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Ten years ago, Oklahoma's only Republican Mens Club was about to dissolve. About a dozen or so members remained of the group which once was led by Frank Keating, Dewey Barlett sr., Jim Inhofe, and others. In the 1970s & 80s, this club was the energy & brains of a conservative takeover of Oklahoma govt. leadership.
Today the municipal activist group is nearing 100 attendees at their lunchtime monthly meetings. The club now grants full membership to Republican women and works in concert with about a half dozen other Tulsa area conservative groups, on issues and elections. Today, a local preacher sought to take over the presidency of the group, but was soundly defeated. Rev. Bill Shepherd and his wife, Melissa; ran for president and secretary. But in both races, the vote was a crushing defeat. SoonerPolitics monitored the voting and ballot count. the process was repeatedly interrupted by Melissa Shepherd's insistence that she inspect and capture video of each ballot. She even grabbed ballots off the election judges' table when the tabulators refused to hold each ballot up to her own cellphone, as they processed and tallied every entry. |
Michael Phillips & Darren Gantz Rebuilt the TCRMC by over 500% in the past 10 years.
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SoonerPolitics retained the raw footage but opted only to publish the announced summary and our own compiled numbers, which confirm the tallies report of the 2 judges commissioned to manage the polling and count.
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Michael Phillips, who spent the last decade rebuilding the club along with Darren Gantz(past president), was overwhelmingly re-elected to another term. Rick Thomas and David Arnett are the 1st & 2nd Vice Presidents.
Susan Phillips was the only other opposed candidate, but she won re-election as treasurer by a margin even greater than her husband. David Oldham is a new member of the leadership team, serving as Sargeant-at-Arms. After the election Oldham stated that he plans to deputize a few others to help him retain order and serve at the events which he might not be able to attend. |
