SD34 Back-biting Begins

By Mike McCarville

Republican back-biting broke out Wednesday following the defeat of party nominee David McLain in Tuesday’s special Senate District 34 election.

J. J. Dossett

McLain was swamped by Democrat J. J. Dossett, 56-44 percent in a heavily Republican district that the GOP has held more more than two decades.

It gave Democrats a Senate seat pickup that had them chortling today.

McLain won the GOP primary over several others, including party activist John Feary.

David McLain

McLain had the support of the “grassroots” branch, the nominal leader of which is the Tulsa 9.12 Group. Some described Feary as a “RINO” and tool of “the Chamber of Commerce.”

The votes were still being posted Tuesday night when some in the “grassroots” group began blaming other Republicans for McLain’s loss. That, despite the fact the State Party and the Tulsa County party were active participants in McLain’s campaign.

McLain’s campaign, managed by Samantha Jones and TC Ryan of Atlas Consulting, never seemed to get its wings, observers said. McLain  apparently did little door-to-door campaigning and declined to return calls from the news media, including the Tulsa World and TMR.

John Feary

Feary, in public service for over 12 years total, as a Taxpayer Advocate in the Tulsa County Assessor’s office for five years and more than seven years at the City of Owasso as Project Administrator and Government Affairs Manager, today took to the South Tulsa GOP website to express his anger over the allegations. Here is his post, in its entirety:

“I heard something today from someone tied into the Tulsa 912 group indicating that myself and other ‘RINOs’ are responsible for the SD 34 loss to a democrat due to us urging voters NOT to show up. 1. This is ridiculous as more republicans showed up in this special general then they did for the special primary in November. Furthermore 1000 more republicans showed up than did democrats and the democrat won by approximately 500 votes. 2. The democrat is a well known Owassan who’s family has generations of ties to the the heart of the district. Furthermore the candidate is a teacher known by thousands and supported by a very large contingent of bipartisan voters. His father was the Owasso High School principal for almost 30 years and his mother taught almost everyone in this town how to swim over the course of the last 30 years. 3. The republican candidate’s campaign was very poorly funded for the general election and consisted of a weak GOTV effort. Neither me or any of the 2 other republican candidates from the primary were contacted or asked to help in anyway. 4. Owasso & Collinsville love their school districts and the mantra of school choice does not go far in successful school districts, especially from a candidate who is directly affiliated with a private school with no real tie to the district. 5. The key to this district is Owasso and Owassans wanted someone associated with Owasso. The republican candidate, a very nice man, ran for a different seat in a different community in 2010, only moving to Skiatook recently and has zero ties to the base he needed to get elected. Let’s not forget that had there not been two Owassans in the primary splitting votes McLain probably isn’t in the general. 6. The dem candidate simply out worked the republican. As a registered republican I got 6 mailers from the dem that were brilliantly designed and never mentioned party affiliation. I had at least 4 door visits from the Dem and ZERO visits from the R. The dem’s mailers showed a veteran, a teacher, a coach, and family man while the R’s 2 mailers showed, with the exception of Sen. Brian Bingman, unknown and ineffective legislators. The the people of SD 34 have no clue nor do they care who Strohm, Dahm, Sykes, Brumbaugh, or County Ass Ken Yazel is. 7. Be mindful of who you affiliate with. In Owasso when you are backed by a group of loud mouthed political novices led by a former county party chair who is a liar at every level and a former city councilor who cannot tell the truth, then your fate is pretty much sealed. I cannot tell you how many dozens of calls and messages I received from people who are dedicated republicans that would not vote for the R because he was affiliated/supported by the above-mentioned folks and they knew the Dem personally.

“To sum it up, there was no sabotage or conspiracy to stifle the Republican candidate. The truth is this was the perfect storm and the candidate the Republicans sent forward was never in this after the primary. Underfunded, mismanaged, a perfect dem candidate, and being out worked is what is responsible for this loss by the Republican Party. But what do I know, I’ve only been doing Tulsa Co. Republican politics for 20 years with boots on the ground, not like the experts who showed up in the last 5 years riding Congressman Bridenstine’s (who I believe to be a great congressman) coat tails, or bloggers who can’t seem to do any research before publishing their rhetoric. Happy for any feedback on this and for the record I don’t know that myself or any candidate would have fared any better against Senator Dossett but I know I would not have been complacent just because I had an R next to my name on the ballot.”