Let's Pod This

With roughly 100 days left until the general election, multiple state-funded entities are being audited and/or under investigation. We talk about those as well as a high-level overview of the interim studies that have been approved for this year.

Bailey and Andy breakdown the results of the primary election and what it means for the general election in November and for the state in general.

Elections Results

If you’re a regular listener of this program,  you may have noticed that we didn’t publish an episode last week. As I’m sure you are all aware, on the day that we usually record, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling that overturned Roe vs Wade and effectively ended Americans’ right to abortion in more than half of the country, including here in Oklahoma. If you want to learn more about the specifics of Oklahoma’s abortion laws, including the four that were added this year, listen to episode 210, called “Why so many abortion bans?”  which was published just a few weeks ago, on May 29th. It features an interview with Tamya Cox-Toure, who is the executive director of ACLU Oklahoma and co-chair of the Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice. 

While this Supreme Court ruling was expected because the decision was leaked a few months ago, the reality of it actually happening has left millions of people feeling heavier, angrier, and more despondent than I think we anticipated. The ruling is unequivocally harmful to every person who can become pregnant and to our society at large. American women, including my daughters, are now growing up in a world where they have more risk and fewer rights than did their mothers and grandmothers. 

This ruling will have a disproportionate impact on black and brown communities and people who are in poverty. Abortion is still legal in many states, but that doesn’t mean it is accessible. Thousands of people who will need abortions are now unable to get one. 

In addition to its overt harm, this ruling is remarkable for a number of reasons - the contemputous tone taken by the author, Justice Samuel Alito, for example. Also the fact that several members of the court have been credibly accused of sexual harrassment and were appointed by a president who was also credibly accussed of sexual assault. Or that nearly all the justices, when asked during their Senate confirmation hearings if they would overturn Roe v Wade, stated that they would not, agreeing that Roe was settled precedent. And yet, here we are.

And then there is the concurring opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, which openly advocates for the overturning of the precedent set by three other Supreme Court cases - Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell - which provide protections for access to birth control, consensual sex, and same-sex marriage, respectively.

Justice Thomas is regarded as one of (if not the) most conservative justices on the bench, and these type of comments should give all Americans reason for serious concern. This kind of approach, often called “orginialist” or "textualist,” is dangerous to the American way of life because it implies that every right and privilege that is conveyed to us by legal precedent but not specifically outlined in the Constitution is now at risk. There is a lot of prededecent that all of us take for granted because  it has been settled for years or even decades. 

Abortion isn’t just a partisan issue, it’s a power issue. People of all political affiliations need and receive abortions every year. The issue is about who has the power over women. Who gets to make decisions about their health needs, about what happens to their bodies, about their freedom and independence and autonomy. 

The people opposed to abortion have been very open that this fight is not about science or reason, it is about values. Public policy is rooted in values, and sometimes  values cut across partisan lines in ways we don’t expect. But we don’t usually talk about our values with one another, we usually just talk about policy. Why is that?

To explain, I’m going to borrow (and extend) an analogy from my friend Eric Liu, founder and CEO of Citizen University and the author of several books, including “The Gardens of Democracy.” 

Consider our democracy to be a garden. Our values are the soil and policy are the flowers and fruit that grow from that soil. We are all gardeners, tasked with maintaining this garden. When someone talks about their garden, the conversation is about the plants - the beautiful roses, the juicy tomatoes, health that it brings to the whole local ecosystem. But they rarely talk about what makes the garden grow - the soil. They don’t mention the months of hard work it took to prepare it, the hours they spend every week watering, pruning, and weeding. The soil is what nourishes the plants, just as our values are what generate good public policy. 

In Oklahoma, there are roughly 3 million eligible voters, but only about 2 million are actually registered to vote. Of those, only about a million actually, turn out to vote - giving us the lowest rate of voter participation in the entire country. That’s like having 3 acres of land for a garden but only plowing 2 of them and then only planting seeds in one (and only watering half of that one). Look at all that potential garden that’s available! Imagine all the flowers and fruit we might have! 

Of course, that’s a lot of land to cover, and without a plan we’re just going to trample all over the garden and potentially mess up the seeds that our fellow gardeners have planted. What we need to do is divvy up the territory into manageable sections, assign gardeners to each section, and make sure every team of gardeners has the tools and resources necessary to develop their parcel. 

Here at Let’s Fix This and Let’s Fix This Votes, we’re working in collaboration with a team of organizations both in Oklahoma and nationally to develop that plot plan for our garden. We’re identifying voters throughout the state who share our values but have been ignored - fertile soil that has been left fallow for far too long. 

If you’re interested in being a gardener with us, c’mon on down. We need you. Tending the soil is hard work and while some plants may bloom quickly, the full beauty of this garden may not be visible for several years. We need you to commit for the long haul, to help us make calls, knock on doors, and have conversations. If you’re interested, please go to letsfixthis.org/volunteer and sign up. We’ll have opportunities beginning in just a couple of weeks. 

The legislature is juggling two concurrent special sessions (and they disagree on interpreting their own rules which govern them), there's an election in less than 2 weeks, Oklahoma County's government is in disarray (or at least one of its officeholders is), it's ungodly hot, and Covid is getting worse *again*.

Links mentioned:

• Prater seeks to remove David Hooten from office, Blumert outlines awkward messages (NonDoc)
• Oklahoma County Clerk David Hooten resigns, vows to continue run for state treasurer
• Swadley’s contract details unknown to OMES for more than a year (NonDoc)

More than 700 Oklahomans die each year from firearms - an average of about 2 per day. We're joined by Beth Furnish, a volunteer with Mom's Demand Action who tracks legislation at the state capitol pertaining to firearms, to discuss the status of Oklahoma gun laws and how they could be made safer.

Links discussed:

• How Oklahoma Lawmakers Have Loosened Gun Regulations the Past Decade (Oklahoma Watch)
• Democrats Push for Solutions to Gun Violence with SAVE Act

The Oklahoma legislature passed four "total abortion bans" this session, but they're not all the same. We're joined by Tamya Cox-Touré, executive director of ACLU Oklahoma and co-chair of the Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice, to discuss what each of the bills does, how they conflict, and what the future of abortion may look like for Oklahoma.

Andy is joined by Emma Morris, Healthcare and Revenue Policy Analyst at OK Policy, to discuss the newly-approved FY23 state budget winners, losers, and who-knows-what's-going-to-happen-with-the-leftovers.

With less than two weeks before sine die, we have yet to see a budget proposal...from anyone! Also, the investigation into the Swadley's scandal deepens and the multicounty grand jury issued policy recommendations but no indictments. Relevant links are below!

Let’s start with the latest on BBQGate. Two important developments came to light this week:

• First, The Frontier reported that Months before seeking bids, a state tourism official spoke of a deal for Swadley’s Foggy Bottom Kitchen to ‘make money from day one’ 
• Also, the House Special Investigative Committee that is looking into this scandal convened their first hearing and heard testimony from LOFT director Mike Jackson. During that meeting, it was disclosed that 74% of the funds -  $12.4M of the $16.7M given to Swadleys - was misspent. Director Jackson said this happened because the Tourism Department lacked the proper checks and balances. Some examples:
• Travel was reimbursed multiple times. Jackson noted that the mileage reimbursement for one month in 2020 could have paid for someone to drive around the globe four times. 
• one of the 59 subcontractors hired by Swadley's to make park and dining improvements charged a $20,000 fee on $53,000 worth of work. In addition, Swadley's then charged project-specific consulting and management fees, Jackson said.
• a cheese melter that Swadley's expensed for $11,600. When LOFT looked into it, the office found the same manufacturer charged no more than $5,500 for that item, Jackson said. 

The multicounty grand jury filed their report on Thursday and included within it were a number of findings as well as recommendations.  The report says, among other things, that Governor Stitt put improper political pressure on his appointees to the Pardon & Parole board.  

• The grand jury is convened by the District Attorney for the purpose of reviewing evidence and, when justified, issuing indictments. So...why is this grand jury issuing policy recommendations? (And is that even legal?)

Initially blocked, pair of campaign websites ‘now available’ on state network (NonDoc)

The ‘weird political misadventure’ of two tag agent bills (NonDoc)

Andy, Bailey, & Scott discuss a legislative proposal, SJR43, that is an overt attempt to politicize Oklahoma's judicial system by replacing most judges with Governor-appointed cronies, make the rest of the judicial elections partisan, and create an entirely separate class of lawyers that are licensed by the legislature, not the Oklahoma Bar Association. (For broader context on these assaults on the judiciary beyond Oklahoma, read this.)

Andy & Scott discuss the latest news in the BBQ-flavored [alleged] corruption scandal, yet another bill that promises to be a "total ban" on abortion in Oklahoma, and who got tossed from the ballot during candidacy challenges this week.