History of The Oklahoma Constitution
Following the 1978 elections, during the dark days of Jimmy Carter, four
young conservatives met at an all-night restaurant in Oklahoma City. One (Ron
McWhirter) had just lost his third race for the legislature, and the others
(Clyde Rollins, Mark Hamilton, and Rick Womack) had worked for conservative
candidates who also went down to defeat. The quartet shared the concern that
the conservative movement in Oklahoma needed something to unite the various
strains of conservatism, such as traditionalists and the less government
types. They saw a need to promote conservative issues and candidates, and to
warn of the activities of those on the other side. The group then conceived
the idea of a state conservative newspaper.
The four dubbed the unborn newspaper, The Oklahoma Constitution, as it
would rally support for constitutional principles.
By the time the inaugural newspaper rolled off the presses in February of
1979, two of the "Founding Fathers" had abandoned the project for other
businesses °V Mark Hamilton to South America to look for gold, while Rick
Womack took a sales job with his uncle in Missouri. Clyde Rollins would later
leave the state to attend a bible college and do missionary work. Of the
original four, only the general manager remains. The present editor, Steve
Byas, joined the staff in the Summer of 1979, and won promotion to editor in
the Fall of 1981. Later, a Northeast Bureau chief, Rick Moore, was added.
More recently, Ted King joined as our Washington correspondent.
"Tax Petition Filed" read the headline of that very first issue. The
initiative petition was filed to "restore the federal income tax deduction on
state income tax returns. Oklahoma taxpayers received such a deduction until
1971 when Governor David Hall's tax increase proposal was approved by the
Oklahoma Legislature." Pictured on the front were two state senators: Jerry
Pierce and the late John McCune, two champions of the taxpayers who presented
the petition to the Secretary of State.
In the Summer 1979 edition we published the first annual Conservative
Index, which rates the membership of the Oklahoma Legislature according to
conservative principles. The committee of conservative leaders, which
compiles the ratings index, rates the legislators on ten key issues of
concern to conservatives, not on personality preferences. A favorable vote on
these issues represents a belief in free enterprise, limited government,
individual freedom, traditional standards. These are the ideas upon which our
constitutional republic was formed. A high score indicates support for these
ideas, while a low score expresses contempt.
The ratings have been utilized by some candidates for political office to
defeat "liberal" members of the Legislature. In doing so, they are simply
using facts that the voters are entitled to know. While the Constitution does
not endorse candidates for public office, the hard-hitting commentary of the
Oklahoma Constitution has caused many politicians to attack the newspaper.
For example, state Rep. Kevin Cox of Oklahoma City, who is usually on the
list of most liberal lawmakers (he presently sports a dismal 11% conservative
rating), once publicly blasted the Oklahoma Constitution as the "rottenest
paper in the world." Former state House Speaker Steve the Taxman Lewis once
told our general manager, "You caused me a lot of grief." During his 1992
re-election bid, former state Rep. Ed Crocker of Norman boasted that he was
proud to be rated zero conservative by the Oklahoma Constitution, and that he
wore it as a "badge of honor." Actually, Crocker's cumulative score was 12%,
but he did score zero a couple times.
In contrast, many conservative leaders have had kind words for the
Oklahoma Constitution. Ten years ago, on the occasion of our tenth
anniversary, Senator Don Nickles said, "The Constitution offers an
alternative approach while covering state and national issues. I look forward
to reading the Oklahoma Constitution for the next decade." Senator Nickles
has been a frequent contributor to the Constitution. In the May 1979 edition
of the Oklahoma Constitution, state Senator Don Nickles wrote an exclusive
column for us entitled, "Nuclear Power, an Energy Option."
Patrick McGuigan, who now directs the editorial page for the Daily
Oklahoman, wrote four articles for us back in 1980, including an historical
analysis of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
A number of legislators have contributed in one or more of the over 100
issues of the Oklahoma Constitution over the past two decades. They have
included Bill Graves, John Monks, David Riggs, Ed Moore, Freckles Little,
Steve Sill, Frank Harbin, Mike Fair, Charles Key, Jim Isaac, Hopper Smith,
Dave Herbert, Wayne Pettigrew, Carolyn Coleman, and Forrest Claunch.
State and federal office holders have also contributed. Among the
Oklahoma congressional delegation we are honored to have taken articles from
Senators Don Nickles, David Boren, and Jim Inhofe, as well as representatives
Wes Watkins, Mickey Edwards, Earnest Istook, J.C. Watts, Jr., Frank Lucas,
Tom Coburn, and Steve Largent. Governor Frank Keating and Governor Henry
Bellmon have both provided their columns, as well.
Others who have contributed articles include Cong. Phil Crane, Steve
Clark, Joan Naylor, Betty Wilcox, Robert Poole, Charles Burris, Robert
Murphy, Anthony Kimery, Shannon Smith, Bunny Chambers, Tony Lauinger, Ken
Dowe, Russell McCullough, Jim Bowman, Julie Hartman, Steve LaPrade, Pat Kemp,
William Hughes, Richard Hess, Dan Smedra, Reed Larson, Karen Boatright, Steve
Antosh, Philip Fexler, Dr. Paul Cameron, Drew Edmondson, Tom Guild, Floyd
Gibson, Bill Kumpe, Joe Windes, Joan Blaylock, Ralph Griffin, Jack Edens,
Janet Kem, Charlie Meadows, Donnie Ray Criswell, Clyde E. Rollins, William
Sutcliffe, Ron McWhirter, Steve Byas, Brad Julian, Glen Brown, Stan Ward,
Vince Orza, David Althouse, Gary Sayre, Rick A. Moore, Brandon Dutcher, C.C.
Jobe, Bill Stemmons, David Arnett, Wid Lyman, Izzy Lyman, and Greg Palumbo.
We have had the pleasure of conducting several formal and informal
interviews over the past 15 years. Among the personalities interviewed by the
Oklahoma Constitution have been Cong. Phil Crane, during his 1980
presidential campaign; gubernatorial candidates Neal McCaleb, Tom Daxon, Mike
Turpen, David Walters, Vince Orza, Frank Keating, and Jerry Pierce; Right to
Work leader Chuck Bailey; Daniel New (father of Michael New), and the late
Gov. Raymond Gary, on the occasion of his 78th birthday. More recently,
Oklahoma congressmen Tom Coburn and Steve Largent were interviewed.
Some of our articles and features have caused some weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth.
Our legislative profile of state Rep. Helen Arnold, a liberal Republican,
in the summer of 1982, is credited for her narrow defeat by a Republican
party challenger. Northeast Bureau Chief Rick Moore's expose of Cong. Mike
Synar in 1994 led to Synar's defeat in the Democratic primary.
Our two-part series in 1985 ("Trial Lawyers Move to Control Legislature")
exposed the efforts of the tort lawyers to advance more liberal tort laws in
the Legislature, and how the Oklahoma Trial Lawyers Association has little
more than an arm of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Since that
time, frivolous negligence law suits like the customer who spilled coffee on
herself, have made national news.
An article in the Fall '88 issue, "Ad Valorem Tax Bill, Reform or
Oppression" alerting our readers to legislation allowing county assessors to
enter private homes to conduct searches for unreported personal property,
caused a stir as far away as Canada. Actor Charlton Heston even referred to
our article during a graduation speech as an example of the dangers of
creeping totalitarianism. This was the occasion for Steve the Taxman Lewis
lambasting our general manager with the words, "You caused me a lot of
grief." Lewis authored the bill. Because our article caused so many calls and
letters to lawmakers, the law was modified the next session to keep assessors
out of private homes.
Editor Steve Byas' column, "Woody Was No Hero," which outlined how folk
singer Woody Guthrie was a philosophical Stalinist Communist, helped the
forces in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah who did not wish to honor such a
Radical as a hero.
One article led to a libel lawsuit, with Editor Steve Byas as the
successful plaintiff against a state representative. In our Spring 1995
issue, General Manager Ron McWhirter wrote an article on the growing militia
movement in Oklahoma. Before we went to press, the Murrah Bombing occurred.
This led to a revision of the article, because of charges that the murderous
act was the work of a national conspiracy of militia groups. In the revision,
we quoted an Michigan militia leader responding that the bombing was not the
work of the militias, but more likely an act perpetrated by the federal
government! In the same issue, Editor Byas opted to write his column about
the bombing, clearly one of the biggest news stories in Oklahoma history.
Entitled the "Right Response," Byas said, among other things, that the
bombing "was one of the most despicable acts ever committed by a private
citizen in all of American history."
After Byas won the Republican nomination for state legislative seat in
1996 over a liberal Republican primary opponent (garnering 75% of the vote),
his Democratic opponent, Wallace Collins, distributed thousands of fliers
with a quote from the McWhirter article on militias. Instead of quoting the
militia leader as thinking the U.S. government blew up the Murrah building,
Collins falsely said that Steve Byas believed the U.S. government blew up the
Murrah building. Byas lost narrowly after leading by double digits in a
scientific opinion poll. Byas filed a libel lawsuit, and won an unanimous
decision by a Cleveland County jury that Collins had indeed defamed Byas. The
jury awarded $82,000 in damages, a decision upheld late last year by the
Court of Civil Appeals, in another unanimous decision.
We sincerely believe that our presence in Oklahoma over the past 22 years
has made a positive difference because of our dedicated and loyal readership.
If you would like to help extend "Oklahoma's Conservative Voice," please buy
some gift subscriptions for all those who need to be reading the Oklahoma
Constitution. We have been often imitated, but never duplicated. An annual
subscription for four quarterly issues is only $10 per year. Just send check,
money order, or federal reserve notes in the amount of $10 to The Oklahoma
Constitution, P.O. Box 53482, Oklahoma City, OK 73152. Be sure to include
your own address!
We hope you are still reading the Oklahoma Constitution decades into the
future.
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