| Having sustained the most unethical actions any party caucus could imagine, the House Platform gang is ready to exact their revenge on the operatives who allied with liberals to take down 8 incumbents and replace them with tax-raising challengers. Please read our previous article about the AP bombshell report of the Speaker Charles McCall's team organizing campaigns against their conservative incumbents. Josh West & Chris Kannady are two of McCall's hand picked leaders who did the dirty work. The returning conservatives are not saying much, but what we do see emerging is the possibility that the emerging freshman class which Speaker Charles McCall created will turn on him and pick their own Speaker. McCall had a good will agreement with the House Platform Caucus last March. It lasted less than a week. Then he killed an alternative funding measure which would have allowed the public school teachers to get an increase in pay of about $4000, without any increase in the state budget. 40% of the House will be completely new members. Most of them have an alliance with public education special interests. Will the remaining (& some new) conservatives really trust McCall? Don't count on it. At the same time, Democrats are poised to add perhaps 10 seats and make the House more evenly divided. That dynamic count lead to many liberal initiatives getting real floor votes and probably a massive tax orgy will take over the capitol in May. |  Speaker Charles McCall has worked to advance much of Gov. Fallin's massive tax increase plans. The entire McCall leadership team voted for almost every plan, of the governor's. |
| Then there's the undermining of SQ640(which requires all tax increases to have a vote of the people), when the Supreme Court made a devastating ruling last year. They determined that a tax bill is not "revenue-raising" if it applies a current narrow tax levy to a much broader class of people or commerce.. It definitely raises revenue, the twisted logic of the high court says it's not. This could cause medical bills to immediately climb 10% and housing costs to be out of reach to many Oklahomans. Testimony given in that case points out that the Oklahoma Tax Commission determined that the legislature could double the taxes currently collected by applying these tricks. Speaker Charles McCall came to power using his massive personal wealth to buy the support of many Republicans. He has spread money around to many candidates in the past 6 years. He called in his favors 2 years ago when he announced his bid to become Speaker.  Freshman Rep. Josh West did a good deal of the dirty work to seek the defeat of conservative Republicans in the House. | McCall's best strategy might be to pick his own successor. Perhaps someone who has maintained good will and advanced it. Very few on his leadership team fit that narrative. McCall is heckled by Dems. Tadlock, Williams, & Dunnington during the press conference where the Fallin & McCall's tax hikes were shot down by both the Democrats & the GOP Platform Gang. McCall has betrayed all good will which was invested in him. His best strategy might be to pick his own successor. Perhaps someone who has maintained good will and advanced it. Very few on his leadership team fit that narrative. McCall has largely failed in his agenda and has squandered a super-majority of the seats. He committed the House to an unconstitutional tax increase and cost the state dearly when 2 special sessions dragged on for most of 9 months. The Democrats began last year's session with good will toward the speaker, believing there was more consensus than sharp disagreement. But by the time the 3rd major tax package failed, last February (Step Up), Democrats were opening heckling McCall in front of the capitol press corp. McCall was rumored to be seeking to challenge MarkWayne Mullin for congress, but with his dismal fiscal failures, that never happened. Two years ago, McCall contributed heavily to gain house seats that were previously Democrat strongholds. But this time around McCall spent his money taking out real conservatives in his Republican majority, and propping up challengers who love raising taxes as much as he and Gov. Mary Fallin do. |
