Brandon Dutcher has been busy for many months, focusing on giving families more choices in the education of their children. In his news site, he points out some great advocates for school choice who are advancing to the November general election. Dutcher highlights Joe Newhouse, Scott McEachin, and Dave Rader; of the Tulsa metro area. Dutcher also highlights some central Oklahoma runoff candidates. He refers to American Federation for Children and their election press release. "Additional candidates who have supported school choice and ESAs in writing won their primary elections as well," AFC adds. "They are: Adam Pugh, Senate District 41; Matt Jackson, House District 85; and Lonnie Paxton, Senate District 23." Dutcher went further in his description of the contrast of the candidates, when it comes to empowering families to have options for public education: |
In Senate District 25, "AFC supported Joe Newhouse over his opponent Lisa Kramer. Newhouse is a U.S. Navy fighter pilot who campaigned as a supporter of public education and school choice, including education savings accounts or ESAs. Newhouse’s opponent opposed school choice and as a member of the Bixby School Board voted to defy the law and deny students with special needs access to state-funded scholarships. In the end, SD 25 voters strongly supported Newhouse’s optimistic message of school choice over Kramer’s indifference to children with very serious challenges."
The result shouldn't be surprising—by now it's no secret that Republicans support school choice—but still it seemed like it would be a close race. It wasn't until I saw the kiss-of-death endorsement from the Tulsa World telling Republicans to vote for the longtime Democrat Kramer that I knew this race would indeed be Melissa Abdo 2.0. Incidentally, some folks profess to be quite upset about "dark money" (also known as "First Amendment money") when it helps pro-school-choice candidates, but seem blissfully unconcerned when it helps anti-school-choice candidates.
Scott McEachin
In House District 67, "AFC supported Scott McEachin in the runoff. McEachin is an attorney and longtime Republican activist who campaigned on boosting teacher pay without tax increases and supporting school choice, namely ESAs." OCPA trustee Tom Coburn endorsed McEachin, and some OCPA staff and family members made weekend treks to Tulsa to knock doors for him. McEachin's opponent was surprisingly vocal in his opposition to school choice, almost as if he thought he was involved in a Democratic runoff. In other words, he chose a position contrary to Ronald Reagan and James Lankford and Mary Fallin and Todd Lamb and Scott Pruitt and Jim Bridenstine and the state and national GOP platforms. And, he lost the GOP runoff 56.44 percent to 43.56 percent. Ouch.
Read the full report at: http://www.choiceremarks.com/2016/08/parental-choice-candidates-advance.html