candidates for president including the Libertarian vote than voted for Hillary Clinton and Jill Stein. In strictly majoritarian terms, liberalism deserved to lose in 2016, even if Trump did not necessarily deserve to win.

And Republican structural advantages, while real, did not then prevent Democrats from reclaiming the House of Representatives in 2018 and the presidency in 2020 and Senate in 2021. These victories extended the pattern of 21st century American politics, which has featured significant swings every few cycles, not the entrenchment of either partys power.

The political landscape after 2024, however, might look more like liberalisms depictions of its Trump-era plight. According to calculations by liberalisms Cassandra, David Shor, the convergence of an unfavorable Senate map for Democrats with their pre-existing Electoral College and Senate disadvantages could easily produce a scenario where the party wins 50 percent of the congressional popular vote, 51 percent of the presidential vote and ends up losing the White House and staring down a nearly filibuster-proof Republican advantage in the Senate.

Thats a scenario for liberal horror, but its not one that conservatives should welcome either. In recent years, as their advantages in both institutions have increased, conservatives have defended institutions like the Senate and the Electoral College with variations of the argument that the United States is a democratic republic, not a pure democracy.

These arguments carry less weight, however, the more consistently undemocratic the systems overall results become. (They would fall apart completely in the scenario sought by Donald Trump and some of his allies after 2020, where state legislatures simply substitute their preferences for the voters in their states.)

The Electoral Colleges legitimacy can stand up if an occasional 49-47 percent popular vote result goes the other way; likewise the Senates legitimacy if it tilts a bit toward one party but changes hands consistently.

But a scenario where one party has sustained governing power while lacking majoritarian support is a recipe for delegitimization and reasonable disillusionment, which no clever conservative column about the constitutional significance of state sovereignty would adequately address.

From the Republican Partys perspective, the best way to avoid this future where the nature of conservative victories undercuts the perceived legitimacy of conservative governance is to stop being content with the advantages granted by the system and try harder to win majorities outright.

You cant expect a political party to simply cede its advantages: There will never be a bipartisan constitutional amendment to abolish the Senate, on any timeline you care to imagine. But you can expect a political party to show a little more electoral ambition than the G.O.P. has done of late to seek to win more elections the way that Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon won them, rather than being content to keep it close and put their hopes in lucky breaks.

Especially in the current climate, which looks dire for the Democrats, the Republicans have an opportunity to make the Electoral College complaint moot, for a time at least, by simply taking plausible positions, nominating plausible candidates and winning majorities outright.

That means rejecting the politics of voter-fraud paranoia as, hopefully, Republican primary voters will do by choosing Brian Kemp over David Perdue in the Georgia gubernatorial primary.

It means rejecting the attempts to return to the libertarian makers versus takers politics of Tea Party era, currently manifested in Florida Senator Rick Scotts recent manifesto suggesting tax increases for the working class basically the right-wing equivalent of defund the police in terms of its political toxicity.

And it means and I fear this is beyond the G.O.P.s capacities nominating someone other than Donald Trump in 2024.

A Republican Party that managed to win popular majorities might still see its Senate or Electoral College majorities magnified by its structural advantages. But such magnification is a normal feature of many democratic systems, not just our own. Its very different from losing the popular vote consistently and yet being handed power anyway.

As for what the Democrats should do about their disadvantages well, thats a longer discussion, but two quick points for now.

First, to the extent the party wants to focus on structural answers to its structural challenges, it needs clarity about what kind of electoral reforms would actually accomplish something. Thats been lacking in the Biden era, where liberal reformers wasted considerable time and energy on voting bills that didnt pass and also werent likely to help the party much had they been actually pushed through.

A different reform idea, statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, wouldnt have happened in this period either, but its much more responsive to the actual challenges confronting Democrats in the Senate. So if youre a liberal activist or a legislator planning for the next brief window when your party holds power, pushing for an expanded Senate seems like a more reasonable long ball to try to train your team to throw.

Second, to the extent that theres a Democratic path back to greater parity in the Senate and Electoral College without structural reform, it probably requires the development of an explicit faction within the party dedicated to winning back two kinds of voters culturally conservative Latinos and working-class whites who were part of Barack Obamas coalition but have drifted rightward since.

That faction would have two missions: To hew to a poll-tested agenda on economic policy (not just the business-friendly agenda supported by many centrist Democrats) and to constantly find ways to distinguish itself from organized progressivism the foundations, the activists, the academics on cultural and social issues. And crucially, not in the tactical style favored by analysts like Shor, but in the language of principle: Rightward-drifting voters would need to know that this faction actually believes in its own moderation, its own attacks on progressive shibboleths, and that its members will remain a thorn in progressivisms side even once they reach Washington.

Right now the Democrats have scattered politicians, from West Virginia to New York City, who somewhat fit this mold. But they dont have an agenda for them to coalesce around, a group of donors ready to fund them, a set of intellectuals ready to embrace them as their own.

Necessity, however, is the mother of invention, and necessity may impose itself upon the Democratic Party soon enough.

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Opinion | Will Democrats Soon Be Locked Out of Power? - The New York Times

A periodic update about the 2022 campaign for public office.

Notices about public campaign appearances in the Sauk Valley should be sent to news@saukvalley.com. The news and notes will run periodically during the election season.

The Lee County Electoral Board unanimously voted April 12 to deny all objections against three Lee County Board members running for re-election.

Dixon resident Jennifer Lawson made formal election objections to County Board District 1 Republican incumbents Mike Koppien, Chris Norberg and Jim Schielein, arguing that they should be stricken from the June 28 primary ballot because their nomination papers were held together using paper clips.

Attorney Tim Zollinger, appointed by the Electoral Baord to oversee objection hearings and file a report to the board, made recommendations that all three objections be denied because the objector failed to meet her burden of proof. Both sides were given the opportunity to issue exceptions to the recommendations, and none were filed.

The Libertarian Party announced its slate, which includes Carbondale resident Gabriel Nelson as a candidate for state treasure the same office sought by statehouse Deputy Republican Leader Tom Demmer of Dixon and incumbent Democrat Michael Frerichs, office-holder since 2019.

Nelson was last a candidate for the U.S. House in 2020, running against Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democrat from Schaumburg, for the 8th District seat, which represents parts of Cook, DuPage, and Kane counties. Nelson founded the Southern Illinois Libertarian Party in 2014 and has since had public relations duties with the Libertarian party.

Yes, he was. The stop on Tuesday was not political, but within the duties of his office. Frerichs visited Smoked on Third and talked to workers about their enrollment in the state retirement savings plan, Secure Choice.

Petitioning began Wednesday for third-party candidates. Independent or new-party candidates must gather 25,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot.

The other announced Libertarian candidates are Deirdre N. McCloskey for state comptroller, Daniel K. Robin for attorney general, John Phillips for lieutenant governor, Scott Schluter for governor and ... Jesse White for Secretary of State.

Photos of Libertarian Jesse White and Democrat Jesse White.

Just to be clear, the Libertarian candidate for secretary of state isnt the same person as Jesse Clark White, the 87-year-old Democrat who has held that office since 1999 but is not seeking re-election.

Steve Suess, the chairman of the Libertarian Party, told the Springfield State Journal Register its a total coincidence their candidate has the same name. The party is not trying to defraud voters and that its Jesse White is a serious candidate, he added.

Libertarians espouse the the right to life, liberty of speech and action and the right to property. As policy, this is expressed as the need for greatly reduced regulation and taxation, promotion of civil liberties including freedom of association and sexual freedom, gun rights and self defense and the elimination of state welfare and most business regulation.

The party has eight office-holders statewide, including River Valley Library District board trustee Brody Anderson in Port Byron and Paw Paw village President John Prentice. The Stateline Libertarians of northern Illinois meet monthly at Big Os in the Hollow in Freeport.

In 2020, the Libertarian presidential ticket got 65,544 votes, about 1.1% of the electorate.

Meet and greet for Mike Lewis, Republican candidate for Whiteside County sheriff, 8:30 a.m., As Kitchen, Rock Falls.

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Campaign Notebook: Keeping tabs on paper clips and the two Jesse Whites - Shaw Local News Network

Apr. 17It takes a lot of gas to run a gubernatorial campaign.

Literally.

The five candidates seeking the Republican nomination for governor have racked up thousands of dollars in fuel charges and thousands of miles on their vehicles' odometers as they've crisscrossed the state on the campaign trail over the past six months.

"The car that I bought in August had nine miles when I got it. It just passed 49,000, and it's on its second set of tires," said state Rep. Rebecca Dow of Truth or Consequences, who reported $6,400 in mileage reimbursements.

Although high, the candidates' fuel charges pale in comparison to other big-ticket expenditures listed in their most recent campaign finance reports, filed Monday.

Since October, the five hopefuls spent a combined $1.36 million to try to connect with Republican voters and voters in general before the June 7 primary.

The winner in the five-way race will face off against Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who has nearly $3.8 million cash on hand, and a Libertarian candidate.

Political consultants in New Mexico and across the country were among the biggest beneficiaries of the Republican candidates' spending.

Big fundraiser, big spender

Mark Ronchetti, a former TV meteorologist who raised $2.1 million over the past six months, more than all of his Republican rivals combined, led in spending, too.

Ronchetti reported nearly $584,000 in expenditures.

The biggest expense for Ronchetti, who has been running TV ads statewide, was $158,724 in media advertising.

It was followed by more than $132,000 to McCleskey Media Strategies for a wide variety of services, from media production costs to design and printing. The president of the Albuquerque-based political consulting firm is Jay McCleskey, who ran former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez's gubernatorial campaigns and also served as her chief political adviser during her two terms in office.

Asked about the campaign's decision to work with McCleskey, Enrique Knell, Ronchetti's campaign spokesman, said the campaign doesn't generally discuss strategy or spending.

Story continues

"Mark's campaign is about listening to New Mexicans and talking about his vision for turning New Mexico around after four years of a disastrous administration that has devastated family budgets and our freedoms," Knell wrote in an email.

Ronchetti listed dozens of fuel charges that added up to more than $4,900.

"Mark is driving to every corner in New Mexico to meet voters and talk about the issues New Mexicans face," wrote Knell, who called the price of gas an "absolute disaster" for families and small businesses.

Knell argued gas prices would be climbing even higher if the Legislature had passed a proposed clean fuel standard that Lujan Grisham supported during the 30-day session earlier this year.

Boosting name ID

Dow, who raised more than $751,000 since October, came in second in spending with just over $406,000 in expenditures.

A $112,500 ad buy was the biggest expenditure for Dow, who has released two television ads. That was followed by some $99,000 in political consulting services and about $35,000 in mailings and other campaign literature.

"I started this race with 3 percent name ID, so you see a lot of mailers because we're targeting voters and letting them know who we are, what we stand for and how we're going to move New Mexico forward," she said. "I am, everywhere I go, passing out business cards, palm cards, putting signs in windows, 'Small business for Dow' and 'Parents for Dow.' "

In addition to putting 49,000 miles on her new car, Dow said she's logged at least 11,000 more miles on her other vehicles as she travels the state.

"Just this week, for example, we've gone from Angel Fire to Espaola to Santa Fe to Albuquerque, T or C and [Las] Cruces and Socorro," she said. "We're going to be in Dulce and Aztec and Farmington next week, as well as Carlsbad."

Dow also reported nearly $10,000 in campaign T-shirts.

"We can't keep T-shirts in stock," she said. "Our most popular T-shirt says, 'Green chile, guns and freedom,' and the second most popular one says, 'We're sticking with Dow,' and it has cactus on it."

Dow, who loaned her campaign $40,000, has close to $684,000 cash on hand.

"I think we're in good shape," she said. "We're getting contributions daily."

Dow said she's feeling "comfortable" with her campaign's financials with less than two months until the primary, adding the candidate with the most money doesn't always emerge the winner.

'I'm Seabiscuit'

Ethel Maharg, a former mayor of the village of Cuba who now serves as the executive director of the Albuquerque-based Right to Life Committee of New Mexico, said she's not worried about her campaign's fundraising numbers.

After raising just $12,999 in the last reporting period, Maharg has less than $800 in cash on hand.

"You gotta understand, I've worked for [two nonprofits] for the past 10 years," Maharg said. "There were times they'd ask the executive committee whether or not we literally could wait to [cash] our checks. To me, not to have that money doesn't scare me. It probably scares [the other primary candidates], but it doesn't scare me."

The biggest chunk of Maharg's expenses $4,129 has been for campaign consulting. That's followed by fuel at more than $2,000, or about 15 percent of her fundraising haul.

Maharg is undeterred, saying money corrupts. She pointed to a candidate forum in Santa Fe last week in which some of the contenders lodged potshots against their rivals.

"Did you see the display of foolishness?" she asked. "That's what that money buys you, so I'm not going to be doing attack ads and all this other nonsense that's going on. I don't do that."

Maharg said she running a "truly grassroots" campaign.

"I don't need $10,000 so I can stand there and pontificate about how much money I got because every email I get [from the other primary candidates] is like, 'I raised a million dollars.' Well, good for you," she said. "How does that help New Mexico? I'm truly here in the interest of people, not in the interest of raising a million dollars."

Maharg continues to call herself the "Seabiscuit" of the Republican gubernatorial primary, referring to the small racehorse that upset the 1937 Triple Crown winner, War Admiral, in 1938.

"Slow out of the gate, but I'm going to win in the end," she said.

'Still in this fight'

Jay Block, a Sandoval County commissioner who was the top vote-getter in the Republican pre-primary nominating convention, is heading into the primary with a lackluster $20,000 cash on hand.

Like Maharg, Block is optimistic.

"We didn't spend a lot of money in the convention, and we won the convention, while other campaigns poured in tens of thousands of dollars in mailers and other resources," he said, saying his, too, is a grassroots campaign.

"The message we're speaking around the state is resonating, and we certainly don't believe Mr. Ronchetti's polls that are done by his consultant Jay McCleskey's wife. If those polls were correct, he would have won the convention handily."

Block, who raised nearly $119,000 in campaign contributions since October, reported just over $128,000 in expenditures. The biggest portion $80,476 went to McShane LLC, a media strategy and political consulting firm in Las Vegas, Nev.

"They have a lot of experience and a winning record with races from city council to U.S. Senate," he said.

Block also reported a $5,000 payment for "legal defense" work, which was tied to a court challenge of his nominating petition signatures. The challenge was dismissed on technicalities.

Block said his fundraising efforts are ongoing.

"Today, we had a big donor give us a check for over $5,000," he said Friday. "We're fighting. Other campaigns are part of the swamp, and this is a grassroots one, and we're still in this fight."

'A lean operation'

Investment adviser Greg Zanetti, who has about $172,000 in cash on hand, reported $169,396 in contributions over the past six months.

Zanetti spent $237,000 since October, including about $157,000 on the services of three political consulting firms for digital marketing and other expenses.

"We're running a lean operation," said Ryan Lynch, who is serving as manager, spokesman and political director for Zanetti's campaign.

Zanetti loaned his campaign $185,135 at the start of the primary race.

"In a perfect world, we'll raise so much money that by the end, we've got that and then some in the bank and he's been elected governor and we can reimburse his loan," Lynch said. "But he's also committed to spending what it takes, so if that doesn't happen, it doesn't happen."

Lynch said "it's definitely a possibility" Zanetti will loan his campaign more money.

"We've got a five-way primary. Anytime you have a crowded field like that, it's more difficult to raise money and, well, our fundraising certainly reflects that," he said.

In addition to the loan, Zanetti reported $31,396 of in-kind contributions from himself for travel, advertising and rent. Lynch said he didn't know exactly how much was for fuel costs but imagines it's a "big chunk" of the total.

While Zanetti is happy with his fundraising efforts so far, Lynch said the campaign wishes it were better.

"It's one of those things that, no matter how well you do, it could always be better," he said.

"We're doing this sort of the old-fashioned way, handshake to handshake, and it's thus far proving to be effective," Lynch said. "There's more we have to do in terms of traditional marketing, TV and such. But, you know, we're happy with where we're at right now, and we're just going to keep our foot on the accelerator all the way through June 7th."

Follow Daniel J. Chacn on Twitter

@danieljchacon.

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New Mexico's GOP governor hopefuls spending big to connect with voters - Yahoo News

Assuming that the rule of law and intellectual integrity matters to a court with an originalist supermajority, the choice before the court is a clear one: It must weigh a modern libertarian preference for gun rights against the strong historical evidence allowing robust gun regulation, including may-issue permit schemes premised on specified threats like New York has had in place for a century. As the recent horrific events on the New York City subway underscore, guns have no place on public transportation or any other place where a large number of people gather. The Supreme Court would do well to act with some measure of judicial humility on this issue, respect history, not invent it, and reaffirm that the people, not unelected judges make the laws in our system.

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Guns, guns everywhere: Last weeks subway shooting was horrifying. If the Supreme Court creates a national right to carry, the future will be worse. -...