Governor Stitt delivered his State of the State, which calls for tax cuts and dipping into the state's savings account again. Haven't we been here before? Also, a reminder that elections occur all year, every year.
- Governor gave annual State of the State address, called for $1.4B in tax cuts
- Legislative leaders not so sure
- Sen. Dusty Deevers retracts bill in response to public pressure
- Great op-ed from former intern Preston Salameh on the value of Open Primaries
- But the civic action isn’t just at the federal and state level Next week, municipal elections abound! OKC Wards 3 & 7, Edmond & Norman Mayoral races. Also OK County Commissioner primary elections.
- And February is just the start! The next election will be April 1st, which will be the general elections for some of these (like OKCC) and could be the run-off for municipal races. April 1st will also be the general for other municipal races, like Harrah - I don’t know why those weren’t in February, too, along with the other municipal ones.
- April 1st will also be the primary election to fill two vacant seats in the state House - HD71 and HD74.
- HD71 is in Tulsa, just south of downtown and along the east side of the river, and was held by Rep. Amanda Swope who left the House to work for Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols. Seven candidates have filed, 4 Dems and 3 Republicans, so there will be primaries for both major parties.
- HD 74 is northeast of Tulsa, basically Owasso and the surrounding area. It was previously held by Mark Vancuren who resigned to accept a position as deputy county commissioner, working with another former house member, Lonnie Sims. Six candidates filed for HD74, five Republicans and one Democrat.
- So the primary election for these seats is on April 1st, it will be followed by, likely, a primary run-off on May 13 and then a general election on June 10th. But it could be different…if each primary has one winner who gets more than 50% of the vote, then there won’t be a run-off and the general will be held on May 13th. Why do we have so many elections?
- Talk about what we can do about *all this*
- Former State Rep. Ryan Kiesel passed away at age of 45
