Let's Pod This

We discuss the process of lawmaking (both from inside and outside the legislature), what happens when that process is circumvented, what the Super Tuesday primary looks like for Oklahoma.

Announcements

• State brand online store: https://www.shoptravelok.com/
• Anti Hunger Day - Tuesday Feb 25th 
• Presidential primary: March 3rd
• LFT Capitol Day: April 1st
• Census starts: April 1st
• Child Advocacy Day: May 6th

This week at the Capitol:

• Tribal gaming update
• OMES says $85.5m less to appropriate this year from last year
• Senate approved SJR to call a constitutional convention
• School suicide awareness passes senate committee
• Snow cones soon to be available in the winter 
• Chamber of origin committee deadline next Friday 2/28

State questions update

• 802 (Medicaid expansion) waiting for governor to place on a ballot
• 805 (CJR) collecting signatures
• 807 (rec weed) legal challenge to be heard on 2/26
• 808 (rec weed) can collect sigs, but Tay is incarcerated
• 809 (gun repeal) received legal challenge from
• 810 (independent redistricting) waiting for legal challenge on 2/28

Let’s talk elections

• Caucus vs Primary
• Briefly discuss/ debate their merits (wacky vs normal)
• Super Tuesday!
• State races primary: June 30
• Online Voter Registration [probably] coming in 2021
• State race candidate filing: Apr 8-10
• Odd fact: elections are prohibited, by law, in the months of May, July, Sept, Oct, & December of even-numbered years.

We're two weeks into the legislative session, an d bills are starting to move. Some are alive, a few are dead (or at least mostly dead), and others...well, it's still a bit too early to tell. This week Representative Jason Dunnington (HD88) joins the crew to talk about two of his bills and a whole lot else. Topics include:

1. Conversion therapy ban advances
2. Roberts vaccine bill killed in committee
3. Needle exchange advances
4. Ford seatbelt law advances
5. Rose day stuff
6. Death penalty
7. Resignation of Steve Buck
8. New state brand
9. Movement on bills that made Bailey happy!
10. #Oklegvalentines

Scott is joined by our newest co-host, Bailey Perkins, to discuss the finer points of Governor Stitt's second State of the State address.

The Oklahoma legislative session starts in less than two weeks, so we're giving listeners an update-in-brief so that you are ready and prepared.  

• Updates: 
• Stone & Smalley have resigned: 
• Tribal gaming 
• Tribes sued
• Gov Stitt asks for injunction and for proceeds to be placed in trust 
• Healthcare reform
• Marijuana
• Redistricting
• How will this year be different
• What does this session look like for the Governor? 
• Tribes are pissed
• Agency director budgets
• The BUDGET
• Continued consolidation of executive authority?
• It’s an Election Year!
• How does this impact bills/votes/posturing?
• What the f*ck is Inhofe gonna do?
• Highlight a few bills
• HJR 1027 - changes to 
• HB2876 Death Penalty bill - Dunnington
• 
  
• Next week: Predict-o-Rama!

Think you know what bills will pass and what bills will fail? Great, because it's time for our annual Predict-O-Rama game! Scott and I run thru the slate of options, and now it's your turn to vote! Link to the game: https://forms.gle/peFv2FMSWpZPjqpQ6

Did Governor Stitt deliver on the plans and promises he listed during his 2019 State of the State address? We break it down and then look ahead at what to expect from the 2020 legislative session.

BIG NEWS! A rag-tag group of Oklahomans have banded together to form "People Not Politicians," a nonpartisan organization that has filed a ballot initiative to amend the state constitution to create an independent redistricting commission and end gerrymandering in our state! We hear all about it from their Campaign Manager, whom you might already know...

Much to the chagrin of the NCAA, the state of California recently passed the Fair Pay to Play Act, which law permits collegiate athletes to hire agents and make money from endorsements. A similar bill will likely be filed in Oklahoma next year, so we sat down with OU gymnast (and burgeoning entrepreneur) Peter Daggett to hear his perspective as a student athlete.

This is the fourth and final episode in our "Gerrymandering Oklahoma" series. 

By now we know what gerrymandering is, how and why it happens, and a few ways to prevent it. But how, exactly, do you get it to stop when the political system is rigged against you? You let the voters take the lead. For this, we spoke with Katie Fahey who started a people-first movement in Michigan in 2018 that led to the formation an independent redistricting commission and virtually eliminated gerrymandering from her state.