To Comfort The Afflicted
And Afflict The Comfortable

To Comfort The Afflicted And Afflict The Comfortable

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Observercast

The Real Red Wave

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I don’t know if I can stand any more good news, but I’ll try!

  1. As Joy Hofmeister traverses the state meeting thousands of Oklahomans in their homes, coffee shops, schools, farms and on main streets, Gov. Kevin Stitt hauls in a governor from Florida and a senator from Texas to tell us how great he is. Who knew? While Stitt motored a few miles from the new mansion in Edmond down to a south Oklahoma City church, Joy wrapped up a two-day tour of western and central Oklahoma, with stops, that I know of, in Guymon, Woodward, Enid, Oklahoma City, El Reno, Lawton, Altus and Cache. Maybe more. The tour then headed toward the east.

2. Campaign donations of $500 or more must be reported daily after Oct. 31 and they tell readers who has momentum and who doesn’t. For example, just yesterday, Stitt received only one donation above $500 and it was an in-kind for food in the amount of $1,375. By comparison Joy received several donations totaling $13,150.

3. And here is a really big one: Although Gov. Stitt raised more money than Joy over the duration of the campaign, he had to throw in another $1.9 million from his own billfold, or wife Sarah’s purse, or his campaign currently would be in the red by over $1 million. Talk about a Bid Red Wave. That puts Kevin and Sarah’s cash infusion for his two campaigns at nearly $8 million hard dollars.

4. Finally, and most importantly, is the following data I gleaned from the two candidate’s pre-general election donation reports submitted Nov. 1: In total Gov. Stitt has received some amount of money from approximately 2,500 individuals, many of whom live out-of-state and are wealthy folks primarily residing in Texas, DC, Florida, etc. Maybe they are just people interested in good government in our state … not. In fact, many are just attempting to prop up their well-documented wheeler-dealer, me-first governor who is more interested in building mansions for himself than hospitals in rural Oklahoma for you and your family.

Oh, I almost forgot. Joy has received a financial contribution from over 6,000 individuals, the vast majority of whom proudly live in all of Oklahoma’s 77 counties.

And I should also add Stitt has about 10 times the amount of money from political action committees [PACs] and, of course, lobbyists and incumbent Republican legislators also forked over tons of moola from their own campaign accounts.

Yes, that used to be illegal but not now. Republicans changed the law a few years ago.

So, Stitt has the PACS, the lawmakers and the rich. Joy only has the most folks and momentum.

And after next Tuesday’s election, all of Oklahoma will have her.

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Cal Hobson
Cal Hobson
Cal Hobson, a Lexington Democrat, served in the Oklahoma Legislature from 1978-2006, including one term as Senate President Pro Tempore.