Podcast Ep. 56 | Everybody likes sandwiches
Announcements
Ballot review meet-ups on Nov 3rd (specific times & locations TBD)
The Election Night Show on Nov 6th
Articles & Links Discussed
Take-Aways
As the Oklahoma legislature grapples with how to implement medical marijuana, there are a number of concerns being voiced from nearly every profession.
This week, the #okleg Joint Working Group (yes really) heard from the banking community. Since marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, banks are hesitant to work with anyone in the marijuana industry. That means businesses must use cash and may be forced to hold on to large amounts of it. It also means the state must collect sales tax in cash…which poses big issues for how that happens as well.
However, other states seem to be handling it just fine, so maybe things will work out in Oklahoma.
Our guest for this episode, Mark Myles, is running for Attorney General. During the interview, Mr. Myles speaks broadly about his background as an attorney (as both a prosecutor and defense attorney) and his perspective on the role of the Oklahoma AG both now and in the future.
Podcast Ep. 55 | Commissioner Candidates Chat
In this episode, we sit down with two candidates running for statewide office - Kimberly Fobbs, who is running for Insurance Commissioner, and Fred Dorrell, who is running for Labor Commissioner. #Votelahoma
Podcast Ep. 53 | Someone should poll our dogs
News RoundUp
Education Leaders See Few Benefits of in Ballot Measure to Give Schools More Financial Stability
The Strawberry Capital of the World is the Early Death Capital of the US
Dark Money Spending Hits Record in Oklahoma, With Surge to Come
On The Sidelines of Democracy: Exploring why so Many Americans Don’t Vote
Take-aways
Everyone is campaigning, so most of the updates are in the form of articles this week.
Voter turnout is key to making change in our state.
All politics is local. The more local the race, the more of a direct impact it has on your day-to-day life.
There’s going to be a ton of new legislators going into next year, so it is imperative that we as voters & advocates begin getting to know them soon. They’re going to have a lot to learn about how things work at the Capitol…and we need to ensure they learn the right things.
Episode Sponsors
Podcast Ep. 52 | Capitol Reporters, Vol. 1 (with Grant Hermes and Sean Murphy)
In this episode we visit with two of Oklahoma's intrepid journalists, Grant Hermes (News9) and Sean Murphy (Associated Press) to get an inside look into what it's like to cover the State Capitol and politics in general in today's political climate.
NOTE: As you’ll hear at the beginning of the episode, we had an issue with the initial audio export and thus had to cut out the first five minutes of the original recording. So, we jump in near the beginning of our discussion of the second news article listed below.
News Round-up
New Election Board service allows voters to change registration information online (State Election Board)
GOP nominee for Oklahoma Senate flipped between parties during campaign (NewsOK)
Editorial: Health Department should honor open records requests (NonDoc)
“Overkill,” Town Board guts draft ordinance on Medical Marijuana (Luther Register)
Democrats Don’t Care About Policy Compromise Anymore — Just Like Republicans (FiveThirtyEight)
Live From the Battleground Districts: Polls of the Key Races for House Control (NY Times The Upshot)
Take-Aways
For all of us who have jobs and cannot be at the Capitol all day, every day, the journalists that comprise the Capitol press corp are our eyes and ears inside the building. However, they are merely observers of the process, not active participants. Because of that, they have a unique insight and perspective into what goes on there, and we thought it would be interesting to hear from them directly.
Journalists have come under fire during the last couple years, largely without warrant. Both Grant and Sean do a great job explaining how the see their role in politics today and the process that goes into investigating, researching, vetting, and writing the news. These are not cable news talking heads - these are local people reporting on local things, working their tails off to ensure that they get it right. They also share the most challenging aspects of their jobs as well as their favorite Oklahoma political stories from the past couple of years.
We included “Vol. 1” in the title because we will be doing additional interviews with other reporters at the State Capitol for future episodes down the line. Stay tuned!
Podcast Ep. 51 | Too Close for Missiles
In this episode, Andy & Scott are joined by Commander Scott Downey, USN, Retired, for what starts out as a discussion of current events and the run-off election but what ends up being a rather vulnerable conversation between a liberal and a conservative.
Articles Discussed
hat Oklahomans Are Telling Their Legislators
State office independents running as a team on open government
Education funding remains a contentious debate
Oklahoma gave Boeing $90 million in incentive money, along with a few other breaks
Pruitt Watch
EPA watchdog faults Scott Pruitt's $3.5 million security costs
Take-aways
Honestly, the main takeaway from this episode is that most Oklahomans probably agree on a surprising number of political policies.
A point of personal privilege, from Andy: Over the past couple of years, I've grown to respect Scott Downey an awful lot. He's about twenty years older than I am, so his perspective on marriage, parenting, and navigating the workplace are personally valuable to me. Additionally, he is a former Navy fighter pilot with combat experience and, at one time, held the record for the most landings on an aircraft carrier. Those stories are very different...many funny, many inspiring, and many others just incredibly painful. General Sherman famously said "War is hell," and based on some of the stories I've heard from Commander Downey, that quote is completely true.
Scott and I would often discuss the current political climate in Oklahoma before class, and while we certainly butted heads on a few issues, we found that we agreed on policy just as often as we disagreed. Perhaps more importantly, we both made a point to listen to the other person's perspective and work to find common ground. I think we both hoped to change the other person's mind on certain issues, so we started with what we had in common first and then worked on the peripheral stuff. Did it always work? Certainly not! But we both have a better understanding of the other side, we're still friends, and our friendship is stronger because of it.
Update 9/8/18 @ 10:00am - I just received the following text message from Scott Downey, and am sharing it here with his permission:
I read your take aways at 12:41 AM, almost texted you then. That's some of the nicest things anyone's ever said about me although you give me l more credit than I'm due. And your readers, donors, board members, listeners should know that my reasonable, courteous discussions with you have altered my positions on many things, some large some small - I would say this shows that Lets Fix This is effective.
Podcast Ep. 50 | Sit-down with the Solicitor General
Summary
Did you know Oklahoma has a Solicitor General? (We didn't.) Do you have any idea what they do? (We definitely didn't.) Join us for an insightful conversation with Oklahoma's Solicitor General, Mithun Mansinghani.
Takeaways
The Solicitor General works for the Attorney General, and is basically responsible for representing the State in cases that are appeals or those concerning matters of constitutionality.
This means that, when necessary, the SG argues for the State before the Oklahoma Supreme Court and possibly even before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The SG can also decide that the State would be better off to hire another attorney to do the courtroom stuff. For example, in a few months the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case from Oklahoma, but because of the importance and far-reaching implications of the case, SG Mansinghani recommended that the State hire someone that has more experience arguing in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
There's a lot of interesting legal stuff in this episode, but I'll be honest - you're probably better off just listening to it rather than me reading it.
Links & Articles We Mentioned
Boom Town by Sam Anderson
538 Politics Election forecast model
Stitt’s Mortgage Firm Failed to Tell Regulators of Past Problems
Many Oklahoma Congressional candidates worth millions, financial disclosures show
Podcast Ep. 49 | Labor Commissioner 101 with Leslie Osborn
Summary
We discuss the Oklahoma Capitol Restoration Project and sit down with Oklahoma Representative and GOP candidate for Labor Commissioner Leslie Osborn to find out what, exactly, the position does in our state.
Takeaways
- The restoration project is an enormous undertaking and the craftsmanship of the work is impressive. (See pics below!)
- The Oklahoma Labor Commissioner is responsible for workplace safety and development, which includes working with education & training organizations to educate the next generation of Oklahoma workers.
- Osborn's
- Remember to vote in the primary run-off election on Tuesday, August 28th!
Podcast Ep. 48 | Words Have Meaning (with Daniela Busciglio)
Summary
We're joined by academic linguist and political consultant Daniela Busciglio with DFB Consulting to discuss why words matter and how advocates can use science to help us get our point across more effectively.
Links
During the episode we discussed author George Lakoff, the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI), and Daniela mentioned her upcoming training event, which is linked below.
Take-Aways
Daniela explained that messaging has less to do with what you're saying and more to do with how you say it. Facts and figures are helpful for shaping actual policy, but in order to win over the person to whom you're speaking, emotion - especially authentic emotion - is more important. Choose your words carefully, consider how they will be received by the listener, and make sure that you're connecting with them on a human level.
This makes sense with what we've already learned (and shared with you) about how to talk to legislators. Remember that they're just regular people, too, and as such, they are just as easily impacted by genuine, emotional stories that help them connect policy with people. As Daniela said during this interview, it's not enough to just say you support an issue in the abstract. You need to be very specific in what you support and why you support it.
So, rather than saying to your legislators "I care about education and want it to be fully funded," you could say "I'm a mother of two kids in public school, and I'm worried about the quality of the education they're getting. Because of years of cuts to their school's budget, my son has 28 kids in his kindergarten class, and my daughter has 33 in her second grade class. They tell me stories about how loud it is and how they don't have enough books for everyone."
Podcast Ep. 47 | Post-mortem with Senator AJ Griffin
Summary
This week's episode is just a round-up of three quick articles and then a fantastic interview with outgoing state Senator AJ Griffin.