OKGOP Plans Big Friday Night At SRLC, May 22nd

Oklahoma's Big Gala with national campaign stars

  Today, the RNC's Matt Pinnell told me that the OKGOP is directly sponsoring the Friday night gala at the Big SRLC event, in May. Ted Cruz is helping with this evening event at the SRLC.  Most of the other activities are completely run by the RNC's contracted event team. It is not clear if any other presidential campaigns or their staff will appear.

The Energizing America Gala  will include a plated dinner and keynote address featuring Senator Ted Cruz. Dress for the gala is cocktail attire. This includes suits and ties for men, and dresses or evening suits for women. This event is a fundraiser for the OKGOP. Tickets: $100 or $175 per couple Minuteman club discount rate: $75 Seating is limited.

  But Pinnell emphasized that leaders and campaigns from around the nation will be a part of the 3-day conference. We can't say who all may be at the event, But is will be bigger than any OKGOP event has previously drawn.

 It will present a very significant fiscal opportunity for the OKGOP to have a financial boost as well a giving our citizens an unparalleled opportunity to dine with perhaps the RNC's biggest leaders and stars.

Banquet tickets are just $175 for 2, right now Single tickets are $100

  Additionally, early discount ticketing was extended to April 30th, for the $50 conference passes.

  Clergy, students, and military can get special $35 passes.

David Van Risseghem

Brogdon Town Hall Report

In just 10 days, Randy Brogdon has moved the OKGOP into a new era. 

  He held his first speaking engagement tonight, since taking on the duties of the chairmanship. Randy Brogdon was the guest of the Tulsa Area Republican Assembly. Here are the talking points of his 45 minute discussion:

Marriage Certificates May Replace Licenses

  If there's anything Oklahomans have agreed upon, in the federal marriage controversy, it's that the state really isn't good at trying to be the church.

  When the state travels down the road of social engineering to the point where the role of the church is co-opted, We end up with a government that tries to establish a consensus version of godliness.

  But a more limited role would be to protect individuals from being harmed by others. So the more sensible public policy is to call the filing process what it really is, and is meant to be. It is good to have a public registry of marriage partnerships, just like it is good to have a filing of business partnerships. It's a government service to provide a public record and make safeguards readily available  so as to substantiate claims. 

  But the term "license" was the wrong classification for this government service. "Certificate" conveys a certainty that the public record is verified, just like a birth certificate states that the details of a human birth have been verified.

  More importantly (to many Oklahomans) , the new policy sidesteps a sticky issue. When the state licenses an activity or association, there is an inferred endorsement (or at least an acceptance). But with marriage, it really doesn't matter if the community accepts a union. For that matter, it doesn't negate the union if one's in-laws are un-accepting of a covenant.

  A marriage certificate will provide the legal safeguards while returning honor and independence to the parties joining the domestic union
For many of us, the sacrament of marriage is defined by our faith; and we won't call a sin "a sacrament". But we must none-the-less recognize the business part of every partnership and accord each other the legal rights of a civil society.
And beyond the spiritual/moral issues of folks with religious convictions, there are also people whose view of marriage has no religious component at all. They are able to solemnize their life covenant without a ceremony of any kind.
Society isn't so much interested in your theology about marriage as how well you utilize your conveyed status for the stability and betterment of society.

Read: HB1125 text

David Van Risseghem

COS: Which Way To A Better Constitution?

Did we start out with a bad constitution?
Or did it just get worse with each amendment we added?
Or did the social pressures and bad jurists corrupt it?

  Whatever the cause, our system is failing (or are we failing our system?). Of late we've been mulling over additional solutions. For 30+ years we have been calling for a Balanced Budget Federal Amendment. Recently there has been a formidable push for the state legislatures to bypass the federal congress and draft their own proposal, to be circulated for the necessary ratification.

Fears

  The Convention of States idea has fans and foes. There are worries of a runaway process creating a terrible proposal. There are speculations that nothing could meet the approval of the required 3/4 of states needed to ratify an amendment.
  There are also those who think the rift between states could blow up into a dissolution of our current republic. Some constitutional scholars wonder if the process originally designed for 13 states, can remain workable for 50?

It's easier to say 'no' to ideas we either don't understand or don't have a certain level of comfortable experience with. To some degree we need to make sure we know what we are experimenting with before committing to it. If we send a delegation to a convened group, can we recall them and stop the process? Is there a need to?

Suppose a convention of state delegations actually drafts a proposed amendment for a mandated balanced federal budget? What's next? How many states have to ratify it?

More importantly, what happens to states who refuse to ratify it? Is there a political will to force them into compliance? Will we see massive demonstrations and riots like other nations in default have experienced?

It sounds like a risky thing to do, doesn't it?

But what are the other options? We could wait for our current system to go into default. That seems to be fairly eminent, given the annual spending binges of the past 14 years. Congress seems far less interested in balancing the budget than ever. Sure, our own politicians make stump speeches about it, but when has it ever passed even one congressional house?

So our future in this republic looks difficult and we are all sorting through the options of what process of reform to advocate.

One thing I am certain of...

  We will be deciding on some scary options in the next decade, and as each year of this current trend does it's damage, our options for avoiding fiscal pain become smaller. Perhaps there is a safer solution than a Convention of States? If so, I really want to know what it is and what are the chances of it's success? If we soon accept a Convention of States before a fiscal emergency, we have the luxury of more time to draft and ratify a well-planned solution. But if it has to be produced during an economic collapse, we may end up with a horrible fix and far more social unrest in the streets. The only option I find inexcusable is... doing nothing. Will we be complicit in stealing more wealth from our grandchildren? None of us think it's our own fault. And the funny thing is that when an avalanche wipes out a mountain village, no single snowsfake ever thinks he is responsible for the casualties.

Sen. Brogdon Returns To Capitol To Defeat A Weston Bill

Super Tuesday Saved! 

 Oklahoma Lawmakers Reject Weston's Effort To Delay Oklahoma Primary Several Weeks. 

  Senator Brogdon, back at the capitol, to make the case
against the Weston Bill. Brogdon blamed Weston for
excluding hundreds of state GOP leaders from input.

 An impressive group of Republican Leaders in Oklahoma came to the Capitol to save Oklahoma's Super Tuesday Presidential Primary. Only OKGOP Chairman, David Weston and his vice chair, Sara Jo Odom, were willing to speak in defense of the idea to vacate Oklahoma's early primary leadership role.