UPDATED Senator Ted Cruz, one of the most featured politicians at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference and scheduled as the featured speaker at a Friday night Oklahoma Republican Party fundraiser, apparently will not attend even though GOP Chairman Randy Brogdon said this morning every effort is being made to whisk him to Oklahoma City from Washington late this afternoon.
Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Marco Rubio will not attend as planned, Brogdon said.
Brogdon told Scott Mitchell of “Mitchell In The Morning” on KOKC radio that arrangements have been made to fly Cruz in by private plane if the Senate finishes the vote on the Patriot Act in time. He said other arrangements are being considered, including a video hookup from Washington and an alternative speaker if needed.
State Senator Kyle Loveless, commenting on Facebook, wrote, “Brogdon says Cruz is going to be here; my money is he isn’t.”
Late Friday, with Cruz still stuck in Washington, word circulated that his father might become his stand-in.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell teed up a weekend showdown over the surveillance program, setting up votes on competing proposals: a popular House bill that would rein in the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records program, and a two-month extension of all expiring PATRIOT Act provisions.
Early Friday, some who paid in advance for the Cruz dinner and a photo op with the senator were asking if the Party will offer refunds; no word on that yet.
Sources told The McCarville Report late Thursday that votes on the Patriot Act have been scheduled for Friday in the U. S. Senate and those votes will require Cruz, Graham, and Rubio, as well as other senators, to be in Washington.
In addition to speaking at the GOP fundraiser Friday night, Cruz had been scheduled to address the Oklahoma Legislature at midday and to meet with the Senate Republican Caucus.
