The McCarville Report presents the 2018 Primary Primer series. These features will take a look at the nomination races for the statewide elected seats. We are taking an excerpt from each candidate’s website (or social media account/public statements if they don’t have a website) and adding a link back to the candidate’s page. The candidates appear in the order they are listed on the Oklahoma State Election Board’s List of Elections.
Remember to vote in the June 26, 2018 Oklahoma primary elections.
Eddie Fields
Eddie Fields is currently serving in the Oklahoma Senate and is a rancher in Osage County. He has outlined his OK First Plan on his website. You can read the bullet points below.
Focused on Jobs
As Lieutenant Governor, I will be a tireless promoter and advocate of expanding our economy. I will actively seek to recruit new businesses to locate in Oklahoma, invest, and create new jobs. Hardworking men and women need someone on their side.
Build on Tourism
Oklahoma tourism is our 3rd largest economic sector and generates us over $600 million a year. As Lieutenant Governor, I will increase efforts to promote our great state as a travel destination around the nation.
Lead on Education
My wife is a teacher and I am a former school board member — this gives me a unique perspective to understand what it will take to fix our schools. I will work to increase teacher pay and retain and recruit teachers who are focused on educating the future leaders of Oklahoma.
Improving Healthcare Access
Oklahoma should be on the forefront of modernizing and improving access to healthcare. That means strengthening resources like telemedicine and working to train Oklahoma’s next generation of doctors to work outside our urban communities.
Dana Murphy
Dana Murphy is currently serving as an Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner. She has been involved in farming, ranching and the energy business. The bullet points for her vision for Oklahoma can be read below.
- I want to utilize my experience in the private and public sector to make a better Oklahoma.
- I am ready and equipped to create a solid and stable foundation that will lead the way to a better education and future for our children.
- I will work with the governor, other leaders and Oklahomans to address the roots of the longstanding problems facing our state, including the budget, education, healthcare and infrastructure.
- I love our state, our people, our spirit. Tradition and history are important but so is building a foundation for the future. I will move the lieutenant governor position beyond its traditional role to build a better Oklahoma.
- From the farmland of western Oklahoma to the abundant natural resources of southeastern Oklahoma to Tulsa and Oklahoma City’s diverse urban communities, I am proven and ready to represent all Oklahomans.
Dominique DaMon Block
Dominique DaMon Block is a small business owner from Oklahoma City. He has coined the word, Blockonomics, as his plan for Oklahoma. You can read the bullet points below.
BLOCKONOMICS
- Pro-Business Growth: Eliminate Sabbath Day laws to allow businesses to conduct business on Sunday such as retail liquor stores, car dealerships, etc. if they chose.
- Balance Budget: Create zero-based budgeting in which every state department must justify appropriations each year.
- State’s and Civil Rights: Protect the civil rights of young adults and Oklahoma’s states rights by having Oklahoma voluntary pull out of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, lowering the drinking age from 21 years of age back to 18 years of age since the Act violates to 10th and the 21st Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
- Foreign Investments: Form job creation through the “insourcing” of foreign
- companies to Oklahoma. These jobs, often requiring sophisticated skills and
- providing good salaries, appear in such areas as management consulting, high-tech manufacturing, and research and development. Honda, Samsung, Roche, and Nestle are just some examples of foreign companies with large U.S. subsidiaries.
- Taxes: Eliminate franchise, excise and property taxes, decrease the state sales tax from 4.5% to 2% and replace it with a personal consumption tax on ALL goods and services sold in the state.
- Education: Consolidate the 539 school districts to a more reasonable amount that the state can handle and allow state-wide school choice so that parents can decide where they want their children to go which will make the school districts more competitive with each other. Also, decentralize some of the school districts to the cities to help provide true local control and take some of the financial burdens off of the state.
- Tribal Compacts and Agreements: Help negotiate reasonable and fair compacts between the tribal nations and the State of Oklahoma.
- Entrepreneurship: Create an entrepreneurship program inside the lieutenant
- governor’s office to help citizens learn how to start a business in Oklahoma, creating a new tax base for the state.
- Small Business Advocate: Continue to be a voice for the small business owners in the state that feel like they have been left behind due to big businesses drowning them out.
- Transportation: Eliminate the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority and the Transportation Commission, as well as the obsolete cast in place method used by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to fix our roads and bridges and replace it with precast bridge technology which is cheaper and allows us to build bridges in days and weeks, not months. Expand Amtrak north of Oklahoma City and throughout the state.
- Energy & Environment: Pull out of the Uniform Time Act of 1966 due to it being obsolete because of energy saving technology and advances in farming. It will also help promote healthier living due to longer days, allowing people to do more activities outside of the home and even ignite an economic boost for businesses with the Sun going down later instead of sooner.
- Medical Marijuana: If passed by a vote of the people on June 26, 2018, I would make sure that SQ 788 (Medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative) is quickly implemented as the small business advocate for the state by bringing in out of state experienced dispensaries to help move the process quickly and effectively.
Matt Pinnell
Matt Pinnell is the former Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman and worked as the National State Party Director and the Republican National Committee. He also owns a homegrown business. A summary of Pinnell’s stance on growing the state’s economy is below.
A Businessman Who Will Grow Our Economy
Along with his wife, Lisa, Matt Pinnell grew a business after an idea for a new baby product became a reality in the kitchen of their Tulsa home. Now, the Pinnells’ homegrown venture has turned into a successful international business.
Matt Pinnell understands the pressures and difficulties of being an entrepreneur and putting everything on the line for one’s own business. Our government should focus on helping small business owners, not get in their way.
Matt Pinnell will use his first-hand business experience to be an effective and unwavering champion for small businesses in our state. Oklahomans work hard for their income…Matt will work just as hard to protect it.
