366 Days: Oklahoma Has Several Presidential Campaign Organizations

  The Oklahoma GOP Presidential organizations are starting to organize for at least 6 presidential teams.  A search of Facebook pages reveals 6 teams in Oklahoma.

  Bush, Paul, Perry, Santorum, Walker, and Carson all have people starting to reach out to others.  This early groundwork is not unprecedented. In 1995, the OKGOP Convention was very active with presidential candidate visits and straw polls. Other years leading up to a primary have also had this type of activity. 

  But social media will continue to be a big source of information and organization.

Jeb Bush: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Stoykovich-Nelson-Jeb-Bush-for-President-2016/340033699351617	Rand Paul: https://www.facebook.com/oklahomaforrandpaul
Rick Santorum: https://www.facebook.com/OKforSantorum	Rick Perry: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oklahomans-4-Rick-Perry/202172763183703
Scott Walker https://www.facebook.com/groups/draft.walker.oklahoma/	Ben Carson https://www.facebook.com/groups/OKLAHOMA.BenCarson2016/

David Van Risseghem

Chairman McCutchin Puts Tulsa GOP In Racial Scandal

NAACP Charges Discrimination By Tulsa GOP

  Oklahoma NAACP President, Anthony Douglas, Wednesday, charged the Tulsa GOP with gross discriminatory practices which disenfranchised massive districts of north Tulsa. We are including the original press release information of the NAACP complaint. It was posted on the Oklahoma NAACP Facebook site.

Oklahoma State NAACP Calls for Meeting

 with The Leadership of Tulsa Grand Old Party

NAACP President,
Anthony Douglas

Here is the text of the NAACP Statement:

 The Oklahoma State Conference, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People calls for meeting with Leadership of the Tulsa Grand Old Party “(GOP)”, concerning disenfranchises of African American as Precincts Officers. The Tulsa GOP is now making apolicy of excluding any precinct who defies this abusive and discriminatory policy, said Anthony R. Douglas, President Oklahoma State Conference, NAACP.

  On December 15, 2014, the Tulsa County Republican Executive Committee voted to order every precinct to move their neighborhood meetings to one central location in each State House District, or a reasonable distance of travel. According to Tulsa GOP Chairman, Michael McCutchin, any North Tulsa Precincts chosen a neighborhood location that disadvantaged citizens could walk to and feel safe & comfortably received in, would be banished from the county convention as a punishment for exercising their precinct's will.

  The entire region of northern Tulsa was denied a central location. Instead, urban north Tulsa was told to attend their neighborhood precinct meeting by traveling to East Tulsa and meet at Nathan Hale Library, near 21st St. & Sheridan Road, for the January 31st 10:00am meeting. The County GOP Chairman is the only one that will choose the specific locations and sent out the official call to the party on January 10th and advertised the list of locations. The list of approved locations that the Tulsa GOP chairman selected and published, such as Rural Collinsville does not link in to the public transit network of Tulsa's bus routes and it does indeed pose both a cultural and linear expanse which further disenfranchises the vastly African-American base of voters in HD 73. The list of approved locations that the Tulsa GOP chairman selected will alienate minority voters from becoming precinct officers. Having to travel great distances to unfamiliar towns outside of their house district and meet with people who are not their neighbor’s gives rise to voter power transfers to elite GOP members.

Tulsa County's House Districts

  Today, voter suppression also takes many forms, including attacks on early and Sunday voting to make voting harder for working people, photo ID requirements for voting and registration that introduce the first financial barrier to voting since the poll taxes, said Douglas.

  Tulsa GOP Chairman McCutchin has called for the Tulsa GOP Executive Committee to meet on February 27th, at Martin East Regional Library (6:30pm), to invalidate any precinct who did not meet where his official call did authorize. This action violates Tulsa GOP Executive Committee directive, and it added great disinformation to voters who were previously informed to travel to Nathan Hale Library, in East Tulsa.

  We have known for a long time, of the Congressional record detailing similar tactics employed over the years in covered jurisdictions to dilute or deny African Americans’ right to vote and participate in the process.

  Tulsa County GOP General Counsel, Terry Simonson has urged the GOP Executive Committee to rule that the violating precincts are invalid to participate in the County Convention on March 7th. Oklahoma precincts are established as organizational boundaries but are not mandated to establish meeting areas. There are no rules to decide where to have precinct meetings. Each party is responsible for organizing meeting locations for precincts for the purpose of electing precinct officers, said Douglas.

    Today, the target is the voting rights of Black voters, Latino voters, Asian American Voters, Native American Voters, as well as students and young people, seniors, working men and women, and immigrants of all colors. Only recently, the United States Supreme Court observed:“[s]till, racial discrimination and racially polarized voting are not ancient history. Much remains to be done to ensure that citizens of all races have equal opportunity to share and participate in our democratic processes and traditions.” Oklahoma State Conference, NAACP calls on the Oklahoma Grand Old Republican Party to stand with us in this important aspect of citizenship. Too many have sacrificed their time, resources, and, in some cases, their lives to secure the right to vote for us to allow misguided politicians to enact discriminatory voting laws designed to block eligible voters from the ballot box. We urge the Tulsa GOP to remedy their gerrymandering ways and make efforts to give the African-American voters a full opportunity to choose whether to be involved in the GOP, said Douglas.

  I do not agree with all the statements and positions of the NAACP, but the heart of this charge is not only true, but even worse! The House District 73 voters were told the official location on the Chairman's "CALL TO CONVENTION". But he quietly moved the location another 15 miles away from East Tulsa, to Rural Collinsville.
 Many people are notified of these meetings through coworkers, fellow parishioners, relatives, and other social contacts. But since McCutchin never sent a 2nd edited post with changes;out to the hundreds who received the first email,  he essentially disenfranchised massive numbers of would-be delegates and precinct committee members.

Tulsa GOP Chairman, Michael McCutchin

  The past two years have become a major setback for the Tulsa County GOP, as a grassroots organization of citizens. Sadly, there are political operatives who are okay with that.

  The Governing body of the Tulsa GOP is the Tulsa County Committee, But chairman McCutchin has completely disbanded it and has essentially ruled as a dictator; rarely consulting even with his hand-picked County Executive Committee (which has very little organizational power).

  McCutchin has waffled, vacillated, and contradicted himself repeatedly. He has broken several state GOP rules and declared them to be in error because they do not support his common practices.
  The NAACP press release also incorrectly dates a meeting as scheduled for February 27th, but it is being held on February 26th, at Martin East Regional Library, at 6:45pm.
  My hope & prayer is that proper order, management, and vision returns to the Tulsa County GOP.

David Van Risseghem

x

The Errors Of The Tulsa GOP Chairman

On February 26th, Chairman McCutchin is calling his executive committee to kick delegates out
of the upcoming convention; bypassing  the Convention's Credentials Committee volunteers.

   In the past 12 weeks some subtle errors have led to a crisis that threatens to disenfranchise more precincts and the repercussions could lead to a rebellion that would ban current executive committee members from future roles in the Tulsa GOP.

 The Tulsa County GOP Chairman has recruited a party prosecutor who is set to usurp the role of the Credentials Committee and hold a trial before the Tulsa County Executive Committee. that Committee has no constitutional role in determining credentials, yet Attorney, Terry Simonson, is boldly setting a course to begin purging several grassroots Republican delegates from the 2015 Republican County Convention, this Thursday night, Feb. 26th, at Martin East Regional Library.

 How It Started

  The OKGOP Chairman (David Weston) errantly reported in December, 2014;

   "The first step is to hold Precinct Meetings and conduct Precinct business. The meeting is open to ALL registered Republicans and should be held within the boundaries of the precinct, however many counties in Oklahoma hold their Precinct Meetings together as a group. Some meet as one county-wide event and others meet in zones or by State House District. OKGOP State Party Rule (SPR) 16(a) gives authority to the County Executive Committee to set the location of the Precinct Meetings where they think best for their county."

   But further inspection reveals that this statement has a false representation of the OKGOP Rules. The role of the County Executive Committee  is to hear requests from precincts who want to meet somewhere OTHER THAN within their precinct boundaries.

Rule 16 – Conventions 

(a) Regular Biennial Meetings and Conventions: There shall be a regular biennial Precinct Meeting in each precinct, except with prior approval of the County Executive Committee of the location outside the precinct boundary; 

Chairman McCutchin declared Terry Simonson to be
"General Counsel of the Tulsa County GOP" and
ordered him to prosecute the case of several delegates.

   The rules of the state party do not allow for the  County Executive Committee (a hand-picked small group of appointees of the chairman's choosing along with his vice chair), to delegate this "constitutional role" over to the County Chairman or his ad-hoc committee. If the Executive Committee moves to further study or refine other options, The results of the study will require a subsequent Executive Committee finding and authorization of the specific locations which the precincts or County Committee requested.

Rule 5
(b ) Authority and Duties: The Precinct Committee is the supreme Republican Party authority of each precinct, subject to these rules, and the direction and control of official precinct meetings. The Precinct Committee of each precinct is charged with the duty of promoting the welfare and directing the affairs of the Republican Party in its precinct. 

  The  error was further corrupted by the Tulsa County Chairman (Michael McCutchin) presented this fraudulent proposal to the December Executive Committee, premising his takeover of the precinct organizing powers away from the Current Precinct Committees;

Whereas Rule 16(c) of the Rules of the Oklahoma Republican Party states, in part, 

"Fixing Time and Place of Meetings...: 

The State Executive Committee or the State Chairman may permit the County...organizations to fix the exact hour, day and place of the Precinct Meetings... within limits consistent with these rules"; and 

Whereas the State Chairman has expressly granted permission for the Tulsa County Executive Committee to set the hour, day and place of the 2015 biennial Precinct Meetings, per attached letter; "

 The premise completely misrepresents what constitutes the permanent County Organization. 

  State Chairman, David Weston, erred in that he cannot delegate authority to any entity other than whom the OKGOP rules allow. He cannot specifically meddle inside the Tulsa County structure at his whim or recklessness.

   The OKGOP permanent rules define the County Permanent Organization as;

Rule 1- Permanent Organization

• Republican County Committee

• Republican County Central Committee 

• Republican County Executive Committee

  While the Executive Committee clearly plays a vital role in setting up the official Call To Convention, their only specific duty is to approve an equitable division of the size of precinct delegations and approve the date & time of precinct meetings in the event that the state executive committee does not mandate a specific time and/or date for every precinct to meet and/or every county convention to meet.

Rule 16 c

"...the State Chairman may permit the County and Congressional District organizations to fix the exact hour, day, and place of the Precinct Meetings and the County Conventions, within limits consistent with these rules."  

So who is the County Organization?

Rule 6(b) Authority and Duties: 1. The County Committee of each county is the supreme Republican Party authority of the county, subject to these rules and the direction and control of County Conventions. It is charged with the duty of promoting the welfare and directing and controlling the affairs of the Republican Party in its county 

  The County Committee is composed of every organized precinct's chair & vice chair in the county, along with some county party leadership. It is the most grassroots and inclusive permanent entity in the county GOP. The County Chairman presides and calls the committee to meet as a regular part of the governance of the county GOP.

  It is the County Committee (precinct leaders across the county) who principally act in the official role of controlling the affairs of the county GOP.

Has Tulsa's County GOP Chairman followed the process?

  Unlike most every other county in Oklahoma, Chairman McCutchin has never attempted to call the County Committee together. This group clearly represents the elected party leaders and therefore provides the consensus of all of the party, between county conventions.

Who is the County Executive Committee?
   The Chair & Vice Chair are ordered to select their own choice of advisers who have the authority to approve or reject certain functions and proposals of the County Committee and the County Central Committee. But the County Chairman is never authorized to solely usurp the organized precinct's authority to meet in their precinct boundaries, for precinct business.

   If the correct reading  and understanding of the rules had been done by those who are currently acting as a monarch, we would not be in this mess of confusion. We all make mistakes, and that is why we have the detailed permanent organization. The Chairman's chief duty is to call the permanent organization into the appropriate committee meetings.
  Has Chairman McCutchin availed the Tulsa County GOP of the carefully structured committee resources? No.
In 2 years of chairing the county, Mike McCutchin has called;

• 0 County Committee meetings
• 1 County Central Committee meeting, shortly after his election, for photos and other housekeeping
• 3 County Executive Committee meetings (2 of them in the last 2 months)

  This is not a small rural county in Little Dixie. Tulsa has great assets and energy to offer to the Republican cause. But the failure of McCutchin seems too blatant and egregious to blame on ignorance, ineptness, or catastrophic coincidence. Many counties hold monthly GOP meetings which are all open to the public.
   Since the Precinct leadership would be the ones carrying out the new idea for precinct meetings miles away from the neighborhoods, it only makes practical sense that the County Committee would be tapped to develop a plan several months in advance of the January 2015 event. But they were completely ignored and impugned by the chairman. McCutchin detailed a stark narrative of dangerous neighborhoods and vulnerable old ladies whom fear had disenfranchised from the precincts they live in. Massive fraud including incorrect addresses posted and meetings where voters are locked out of gated communities.

  McCutchin has deliberately kept the county GOP grassroots quiet and immobilized. It has empowered him to solely dictate far beyond any defensible excuse.

The Tulsa GOP grassroots successfully rallied to defeat Vision2,
because former chairman, JB Alexander convened a County Committee.

  Perhaps the only explanation for this behavior is that the last time the Tulsa County Committee met was in the Summer of 2012, in the wake of the County Commissioner's attempt to pass "Vision2", and it's massive additional taxes through 2027 a.d.

  The County Committee soundly passed a resolution opposing this tax that was orchestrated by Republican politicians. The rebuke of elected Republicans sent chills through the halls of the seats of power, because the grassroots actually called upon the Republican politicians to reflect the platform and convictions of Republican Party.

One more rule...

Rule 3- Rights and Qualifications of Members and Officers 

(a) Members: All citizens of Oklahoma are invited to join the Oklahoma Republican Party to perpetuate this Republic. All qualified voters of this state who are registered Republicans are members of the Oklahoma Republican Party, and shall have the right to participate in the official affairs and governance of the Republican Party in accordance with these rules as set forth herein. Such right shall be sacred and inviolate, and the willful disregard or abridgement of such right by an officer or member of any committee of the Party shall be deemed sufficient cause for the removal of such officer or committee member.

  This rule will be certainly be visited by a future Committee who will review the actions of those who violate the sacred and inviolate rights of any delegate who is improperly abridged of their full rights as Republicans representing their own precincts. 

David Van Risseghem

The Death Of The Traditional Precinct Meeting

State Senator, Nathan Dahm visits with Broken Arrow precinct 456 at their afternoon session

   The long tradition of neighborhood precinct meetings is being pressured out of existence by a group of Tulsa County GOP power brokers. While the State GOP permanent rules do say that the precinct leadership is the "supreme authority of the GOP in the local precinct" , the out-going Tulsa County Chairman (Mike McCutchin) and his legal council are making an unusual move to kick out any precinct delegation who did't start & finish their meet in within the short allotted time, at the borrowed facilities that the county chairman personally selected.
   Precinct 456, in Broken Arrow is Tulsa County's most active precinct. They had a great precinct meeting day on January 31st. Their morning session met at Arrow Heights Baptist Church. It was in another House district, because County Chairman McCutchin failed to organize a central location in their own House district (which the Tulsa GOP Executive Committee had voted to establish).

  So after the morning presentations by venue coordinators (at the dozen or so central locations) were followed by distribution of paperwork, the many lawmakers from the 20 house districts took more time to address the many dozen precincts and field questions & comments. Several precincts had 1 or 2 attendees and they just filled out a pile of paperwork then left. Several dozen precincts had no attendees at all.

  But Precinct 456 (near 81st & Aspen, in Broken Arrow) had a dozen precinct committee members and guests, which took extra time to complete their meeting agenda past the 90 minutes which were allotted.

One of several precinct meeting signs
 in Broken Arrow's precinct 456

  Precinct 456 was not even close to finished when the 12 noon deadline came.  Precinct Chairman Larry Williamson had previously created several street signs. These were made because Tulsa GOP Chairman, Michael McCutchin had personally given the group permission just a week prior, to have a precinct meeting inside their own precinct, as they had been doing for decades. With this authorization, they purchased materials and posted signs a week prior to the meeting date, so as to satisfy the requirement that precinct leaders publicly advertise their meeting details at least 5 days prior to the event. But during the following week  McCutchin reversed himself again, and ordered  them not to have any local meeting, even though their signs were all over the precinct.  Party rules forbid a change of venue in the last 5 days, so the signs were left up.
  A great spread of food was awaiting the precinct when they arrived at the site of the afternoon meeting. All of the morning attendees were present when the afternoon session began. Even more visitors showed up for the afternoon session.

  State Representative David Brumbaugh addressed the group first. This was the only political event scheduled in his house district. He would have liked to visit more such groups. He was followed by Senator Nathan Dahm. The residential setting was fun and very family-friendly. Kids were encouraged to ask questions and learn from the discussions.
  I arrived about this time. I had come from across town where my own precinct had met at a Brookside church. I had no problem finding the home where the meeting was held, because every arterial street in the area had redundant signs clearly identifying the location. it was a quiet and modest middle class neighborhood where kids were safe and neighbors visited neighbors while walking their dogs.
  After the senator had completed answering many questions, the meeting moved on to elections. Larry Williamson encouraged people to consider the chairmanship but the group was not at all interested in anyone other than Larry to continue leading the group. He finally gave up asking and called for the vote. He remains the precinct chairman for 2 more years.
  The collection was taken after the elections and most folks had money to share with the needs of the Tulsa County GOP organization. The group next elected to attend the Tulsa GOP Convention as an open delegation and most of the group asked to be listed in the delegation report.
  The folks were excited to volunteer on convention committees and seemed intrigued at the way the party is designed as a "bottom-up" structure where the local delegations decide together how party leadership is chosen.
  The spread of food in the dining room was a continual attraction throughout the afternoon as folks discussed and voted on so many platform planks. By the end of the day the group had carefully crafted over 40 planks to forward on to the county platform committee. [At last report the county platform committee had approved several of the precinct's planks.]

Tulsa Chairman Mike McCutchin

  Larry is coincidently the former precinct chairman of Mike McCutchin's precinct (and mine). Much of McCutchin's passion for grassroots political leadership came from Larry's infectious way of making precinct involvement a fun event. Sadly, my precinct participation has dropped off since Larry moved to Broken Arrow.
   Precinct 456 has several officers and they even created new officers for things like social event organizers (for their June picnic with lawmakers), a new neighbors ambassador, and a few other ideas. The neighborhood does have significant influxes of newcomers partly because it is close to Rhema Bible College.

  Even though 456 is arguably the most active and excited group in the Tulsa GOP, McCutchin is calling an executive committee meeting on February 26th, to kick Williamson & his precinct committee out of the Tulsa GOP organization. McCutchin has secured the legal counsel of Terry Simonson (Mayor Bartlett's former top staffer, and now with the Tulsa Sheriff's department).

Attorney, terry Simonson

Simonson is trying to assert a legal case against these local Republicans despite the clear party rules which puts the case before the County Convention Credentials Committee.
  Tulsa County Republican leaders have never ordered their organized precincts to disband their neighborhood biennial meetings before. This decision was only made as a tentative idea in mid December, by a motion to hold all precinct meetings in "a central location, in each house district". But the executive committee never approved the list that McCutchin came up with.[The Oklahoma GOP rules require the executive committee to approve any specific location that is outside the precinct boundaries.] Instead, McCutchin only selected about half of the locations needed, and ordered many dozens of precincts to travel several miles to remote locations outside even their state house districts. And some were in the corners of the county. Downtown Tulsa precincts were first told to travel out to east Tulsa. But when some Brady Heights participants arrived that morning they were told that a change was made and they were now required to travel up to the Collinsville, Oklahoma  area in order to be included in a delegation. Others never made it to a precinct meeting at all because they required public transit routes which do not go to rural Collinsville, OK.
  It remains a contentious last couple weeks in McCutchin's 2-year term as county chairman. Many years ago, one of Mike's first tasks as a party leader was to become Larry Williamson's assistant (precinct vice chairman). One of McCutchin's last actions may likely be to throw Larry Williamson out of the county convention. McCutchin is a financial expert and employed by Victory Christian Center. Larry Willaimson has been a tireless volunteer worker on hundreds of campaigns since the mid 80s. He is a self-employed businessman.
Concerned citizens may contact Chairman McCutchin at 918-627-5702 chairman@tulsaGOP.org

OKGOP Rules

Rule 3- Rights and Qualifications of Members and Officers

(a) Members: All citizens of Oklahoma are invited to join the Oklahoma Republican Party to perpetuate this Republic. All qualified voters of this state who are registered Republicans are members of the Oklahoma Republican Party, and shall have the right to participate in the official affairs and governance of the Republican Party in accordance with these rules as set forth herein. Such right shall be sacred and inviolate, and the willful disregard or abridgement of such right by an officer or member of any committee of the Party shall be deemed sufficient cause for the removal of such officer or committee member.

David Van Risseghem

States Join Oklahoma For A Bigger & Better Super Tuesday

chart provided by FrontloadingHQ

  The 2016 GOP Presidential battle is already heating up. Not a day goes by where cable news channels don't have the results of some new poll.
  We consulted with the researchers of Frontloading-HQ for an idea of what the 2016 calendar will look like.  Their monitors are watching the legislative measures in several state capitols. But if the Vegas bookies were thinking like FHQ, this list looks like their best prognostications.

Reading the Map:
  As was the case with the maps from past cycles, the earlier a contest is scheduled in 2012, the darker the color in which the state is shaded. Michigan, for instance, is a much deeper shade of blue in February than California is in June. There are, however, some differences between the earlier maps and the one that appears above.
  Several caucus states have yet to select a date for the first step of their delegate selection processes in 2016. Until a decision is made by state parties in those states, they will appear in gray on the map.
  The states where legislation to move the presidential primary is active are two-toned with wide, diagonal stripes. One color indicates the timing of the primary according to the current law whereas the second color is meant to highlight the month to which the primary could be moved. For example, a bill currently being considered in Massachusetts would move the presidential primary from its current position in March to a new spot on the calendar in June.
  Other states -- the carve-out states and states with state laws providing guidance for setting a primary or caucuses date but no specific date or multiple specified dates -- are also two-toned with narrow, horizontal stripes. In this case, one color (gray) represents the uncertainty of the primary or caucuses date now while the other color (or colors) highlight the options available to states or the most likely date for a contest in that state given the information we currently have. So, in Iowa, for instance, we know that the state parties in the Hawkeye state will want to protect the first in the nation status they have enjoyed in the past. To maintain that position alone, Iowa could now conduct its precinct caucuses as late as January 18, 2016. In a state like Utah, the primary itself is dependent on the state legislature allocating funds for that purpose. Should legislators in the Beehive state follow through on that action for 2016, the primary would be in early February. That explains the color in both instances.
  States that are bisected vertically are states where the state parties have different dates for their caucuses and/or primaries. The left hand section is shaded to reflect the state Democratic Party's scheduling while the right is for the state Republican Party's decision on the timing of its delegate selection event (see Nebraska). This holds true for states -- typically caucus states -- with a history of different dates across parties but which also have not yet chosen a contest date.

2016 Presidential Primary Calendar 

[ first 3 months projections of Frontloading-HQ: http://goo.gl/XVi82Y ]

January

Monday, January 18:

• Iowa caucuses

Tuesday, January 26:

• New Hampshire

February

Tuesday, February 2:

• Colorado caucuses
• New York
• Utah

Saturday, February 6:

• Nevada caucuses 

Saturday, February 13:

• South Carolina 

Tuesday, February 16: 

• North Carolina

Tuesday, February 23:

• Michigan

March

Tuesday, March 1:

• Colorado caucuses 
• Florida
• Massachusetts 
• Minnesota caucuses
• Oklahoma
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Vermont
• Virginia

Saturday, March 5:

• Louisiana
• Tuesday, March 8:
• Alabama
• Hawaii Republican caucuses
• Mississippi
• Ohio

Tuesday, March 15:

• Illinois
• Missouri 

Tuesday, March 22:

• Arizona

David Van Risseghem

Presidential Primary Leapfog Game Continues

  Many of us Sooner conservatives are "keeping our powder dry" and doing our best to inform ourselves on all the presumed candidates for 2016's presidential sweepstakes. But the process looks to be much different in the 2016 version of GOP presidential primaries.

  New York appears to be bullying her way into early influence with a likely move to early February. But the midwest & mountain states countered with caucus plans which offer a Tea Party darling more delegates than the Empire State. Two  weeks later, the Carolinas are synchronizing for candidates to stick around for a while, in the lower Appalachians. 

  The biggest event is where Oklahoma and other southern states are building a huge Super Tuesday prize on March 1st. Texas moves into prominence along with Florida. These huge prizes have returned to the original strategy of the southern states which first contrived the Super Tuesday concept as a way for southern Democrat states to keep an eastern liberal from winning the DNC nominaton. While it did produce a Bill Clintion, it ultimately shaped RNC strategies more than the Democrat party who created it in the mid 80s.
  By mid March, the process will be in the cleanup stage (if not earlier). 23 state processes will have spoken and 50% of the delegates will be pledged.

Republican Delegate Allocation
date	event	pledged	unpledged		strategy
January, Mon., Jan. 18	Iowa caucuses*		30		All early candidates spend a year courting voters
Tuesday, January 26	New Hampshire*	18	3		All early candidates spend a year courting voters
February, Tue., Feb. 2	New York*	92	3		All early candidates spend a year courting voters The last 2 weeks will be a time of huge shift, as Iowa & New Hampshire results lead to coalesce of support for top candidates.Tea Party favorites may skip New York in favor of Feb 2 Western prizes
	Minnesota caucuses		38
	Colorado caucuses	37
	Utah	40
Saturday, February 6	Nevada caucuses*	30
Saturday, February 13	South Carolina*	50			A week after the east/west split, the Carolinas will be a big showdown for frontrunner, but Michigan has all candidates attention for a week prior to the Southern juggernaut of Super Tuesday
Tuesday, February 16	North Carolina*	68	3
Tuesday, February 23	Michigan	56	3
March, Tue., March 1	Texas	150	3		Southern prizes will likely determine the inevitable nominee At the conclusion over 40% of the RNC  delegates will be committed
	Florida	99
	Virginia	46	3
	Tennessee	53	3
	Colorado caucuses	37
	Oklahoma	38	3
	Massachusetts	39	3
	Vermont	16
Saturday, March 5	Louisiana	20	26		Southern states continue to dominate the primary calendar, giving a big impact on the choice of nominee.
Tuesday, March 8	Ohio	62	3
	Alabama	47	3
	Mississippi	36	3
	Hawaii Rep. caucuses	16	3
Sunday, March 13	Puerto Rico	20	3
Tuesday, March 15	Illinois	57	12
	Missouri	49	3
Tuesday, March 22	Arizona	58
April, Tue., April 5	Wisconsin	41
	Maryland	38
	District of Columbia	16	3
Tuesday, April 26	Pennsylvania		71
	Connecticut	25	3
	Delaware	16
	Rhode Island	16	3
May, Tuesday, May 3	Indiana	27	30
Tuesday, May 10	Nebraska	33	3
	West Virginia	28	3
Tuesday, May 17	Kentucky	42	3
	Oregon	25	3
Tuesday, May 24	Arkansas	37	3
	Washington	40	3
June, Tues., June 7	Idaho	32
	California	169	3
	New Jersey	50
	Montana		27
	South Dakota	24	3
	New Mexico	19	3
(no set date)	Georgia	76
	Kansas	40
	Maine		23
	Wyoming		27
Total:		2021	425

For more info about the constantly- changing process of setting state presidential events, see: http://frontloading.blogspot.com/p/2016-presidential-primary-calendar.html

David Van Risseghem

Can Goldilocks Get The Right Schools

In Search of the Just Right Education

Oklahoma's public school districts have not been restructured in decades; leaving most children poorly served.

  Of the ridiculously high number of Oklahoma school districts (529), only 6% (33) are even set up to optimize the best use of tax dollars and other resources. The think-tanks most dedicated to studying the correlation of district size have determined that the range of 2,000 to 4,000 students is the most manageable size to deliver quality and cost-effective education.

  Children who are subjected to larger districts will have a proportionately higher likelihood of getting less education than the taxpayers have paid for. Children who are channeled into too small of a district will not receive access to many education resources simply because it is not affordable in such a small scale.

Only 33 of the 529 school districts are within the target size.

  Teachers have very few options when district administrators put their own careers ahead of the professionals who are actually doing the educating. Too often, administrators have become experts at rallying mobs to the capitol under the guise of fixing the dysfunctional local bureaucracy with emergency transfusions of cash.  And the Oklahoma legislators commonly put their pandering skills ahead of fiscal responsibility. So the bleeding of waste continues with no signs of a hero on the horizon.

 Tomorrow, the legislature starts their "earnest" (if you can call it that, with a straight face) effort to pay the bills for an educational system which used to only be a small fraction of the state's fiscal expenses. Now it accounts for the majority of the state budget. When you add property taxes and bond issues, the taxpayer is obviously frustrated that little is left to cover every other state institution and concern.

  We demand so much of of the education process and we receive such poor marks for execution. We admire great teachers and wish there were more dedicated educators. We had hoped that term limit reform would free up legislators to quit caring about their next election and instead, provide the wise choices to put our state's education system on firm footing. But too often, the senior legislators are spending their last term in elective office pandering to lobbying firms and other golden parachutes for their next phase of life.

  There are inner heroes within most of them. Personalities who want leave a legacy of reform. But too many are succumbed to the praises of the bureaucrats they can see and hear, rather than believe the children of several generations to come will appreciate their courage.

David Van Risseghem