Former Adair County Sheriff, David Hardin, is a leading new voice for constitutional rights in the Oklahoma legislature.
Earlier this month he came to a stark realization of the entrenched power of his own house leadership; namely the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Chairman Chris Kannady wields his power openly and dictates which bills he is willing to entertain, and on what terms. Kannady guts several bills of their substance even before deciding if he will give his committee the opportunity to make motions to hear or advance them. Earlier this month, on Feb. 11th, The House Judiciary Committee called up HB2781. Before Rep. Hardin had an opportunity to even speak, Chairman Kannady had presented his massive amendment and declared unanimous consent approval of the committee to adopt his amendment, which took the 11-page bill down to just 2 pages of substance. Hardin knew this was coming. He knew full well the terms by which he'd even be given an opportunity for part of his bill to advance to a floor vote. Democrats swarmed to the opportunity to exploit this division in the Republican caucus and they capitalized on it. Colin Walke (D-OKC) openly admonished the committee to submit to any and all federal edicts or else just go ahead and secede from the union and give up all the federal funds that come with federal supremacy. |
All 4 Democrats (Lowe, Loring, Perryman, & Walke) voted against the bill. But even more Republicans rejected it. Among the Republicans opposing it are, Rhonda Baker, Tammy townley, Judd Strom, Rande Worthen, & Mike Osburn.
Those supporting The Kannady substitute language are Jim Olsen, Danny Sterling, Johnny Tadlock, and Chris Kannady.
Below you'll see the vote report, along with the marked up bill. the stricken language of the Kannady Amendment has lines through the text. Added language from Chairman Kannady has underlines. We also include the video feed from the House servers.
|
|