By Theodore King

This is my 50th column for The Oklahoma Constitution. I began writing about federal legislation and elections in the spring 2000 issue while working in the Washington D.C. area for the Media Research Center. In this issue, I will instead concentrate on some local election matters as we have just had some significant primary results in the state.

Congressman John Sullivan won his Republican party's nomination for the first district in 2010 with only 62 % of the vote against two completely unknown candidates. He had been at the Betty Ford Clinic for his addiction to alcohol, which undoubtedly diminished his support that year. Normally, an incumbent congressman wins his party's primary by 75% or more of the vote. It appeared Sullivan was vulnerable then, but how vulnerable would he be by 2012? Obviously more vulnerable than anyone could have imagined.

I gave his opponent, Jim Bridenstine, only brief mention in my spring column. Then in my travels around Tulsa, I saw a lot of Bridenstine signs on street corners, especially in south Tulsa, and in June when I attended a concert of Mozart's Requiem at the OKMozart Festival in Bartlesville, I was surprised to see a great many Bridenstine signs in people's yards. In Bartlesville, I saw more signs for Bridenstine than I did for Sullivan.

In the afternoon of the primary, June 26, I heard on Tulsa's KRMG 740 AM radio that the turn out to vote was at an all time low in Tulsa County. I knew then that Congressman Sullivan might be in real trouble as the people who were for him had to assume that he had the primary "in the bag," and besides, it was really hot outside! The people who were for Bridenstine were willing to brave the heat because they knew it was primary day and they had to act. That night, Bridenstine pulled off what had to be one of the biggest political upsets in Oklahoma political history, alongside Virgil Cooper's 1994 upset over Congressman Mike Synar in the second district Democrat primary. Cooper, a 71-year-old retired school principal, went on to lose that November to Dr. Tom Coburn, the first Republican to win in the second district since Alice Robertson won in 1920.

So why did John Sullivan lose? He is the most conservative member of the House from Oklahoma, and yet he voted for the bailout of the banks in 2008 and in 10 years voted 11 times to raise the debt ceiling. I argue one reason for his defeat is that he is untrustworthy and deceitful. He has been that way with many people over the years, myself included. In the summer of 2001 John, then a member of the state House, contacted me through this paper and left me a message to call him. I did. The conversation went as follows: Sullivan: "So Ted, you know I am running for Congress?" Me: "Yes, John, I know." Sullivan: "So what would it take to get you to come back to Washington?" Me: "I don't know, John; it would depend on what I'm offered." Sullivan: "Well, we've got a great campaign going, and we are having a meeting at the McGraw [real estate offices] Monday night on 81st street. I'd like to see you there." That was pretty much the end of the conversation. I sent John a resume and never heard from him. I believe he called to deceive me so that I would not be critical of him when writing for this paper about his candidacy.

I have read several news stories about why Congressman Sullivan lost, but they all missed something that occurred June 18. He had authored a bill that would have kept optometrists and chiropractors from using the word physician in their titles. This had caused concern in their professions, which caused them to look for a candidate to run against John Sullivan. Jim Bridenstine had done some public relations work for some businesses owned by Dr. Robert Zoellner, an optometrist in Tulsa. Sullivan went on The Pat Campbell Show on Tulsa's KFAQ 1170 AM Friday, June 15, and said Dr. Zoellner was Bridenstine's chief campaign fundraiser. Sullivan went so far in that interview as to suggest perhaps there was something illegal going on with Jim Bridenstine and Dr. Zoellner. Sullivan said it was "shady at best."

Dr. Zoellner then appeared on The Pat Campbell Show on Monday, June 18, to rebuke those charges. He suggested he might file a defamation suit against Congressman Sullivan. The information Sullivan referred to had been public information since February 2012, and yet Sullivan claimed to have learned it only that day. It was also mentioned by Dr. Zoellner that some of the money Bridenstine had made the previous year was military pay and not from public relations work he had done for Dr. Zoellner and that Congressman Sullivan knew that to be the case because he [Sullivan] had seen the same income disclosure form on his opponent that Dr. Zoellner brought to Pat Campbell that morning. Dr. Robert Zoellner is an affable man. He is an advertiser on several radio stations; his voice is cheerful, and he appears to have a good reputation in the community and has not been known to delve into politics. In other words, John Sullivan picked the wrong man to mess with. Prominent Democrat and former attorney general Mike Turpen once quipped that in politics those you generally help generally forget, but those you generally hurt generally remember.

More musings on the second congressional district race: the runoff for both the Democrat and Republican candidates is August 28. Voters in both parties will decide who will be their nominee for the general election. On the Republican side, Markwayne Mullin received the most votes June 26, with 42%, followed by State Representative George Faught trailing behind with about half that amount at 23 percent.

Despite his early success, I'm having a hard time taking the candidacy of Markwayne Mullin seriously. Mr. Mullin owns the largest pluming company in northeast Oklahoma. On almost every one of his different campaign fliers, there is a picture of a van with Mullin Plumbing in big print on the side, along with a phone number. Some of the fliers depict not just one, but many Mullin Plumbing vans and the phone number. It is one thing to tell voters you own a business. It is quite another to remind them of your business and phone number constantly. I asked Mr. Mullin about this, and he told me he uses his business vans as a way to tell his story. I believe he also uses them as a way to get additional publicity for his business. One flier that came in the mail was about ObamaCare and has a Mullin Plumbing van and the phone number on it. Government take over of the nation's health care is, in my view, Armageddon for our republic. Plugging a plumbing business in the same context is offensive. In over 30 years of my following politics, I have never seen campaign materials quite like Markwayne Mullin's; to put it bluntly, they are over the top.

Mr. Mullin was on the Eddie Huff radio show on KFAQ July 6. He was asked about the health care exchanges from ObamaCare between Oklahoma and the federal government. He responded, "I just haven't been paying attention to it like I should. I've been very focused on our race." Then there was the following endorsement from the Mullin campaign July 6: Dr. Doug Cox, state representative from Grove, said that Markwayne Mullin is an "excellent businessman and a person of the highest personal integrity. I appreciate his positive campaign, and the way he has conducted himself." State Representative Doug Cox is a pro-abortion, nanny state Republican. He is one of the most liberal members of the state House who happens to be a Republican. Why would he support Markwayne Mullin? As radio talk show host Glenn Beck says: "Show me your friends, and I'll show you your future."

And yet he has the ability to connect with an audience. July 14, at an event sponsored by the Rogers County Republican Party, Mullin gave a from the heart talk about government regulations. His speech was somewhat emotional as he talked about an imperious bureaucracy and his belief that we have an obligation to the next generation to fix the problems with Washington. Mullin was willing to be critical of Republican errors like The Patriot Act and No Child Left Behind as two examples of unconstitutional legislation.

Muskogee State Representative George Faught spoke to the crowd that day as well. It was his 50th birthday and the 28th birthday of one of his sons. Rep. Faught told the crowd that his son had voted more times in his life than Markwayne Mullin. This comment caused a groan from the back of the room from Faunt Holland, a consultant to the Mullin campaign.

A potential problem for Rep. Faught is that during the last session he voted against a budget which had no promised tax cuts for Oklahoma residents and $300 million more allocated than in previous budgets. The problem is that after voting no, he switched his vote and voted for that budget. I have asked Rep. Faught about this switch, and he told me that the legislature must pass a budget or go into special session in which even more money could get allocated. I believe Rep. Faught really switched his vote from no to yes because he wanted to get out of the state capitol and on to the campaign trail. If this vote switch is any indication, one has to ask what would he do if elected to Congress and a vote came up to raise the debt ceiling again?

I have interviewed the Democrat candidates, Rob Wallace, a former federal prosecutor, and Wayne Herriman, who owns a seed company, and who also face a runoff vote. I was not impressed with Mr. Herriman. I can tell that Mr. Wallace, should he have the Democrat nomination, is not going to be a sacrificial lamb for his party in November.

I did not attend the Republican state convention last May in Norman, and, therefore, I cannot comment on anything that happened there. What I can do is comment on something that I read leading up to that convention which may shed some light on the turmoil between the Ron Paul supporters and the usual Republican activists. An e-mail came to my inbox, May 7, from Linda Lepak, the Rogers County chairwoman. I am not going to print the entire e-mail, but will not take anything she wrote out of context.

"Dear Rogers County Republicans,

As many of you know, the State Convention is this weekend in Norman. It has come to my attention that some Ron Paul supporters are spreading a rumor that I am trying to keep Ron Paul supporters from attending the convention as delegates. This rumor is both false and absurd. I know that many of you know that no impropriety has occurred, but I would like to set the record straight for those who are concerned.

Anyone who attended the County Convention, signed up to be a delegate to the State Convention, and is a registered Republican living in Rogers County was submitted as a delegate to the State Convention. The people spreading these rumors have admitted to me that they know the rumors are untrue, but they want to keep other Ron Paul supporters fired up so they will be motivated and angry at the State Convention. They have told me that they will support none of the Republican candidates in the Second Congressional District race (those of you who have been paying attention know that we have 6 outstanding conservative candidates in that race that would represent our district and our party well in Washington). They have also informed me that their vision for this country is one of no government (not limited government) and no military, and they believe that the people who have long worked hard for the GOP, myself included, are fascists. ... It offends and upsets me that people who have hardly participated in this process would come along and accuse me, and others like me, of trickery, deceit, and impropriety simply because the candidate they support cannot garner even 10% of the vote from Republicans in this state."

According to Bryan Mayberry, a trusted source who is a Ron Paul supporter and active Republican in Rogers County, chairwoman Linda Lepak based her e-mail on what one, only one, Ron Paul supporter said about many Ron Paul supporters. And she made that one malcontent into an army of malcontents. I believe Linda Lepak should step down as chair of the Rogers County Republican party. Any Republican official who smears a whole movement of people within the Republican party based on what one person may have said is unfit for this post. As chairwoman Linda Lepak was speaking for the Republican party in Rogers County when she sent out that e-mail May 7, she was being irresponsible. I hope the state Republican party will look into this matter and ask Linda Lepak, for the good of the Republican party in Rogers County, to step down.