Podcast Ep. 64 | 2019 Predict-O-Rama
Summary
We're joined by Krystal Yoseph to discuss Governor Stitt's first Executive Orders and cast our predictions for the 2019 Oklahoma legislative session.
Announcements
Feb 4: State of the State address + start of legislative session
Feb 21: Let’s Fix This Capitol Day!
News Articles
Executive orders target lobbyists, planes, hiring freeze and Cabinet (Journal Record)
Bill would make it harder to sue officers for excessive force (The Frontier)
Take-aways
OK Policy Annual Budget Summit:
State will have more money to spend, but most of it is already allocated.
Lots of discussion about expanding Medicaid, even from Republicans
2019 Legislative Predictions & what bills we’re watching
HB2328 - deals with use of excessive force by law enforcement
SB592 - requires protests/rallies at the Capitol to get a $50,000 bond
HB2094 - makes it a misdemeanor to disrupt the Legislature
HB2214 - Bans teacher walkouts
HB1413 - Holds lawmakers responsible if they author laws that are ruled unconstitutional
HB2456 - Bans conversion therapy with children
HB1269 - Makes SQ780 retroactive
SB102 - Raises minimum wage to $10.50/hour
HB2597 - allows anyone over the age of 18 to openly carry a firearm without a license
There will be more listed in our official Predict-O-Rama contest, will be released this week. Sign up for our Newsletter to get the announcement first!
UPDATE: Predict-O-Rama is now live!
Podcast Episodes 60-62: All Things Election
We recorded two episodes the week prior to the election that didn’t get posted here, so I’m combining them with our post-election recap for a comprehensive election post!
In episode 60 we revealed that Scott and I have been working on an Oklahoma-only election forecast model, similar (though not nearly as advanced) as the good folks at FiveThirtyEight. We also talked about “voting plans,” what they are and why you need one.
In episode 61 we briefly discussed the races we’d be keeping a close eye on (and why) during election night.
And last but not least, in episode 62 we discussed what happened during the election, why Stitt beat Edmondson, and what this means for the upcoming 2019 legislative session.
Podcasts Eps. 58 & 59 | Recap of a debate and follow-up with several candidates
This week is a banner week for #LetsPodThis - we posted not one but two episodes! (Okay, yes, we did that once last month as well. What can we say - it’s a busy time of year!)
This week starts with Episode 58, “On the Road Again,” in which we catch up with two candidates who have been travelling the state together during their campaigns - Democratic candidate for Labor Commissioner Fred Dorrell and Democratic candidate for Insurance Commissioner Kimberly Fobbs.
Next is Episode 59, “CD5 Debate and another Labor Commissioner candidate,” which contains a brief recap of the debate between candidates for US Congress, incumbent Steve Russell (R) and challenger Kendra Horn (D), followed by an interview with the Republican candidate for Labor Commissioner, Leslie Osborn.
The debate between Russell and Horn was hosted by NonDoc, and we highly recommend you read their full recap of the event. This is a race that is garnering national attention - which is unusual for Oklahoma congressional races for the last decade or so.
Podcast Ep. 57 | 2018 State Questions Guide
Summary
We discuss the pros and cons of each of the five state questions that are on the ballot this year.
Announcements
Reminder that Nov 6th is Election Day - which means you need to vote. And then, in the evening following, you’re all invited to join us for The Election Night Show!
Links & Articles Discussed
The video clip of The West Wing used as the opening to this episode.
Health Department faces employee lawsuit (Journal Record)
Pulling back from partisanship (our blog post from late 2017)
Take-Aways
We discussed the five state questions that appear on the ballot this November. We’ll publish our own voter guide later this week, but until then, here are two excellent guides that we highly recommend:
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.