June 18 Republican Primary Candidate Forum (FULL RECORDING) 6-11-2024

And tonight we have for you our June twenty twenty four primary forum, and tonight is being brought to you by Phillip sixty six and Susie Hughes Vintage mal Tonight, we're going to have three different forums all wrapped up pretty much in one. We're going to start with our county commissioners. We'll then speak to our senator and also we will have for you our District ten contenders. And once again, this is a forum and not a debate. All of our

participants will be given the same question to answer. Now, we do have a few rules here to let everybody know that we do have opening and closing statements. There'll be three minutes each, so you're going to have a good long time to absorb a little bit of the candidates and what they stand for and what they're all about. And each candidate will have two minutes to answer each question. And once again we are ready to roll here in just a

little bit. We have our timekeeper tonight, and that is Nathan Thompson, our news director, and he's got our little flash cards here, so he'll tell me when to hush up as well. Before we get started. I'd like for us to all stand for the pledge of allegiance, man, my pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Bubbly which it says, one Nation under God, indivisible with liberty as straw. Thank you. We do have questions and we will begin here in just a

moment. Once again, I want to thank everyone for tuning in to k onetv dot com, Facebook Live, also k one AM, fourteen hundred FM, ninety three point three and ninety five point one, and then again our sponsors Phillip sixty six and Susan Cues Vintage Ball and we had a drawing. CEO goes first and Michael Cole, Yeah, lucky recipient of NUMROO. So you get to first of all, tell us a little bit about yourself. Your opening statement begins now. Thank you, tom. My name is Michael

Cohlaw. I am a thirty four year resident of Washington County here in Bartlesville. I was born and raised in Enid, Oklahoma, in a pastor's home. I watched my dad serve our community on two separate occasions as a member of the ended school board, and so service to the community was something that was modeled for me in the home that I grew up in. When I came here to go to college in nineteen ninety I went to Oklahoma Wesley University

degree in pastoral ministry. Spent the next seventeen years working in the church world in pastoral ministry, whether that be a youth pastor, a college pastor, music pastor transitioning to working at the university where I served as the pastor for campus ministries, served as a professor in the School of Religion there, worked

for an administrative office in the Wesleyan Church. So seventeen years in pastoral ministry, and then a transition happened where I began working in the corporate world thirteen years since then in oil and gas and banking. And I feel that being a candidate for this position, I'm uniquely positioned with the skill set of working

with people for so many years. Seventeen years in pastoral ministry allowed me to work with so many different people of so many different backgrounds, and then being thrust into the world of corporate America, where I was fortunate enough to work in finance for those thirteen years and have learned the financial management skills, the

financial acumen. The analysis skills. So it's a coupling of relationships, leadership, and financial management that I believe uniquely positions me as the best potential candidate for Washington County Commissioner District two. And I'm glad to be here tonight and to answer any questions that we will have. All Right, thank you very much, Corey Shovel, you are now ready your role my friend. Okay, all right, thank you, thanks for having us, and thank thank

everybody for coming. I'm Corey Shivel, running for Washington County District two Commissioner. I have worked with Washington County for twenty eight and a half years. I am currently the supervisor of the Roads and Bridges have been for the past fourteen years. I am a graduate of Oklahoma State Road Management Program. I have twenty eight year safety achievement. I have supervised eight new bridge projects. I've been a part of building miles and miles of roads as well as resurfacing

miles and miles of roads. As a supervisor, I have taken on many responsibilities that include assessing roads and bridges, overseeing the upkeep on equipment and the buildings of our department. In District three is where I work, tracking inventory, managing personnel, and assisting the commissioner in the budget of that department. And with that I have I have made a I have a good working relationship with the commissioner, so I am able to see the day to day duties

of their job. And all of this I feel like plays a great part in my ability to know the job on day one. I have a great understanding of the budget process. I have attended, I have attended budget board meetings, I've attended commissioner meetings. I know where the money comes from. I know where the money goes. So I am simply running on my experience and my knowledge, and I look forward to continuing the management of the resources

effectively and efficiently. Thank you very much, mister Darrel Worley. Tell us about yourself well. Thank you Tom, Thank everybody for being here. Thank Kaywan for putting this on. Yeah. I was born in Cladmore, Oklahoma. I was raised in a rural area about halfway between Clamwoar and Prior and

I attended Sequoia Schools and graduated in nineteen seventy three. I worked on area ranches and as a carpenter for about ten years or maybe a little longer, and then I decided that I needed to go to college and try to do a little better for myself. I received my bachelor's degree from Northeastern State in nineteen eighty nine. I passed the examination to be a professional engineer in nineteen ninety nine. Since then, I've worked as an engineer or a project manager.

Most of my project manager experience has been in road building or environmental remediation. I have overseen projects with very large budgets in both the private and public sectors, and as an engineer and project manager, I currently run a one man engineering consulting business and have since twenty fifteen. I worked in the engineering department for the City of Bartlesville for eight years. I was a city lead

for Operation Clean House for seven of those years. I am a Christian and my wife, Sandy, and I have been attending First Lesleyan Church for twenty plus years. My biblical worldview is very important to me. I am vice currently Vice chairman of Precinct eleven, and I have been a Precinct officer multiple times since two thousand and seven, which is when we moved to our new where we're located now. I have been preparing for a position as a county

commissioner all of my life. It is because of these previous diverse experience I believe I am the most qualified to be the next district to Washington County commissioner. Thank you, Thank you very much. Nice to get to everybody kind of acquainted with one another before we have our conversation. Some people call it a form, but we're having a discussion here tonight. We're all among friends. We're going to start off with the first question, and it's going to

go to Cory. Now, these are questions that have been submitted by you. I didn't write them, but we did have to modify some of these, and we didn't use all of them because, quite honestly, we just didn't have enough time. You guys are so good at putting these questions in. Some of it actually been merged. This one is a very personal one that came in Corey. It says, I live in a rural area with a gravel road. What would be your plan for a good road maintenance for

a gravel road? Well, if you know, if the road continues to stay gravel, Uh, you know, we assess these roads. I as as the road form and I try to drive these roads once a week, and I'm I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't make every road once a week. We have one hundred and eighty six miles in District three that I am the supervisor of. But I do try to I do try to hit these at least once every two weeks. So if it's if it is a gravel road, obviously we're gonna we're gonna grade that road. We're gonna

maintain it to the best of our ability. We weather dictates everything that we do. You you cannot plan any kind of a grading schedule because if it rains a lot, we may grade that road two maybe three times a month. If it is hot and dry in the summertime, we're probably not gonna grade that road. If there's potholes, we'll we will go out and and you know, we will hit the potholes get them graded out, but we we will not grade the entire road because it just creates more dust and people,

I tell you, people do not like dust. So yeah, that that would be That would be my plan on a on a gravel road. All right, same question to you, mister Worleye. I live in a rural area with a gravel road and what would your plan be for a good road maintenance on a gravel road. Well, I would do my best to set up a schedule for maintenance. We would, of course, we would be checking the roads on a regular basis, as Corey said, but when

we go out through the grating, water is what kills those roads. You've got to make the drainage right. If you're going to keep a road and it'll make a difference with its gravel or or asphalt, you've got to make sure the darnings is correct. Very good and to you, mister Cola, I live in a rural area of the gravel road. What would be your

plan for a good road maintenance for a gravel road. Well, to reiterate, I do believe that grading the road is imperative, and as mister Chivel said, you have to go out and drive these roads and be familiar with

them. But as a county commissioner, it would be my responsibility to work with our road foreman, to work with our crew to make sure that they have everything that they need in order to make sure that these roads are graded, that they have the gravel they need, the right type of gravel they need for these roads to keep them in the proper state that they should be in for a safe environment, and as well for the constituents on their roads.

Alrighty, our next question is, and it's gonna good, it's going to go to Darryl, how will you reduce spending? And we're toward leaner budgets? Well, last night we all had a forum and we kind of got similar questions. I've been looking at that today. One thing I think I would look at to begin with, and probably I'm not saying that could happen, is look at some privatization and maybe go away from us having all

the personnel and maybe look for having contractors. Of course it had to be with bids and we'd have to show that we would save money, but that would be one of the things I would look at. Okay, very good to you and mister Kla. How will you reduce spending and have leaner budgets? So, first of all, I would look at the budgets, see what we have and what the different line items are appropriated to figure out where

we are being ineffective, where we're being inefficient. I've had the opportunity to talk with people who live in District two and people who work in District two, and I think it's imperative for us, all three county commissioners to work together, or if we're going to buy gravel, let's work together on a bid to buy gravel from the same location so that then we'll get it at a reduced cost rather than buying gravel from a different location based upon the district

that you work in. So that's one way specifically that I think we could lower costs for the district. Again, it's about being effective. It's about being efficient with our resources and the time and the main or the equipment that we have. And to you, Corey, Corey Shivel, how will you reduce spending and have leaner budgets? Okay, well, I guess advantage me I have. I've been in budget board meetings. I see the budget. I know what we have. The money that we receive is what operates the

county and there's really nothing more or nothing less to that. I don't see that there is any kind of overspending on anything from the experience that I have had that I have so as far as reducing spending, I'm very open minded and if someone can show us where we are overspending, and we could fix that. I would be all in favor of that. Very good. We go back to Michael Cohlaugh here for next question. Being a county commissioner, many people seem to think it's roads, roads, bridges, and roads,

but it's not. How do you see the position of county commissioner. I see the position of county commissioner as the chief administrator and manager of everything that happens within the county. You are correct. I do believe most people think roads and bridges when they think about a county commissioner. That is a portion of the job. The job is working with the other elected officials, working with hired people or individuals who live or work in the county. We set

the budget in Washington County. We have a budget board, and so the county commissioners are the chairman of that budget board. They again are the chief administrators of everything that happens in the county. If we need more money for our Sheriff's department, it's going to go through the county commissioners, our county fair grounds, our county Courthouse, the annex building just next to it behind

us here. So they are the chief administrators of everything that happens in the county and it is their job to be the stewards of the tax dollars and to do that to the best of their ability. Very good, Corey Chivel. Do you more than just roads? How do you see the position of county commissioner? Yeah, I would echo what mister Colaw has said. He's done his homework over there. Good for you. Yeah, you know that the county commissioner, they oversee the upkeep on all of the buildings that they

have. There's there's the Sheriff's department, there's the fair grounds, there's the administrative building, there's the courthouse. I mean, there's a lot of property that that has to have upkeep constantly. So there's that, and then you know, as as mister Kohla was saying, they are they're on the budget board, they have their commissioner meetings, they are approving purchase orders, they're approving payroll, they're approving salaries, they are awarding contracts. So yes,

there is there's a lot more to roads and bridges. Although I would I would disagree about the ten percent roads and bridges. I've heard that many times. I think I think that is a big, a big part of their job. You know, that is a that is over a one point five million dollar budget that that one commissioner has total control over. So I think that warrants a pretty good percentage of his maybe not physical but mental attention. And so yeah, I'll leave it. I'll leave it there. I'm getting

a yellow sign. I'm kind of proud of that, mister Daryl Worley. Again, more than just roads. How do you see the position of county commissioner? Well, I believe that as a board of county commissioners, they can act as the strong mayor for the whole county. Yeah. If you know what a strong mayor system of government is that they are in charge of all the administration and the buck stops with them. All right, very good,

We're going to go on to Corey here. When it comes to a county government and being a commissioner, how do you see the expansion of certain things like say maybe a new facility, perhaps an expo center or something like that. How do you perceive seeing that coming about if that would even be in your purview or your plans? Sure, yeah, I know that the commissioners were working on an expo building. I think the biggest question on that is can it be self sufficient? How is it going to, you know,

pay for itself? Can it pay for itself? I am I'm one hundred percent open to that. I think it would be a great thing for Washington County. I think it would bring in outsiders who's going to spend money in our county. I think that's wonderful. I would like to see a proposal as far as are we going to be able to fill that facility week in and week out? And will it pay for itself? Very good?

Same question to you, mister Willie, how do you see the expansion possibly of something like the new facility as a commissioner along the lines of an expot building, say well, I'm a big believer in the free market, and I believe that the government should stay in their lane and the capitalism should stay in their lane. I would not be for a have an expost center. Very good, same question. So this comes up a possible expansion of facilities,

say an exposed center. Where would you stand on an issue like that? Well, again, as mister Chivell said, the commissioners have looked at it and it was definitely a very hot conversation topic for quite wayside and doesn't look like at this point time it would come to profession. I would not have a problem with a new expo center as long as it's not a tax burden, an additional tax burden on the constituents and the people of watchcount I

would agree one hundred percent with what mister Chivel said. We would need to fill that each and every weekend. We would need to see an economic impact on our community, a positive economic impact on our community in order for me to fully support that. But if we could do that, if we could find the proposal, and we could find the land, and we could find a way to do that, I would have no problem with that whatsoever. Okay, It's true, Worley, and this comes from someone who's seen a

lot of signs. Okay, as a commissioner, do you support the laws of the state of Oklahoma, specifically I dot, and if so, have you made sure that none of your signs violate the placement along the highway rights of ways. I've done my best. My wife is the biggest sign put outer that I have. I've given her a certain's instructions that not used and not the end to stay on the right of way, not to put them in people's yards. All right, mister Cola, I would absolutely say I

respect all of those laws. You will not find a sign of mind that is not placed where someone has requested or why I have requested and received permission to put a sign at that location. Mister Schill, absolutely, I echo what mister Coe Law says. Every sign that I have out, I have either been asked to put a sign there, or I have asked to put a sign there, or they have taken a sign from a setting like this.

And if I'm nearly one hundred percent certain that they have not put them where, they're not supposed to be very good for our closing statements here, and we are going to start off. Where is Keeler here? Where do we go here? Okay, Daryl, it's time for your closing statement here, So you have three minutes. Okay, I do on get three minutes. My life experiences and education have prepared me to be a county commissioner. I am running on a platform of property rights, individual rights, and election

integrity. Property. Property and individual rights are granted by God. They are not granted by the governments. The Constitution are to ensure those rights are not violated by the government at any level. I've read and marked up the Republican Platform. The reason to say to all this that I know the people. Let the people know that I will support the principles stated in that platform.

In all my deliberations, I will use biblical principles, principles found in the US Constitution, the Yoklahoma Constitution, and I will take my oath to preserve and protect the constitutions very seriously. While I have no evidence to suspect voter fraud has occurred in Worston County, I do believe the elections can be made more transparent. I believe all elections should be open to independent audits, and

I would be in favor of handcounts at precinct level with observers loud. I also believe the results of all malian and early voting ballots should be putted in the first fifteen minutes following the close of the actual precincts. In my working career, I've always prided myself in being able to communicate and work with all people, from the labor and the ditch, to the chairman of the company to the mayor of the city. I have always been able to come to

an understanding with people without compromising my principles. I will not be afraid to be the lone descending book on an issue that is important to protect the rights of the people. When elected, I will serve my con constituents to the best of my ability. And in closing, I ask you for your support in the upcoming election. Thank you very much, Krey Chivel your closing stevements.

Okay, I'm going to keep this on the county commissioner level here and go with What makes me the best candidate for this job is my experience and knowledge. I work well with others. I have built good relationship relationships with the people that I work with and with the people that I will be working with. I am invested with the county. I care about the future of

the county. I am committed. I have the ability to talk to people and the ability to answer their questions, and most importantly, I have the ability to listen to people. So that is why I feel like I am the best candidate for this job and with one hundred percent appreciate your support and vote on June eighteenth. Thank you. Thank you, Michael Colach, your

closing statement. Please, First of all, I'd like to thank you Tom for moderating tonight, thank you Bartseol Radio, Potter family for hosting and putting on this forum tonight. And I would be remiss if I did not thank the Washington County Republican Party for the forum that they hosted last night, as well as the Washington County Republican and other Conservatives who hosted a forum a week ago. Thank you very much for allowing us all to have the opportunity to

share. I believe I'm the best candidate for this position because for me, this is first infantionment understanding financial management, understanding setting button airing to budgets, and being stewards of the taxpayer dollars. It's about leadership. And when I say young age, I mean in my twenties, I was thrust into leadership positions I wasn't expected to be in. And I've led teams of one, teams of three, teams of two hundred, and I do not have a

problem working with people. The Greeks have a word for service and it's called do loss. Do loss is translated servant leader, and so leadership for me is about serving the people. It's about working with the people who are around you, which leads me to the final thing, and that is relationships. Relationships are so very important in life. We have to have proper relationships with those around us. We have to be able to get along with people that

we don't agree with and have decorum and have upright relationships with them. It has been a privilege to go through this campaign and to get to know mister Chivell. I've known mister Worthley for years and years and years and we were neighbors. It has been a very civil and respectful campaign. I'm grateful for

that. And so relationships and building those relationships with the constituents, building relationships with the other commissioners, with the other elected officials and those who work within the county is imperative to being a good county commissioner. And so I think all of that sets me apart to be the ideal candidate. And I again would appreciate your vote on Tuesday, June eighteenth, Thank you very much.

A reminder that we do have early voting that takes place on Thursday and Friday upstairs, fourth floor, can't miss it, and also on Saturday as well, and then of course on the traditional election day would be Tuesday the eighteenth. Also, want to thank all of you for being up here with us here voters. You got your work cut out for you. These are three fine men and they all present very well tonight. Let's give them all a

hand. Will be right back after these commercial messages. You are watching and listening to our political forum for twenty twenty four from City Hall right here in Bartlesville, and it's being brought to you by Phillip sixty six in susicqes vintage mall on K one AM fourteen hundred, FM ninety three point three and FM ninety five point one and also KWETV dot com K one the one you trust.

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a quiet day across bunch of southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma. We're looking for quiet weather again tonight. One more night of pleasant weather. Tempertures dropping down to the low sixties. Great start to get you going out the door on your Wednesday Wednesday afternoon party. Sunny, Unfortunately getting a lot warmer, some call it hot hinds me around ninety. We're being a load of mid nineties

Thursday and Friday, and mid nineties for the weekend. Heat index values around one hundred, So summer is making a big surge into the area with all the clouds and showers staying down in Texas. From the Bob Mills Weather Center, I'm News on six Chief Meteorologist Travis Meyer, and welcome back Mary alou R Forum and I like I'm traveling and Susie C's vintage mall right here on k one AM fourteen hundred FM, ninety three point three FM ninety five point

one and on k ONETV dot com, Apple TV and Roku. And once again we have Senator Daniels here tonight for our forum. And first of all, Senator, we're going to start you up with your opening statement. You have three minutes to address the crowd. Thank you Tom, Thank you kwo In and the city for allowing us to use the City Council chamber, and everyone here in the live audience. My name is Julie Daniels, and I'm a candidate for State Senate to represent Washington, Nowada and the northern half of

Rogers County. Government of Buying for the People is about people. This entire job is about people. It's the eighty four thousand different residents who live in this district, many of them Native Oklahomas. Many more I'm discovering recent transplants to the state of Oklahoma. Just this week, I've met someone from Missouri and Colorado and a Native San Franciscan, all of whom have chosen our state

as their residence because we represent the values that they hold. Dear. We believe in limited government, we believe in attracting business and having strong jobs. We are a really attractive place for people to want to come. And part of this was COVID, but many others are coming just because they've reached a stage in life that they want to go someplace where they feel that they are unfettered, they can live more freely and express themselves more freely than where they

were before, and for that reason they've come to my state. I'm a native Oklahoma, born and raised in Oklahoma City. I graduated from the University of Oklahoma. I attended my first year of law school there before I married Charlie, who will be here in a moment. He's been out all day doing his thing. Forty six years ago and he was a lawyer for Phillips Petroleum Company. So I moved up here and commuted to the University of Tulsa. For the last two years of law school, I interned with the DA's

office. I wanted to be an assistant district attorney. That may be still

why I have some feeling for the das and what they do. But Charlie got transferred to London so we went there immediately after I took my last final exam, and we came back nine years later with two little boys, and I decided that, being out of Bartlesville for almost a decade and wanting to stay home and raise my kids, that I would take advantage of, as you all know in this audience, the multitude of opportunities in this community to

be of service as a volunteer, whether it was in the school's parents support group, band orchestra, choir, booster club, many nonprofits, including my beloved Boys and Girls Club, and then coming here and sitting behind this table for eight years, a couple of years in Tom's seed as mayor and serving

on our city council. And I did that intentionally because I'm a conservative, a lifelong Republican with very conservative values, and I wanted to apply my political philosophy to governing and I did that here and it worked out very well. And so when I had the opportunity in twenty sixteen, I ran for the state Senate, and I have had the extreme honor of serving you for eight

years. I would like to serve the last four because all the things I said about volunteering in this community and all the things I bring to the table, you can add even more to that after eight years as your state senator, and I hope to get into more of what I have been able to do. And I appreciate very much being here, and i'd appreciate your vote on June eighteen. Thank you. We have our first question. These were

formulated and set in via email to us at the radio station. We've condensed a few for time, and first one is about water conservation, water protection, and even perhaps finding new versus of water. It's a big issue in our part of Oklahoma. As we grow and expand more people are finding us here. From the position of a state senator, what can you do to protect our interest in these efforts? And what can be done in your position

proactively? I took some experience with water issues with me to the Senate. We all know about the drought of two thousand and one and our twenty plus year effort which is gaining even more steam now to ultimately resolve our water supply problem up here in Marshton County. But I was allowed to serve on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee the first two years in the Senate. A natural

fit for somebody from Bartlesville, USA. But also because of the water experience, I was able to engage on the conservation issues and the great need to expend dollars on water infrastructure issues in our state just this past session. I do not recall if we ended up putting all of it into the budget, but we were looking to put an initial one hundred and twenty five million dollars

into water infrastructure repairs and construction in our state. Because the best way to conserve water is to make sure you're not losing it as you treat it and transport it to people's homes. So it's a big state wide issue, and it's a bipartisan issue, solder treatment plant upgrades. And I'm also very very proud of the fact that now putting in place the science, we're measuring progress of individual students and so in the public education system. I think that's the

best thing we can do for parents, teachers, and children. And also of course always looking at the overburdened sie. So, will you ever support driver's licenses for illegal aliens? Thank you for the question. It's come up a lot. On May the twenty fourth of this year, we passed the Anti Illegal Immigration Act in Oklahoma, we're already being sued by the Department of

Justice. Which is not a surprise to us, but a bill to allow people who pay income to acts with a taxpayer ID number to become eligible for a driver's license, so that they would buy insurance and cut down on the problem of uninsured drivers on our roads, which is also a public safety problem for having people for whom you have no identity when they are stopped contributing to

hit and run accidents. That language was attempted to be put into our bill on May the twenty fourth, and the entire Senate Republican caucus voted it down, including me. Now, this is the fourth time that bill has been introduced. It's had three different numbers, but the same subject matter was put before us in twenty twenty two, and at the time, the great concern was making sure if you adopted this policy that those folks would not have voter

registration services, would not be allowed to register or vote. Many groups were in favor of the policy. Again, looking at the problem of uninsured drivers in Oklahoma, we have a large percentage of that. It is a problem which I've just described, So I voted to send it to the House, because I thought if the House addresses it, it means both sides of the legislature think it's an important issue and perhaps this is a policy that would help

it. The House didn't act. That bill did not pass. There are people today who think it is in effect, but it did not pass, and I told the author in March of twenty twenty two, I won't vote for this again. I gave you a chance to put the policy to the

House. We all agreed it is a problem in Oklahoma, but that's not the appropriate way to solve it. In twenty three, twenty four, I helped make sure it didn't get to the floor as an assistant floor leader, and then on April the twenty fourth, along with my Republican colleagues, I voted that amendment down. So I'm not in favor of illegal residents having driver's licenses. Senator, the authored bills regarding gender transitioning in children. Can you

explain them to the audience? Yes. I was put as chairman of the Rules Committee left year specifically to take up legislation where the Republican caucus wanted to speak with one voice, and I had the opportunity to direct the drafting of a bill that would prohibit gender transition procedures in minor children, children under the age of eighteen, because in Oklahoma, once you're eighteen, you can make

your own medical decisions. And I took great care in crafting it. My goal was to make sure it could stand up in court, and so far we have prevailed in federal district court and we're awaiting a decision from the Tenth Circuit right now. We said that we are not doing anything about behavioral care, mental health care, anxiety depression. Those were not involved in this bill.

It was simply the physical treatments on minor children that we wanted to avoid because you're making adult decisions as a child, and I believe that parents have been put in a very awkward position. Some of my colleagues actually wanted the bills right to be written to prosecute the parents, and I said, no,

absolutely not. The parents themselves are at a loss in some of these situations, so we need to show compassion for both the kids and the parents, but just make sure that in Oklahoma we don't perform these procedures on children. And got that passed fairly handly, and again we have prevailed thus far. And other states that have done it our way, just clear and not tried to muddy the waters by putting too many other things in the bill have

also prevailed in the courts, and that is my goal. Good policy that can stand up in a court of law. Senator, can you explain Senate Bill eight thirty four and whether it allows more abortions back in Oklahoma? Thank you. No, it was not intended to do that, and we did not take up the bill in the end. I regret so much that there is a division in the pro life community in Oklahoma at the time that we

are facing two very fierce foes. We are facing the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which declared a right to abortion in the Oklahoma Constitution in March of last year, at the very same time that I was trying to get eight thirty four passed. To make all of the language and all of our statutes having to do with abortion and pro life read the same. Every definition should be the same, every exception should be the same, so that our state Supreme Court

could not pick the laws apart and find a weak link. But they found a week link because we took no action, and now we are facing the abortionists themselves, who will be coming to Oklahoma for our unborn children, And we have not done enough to protect the unborn from the ad campaign that is going to be coming our way that has swept other states, other pro life states just like ours. Eight thirty four was intended to say, if the exception exists in this part of the law, exist over here. I was

the author, the Senate author of House Bill for three two seven. That was the Steerman Daniels bill that did shut the abortion clinics down in Oklahoma. It was because you could sue the abortionist rather than the criminal law you could sue. And that was the bill that had the rape and incest exception in

it for the very first time in our statutes. So I simply took that and said, along with ectoptic presidency and our definition of contraception and our definition of save the life of the mother, we're going to make all of our statutes sound the same so that the abortionists and the pro abortion Supreme Court cannot

pick them apart. We didn't take that action. We've already suffered in the state Supreme Court, and I fear we will suffer when the initiative petition for abortion on demand up until the time of birth in our constitution comes our way, and we better be prepared to fight for life at that time. Senator, do you agree or disagree with using tax payer dollars for economic debs de

elepment instead of allowing the free market to function. When I served on the city council, I remember going to our economic development people over the chamber early on and saying, I don't like incentives. Why can't we get rid of these incentives, to which he said, that's fine. When everybody else gets rid of them, we can get rid of them. But to be competitive

sometimes you have to have incentives. Here in Bartlesville, we have what a quarter cent economic development sales tax that we have renewed every five years for over three decades and it has worked exactly as it's supposed to. Jobs, bring it to the BDA, bring it to the city council, have the format for the rebate or the incentive baked in before the money goes out the door, and then if you don't achieve what you said you're going to achieve,

the money comes back into the kitty. It's the same the state level, it's a little more complicated and the numbers of dollars are larger than they are for a city, but I believe in a certain instant incentives are justified. We have a Quality Jobs Act, and Oklahoma's been here a long long time. That is all practically on autopilot. Over in the Department of Commerce. I know Chronicle Phillips benefited from it. ABB's benefited from it. But these

one off, one time things do come to us. I much prefer rebates to putting money out the door and then hoping that you get the return on the investment. We are looking at how our Department of Commerce is structured to make sure that we couldn't do it better. It was proposed that we should create an entire separate Department of Commerce for economic development this last year. I

opposed that. I told the author I wasn't going to do that, and in the end the bill was simply to set up a committee to study how can we do economic development better in Oklahoma? So if we do use tax dollars, we do it in the most sophisticated, well researched way possible. Our next question came in to via emails. We well, why is our legislator are allowing a bar association which is a private organization. Why they give

them the right to appoint members of the important judicial nominating commission. Gosh, Tom, I didn't send a question, but it could have been from me. My biggest reform effort this year, and I've been building on it for several years, is judicial reform, which is changing the way we appoint our appellate justices in Oklahoma. I want the people to decide whether or not they'd like to move to the federal system. The President vets and appoints, the

Senate confirms, and then they get life tenure. We have life tenure now with this retention ballot. We've never thrown any justice off. But given what I've just said about the pro life issue, I suggest you vote off Couger and Edmondson when you have the opportunity in November. They are two of the five pro abortion justices who found the right to abortion in our constitution. I want to change it so that we take this elected commission out of the loop.

Right now, people apply to be a justice, which I've always thought is rather odd. But you apply to be a justice, you're vetted by this commission that is unduly influenced by the bar Association because they're the only lawyers allowed on the commission. So when you turn to somebody and say you're a lawyer, you know more than me. That's been entirely controlled by the Bar Association electing its members to the Commission. It's been in place for almost fifty

years. Before that, we had partisan elections of justices. And so I'd like to give the folks the opportunity to say, yes, the governor's elected by all the people. The Senate is elected by the districts. So you've got the two elected branches should be the ones making the appointment and the confirmation, and then set this independent judiciary on its way. I think we would get much better decisions from our court. They would be much more reflective of

the people of the state of Oklahoma. Sadly, even though the Senate got it, I'm very proud of by Senate colleagues, the House did not. They it failed. The House didn't want the people to get to vote on this. But I'll be back to try again because I think it would get a much better result for us in Oklahoma, particularly when they act as legislators in black robes. I have two more questions for you here before we wrap up center. If a pandemic were to occur again, such as COVID nineteen,

would you vote to require masks in public building? Thank you not. I drew the line on telling private employers what they must do, anything that prohibited government from demanding a vaccine or a mask. I was absolutely all for that. I'm very proud of the fact that we already had in place in Oklahoma very limited emergency powers for our governor. What other states were looking at as model language. We already had a thirty day emergency. It had to

be re upped by the legislature. They could take it away at any time. So the pandemic with the tools in place to make sure that our freedoms were not unduly affected by that very tumultuous time. The other thing I was able to do then with one of my colleagues in the House, was to write the bill that gave liability protection to business owners. When we were starting

to open up again, people said, what if we're sued? So we made sure that as long as you were following one guidance from the Department of Labor or the Centers for Disease Control or the Oklahoma Department Health if you were following one of those guidances, you would not be liable if somebody claimed they contracted COVID in their place of employment or in the business. And that was another thing that helped get us open a lot quicker than some of the other

states. Senator, what steps would you take to end the state income tax? I have tried to do that already, and along with judicial reform, I will continue to work on it. I'm frustrated that we have not yet adopted a formula by which we can gradually reduce the income tax depending on state revenues. We did it before, but did it in such a way that as soon as revenue went up a little bit, it triggered the cut.

And then we faced the budget shortfall of twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen, and people got completely cold feet about the trigger that was in place, and so

they repealed it. I've been on a tax reform task force, hard to say, for the last two years, where we've studied how all the other states do it, and we've had the Tax Foundation in here, We've had ALEC in here, We've had the state and the US Chamber of Commerce talking about how different states construct their tax code so as to figure out a way to gradually go to zero. I authored the quarter cent reduction in twenty three.

The ProTem took it away from me, but that's okay. We got it passed, and this year with the Speaker, I authored that again without the cut, but just the formula. But again there's just too much disagreement on which is the right way to go for the Republican Party in both houses to unite. So I will continue to work on that. Senator, it's

down time for your closing statement. Thank you. So tax cuts, judicial reform, protecting the Republican reforms that were put in place when my party finally took the majority in both houses after one hundred years of rule by the now minority party. It's important to protect those reforms, lawsuit reform, workers comp reform, pension reform, because they impact every decision that we make, particularly the monetary ones at the state level. And because of term limits, which

I do support and voted for. I am now the institutional knowledge for those reforms because when the pro tem turns out this year, there won't be anybody left except those of us who were working through the Republican Party to get legislators to put those reforms in place, so I will continue to work on those.

I'm very interested in rolling regulations. We have far too many. Even in a state that doesn't overly regulate, we could improve greatly, and I believe this would be a great help to small business owners in our state who employ most of the people. Standing up for individual freedom will continue to be

very important to me. Having passed bills on campus free speech, free exercise of religion, donor privacy, election integrity, I continue to be asked to run those sorts of bills, and I will continue to work with all those advocates that want to protect our freedoms and so in closing, it's been the

honor of a lifetime to serve these last eight years. I've had some opportunities the last six years to be in leadership which allows me to have a larger voice and input at the table about what happens in our state and therefore what happens in Senate District twenty nine. I think those opportunities are ahead of me for these next four years and appreciate your vote. On June eighteen. Danielsokasenate dot com, Facebook, Senator Julie Daniels message bing or you can text or

call me at nine one eight three three one seven two sixty seven. Thank you, kwo In, Thank you Bartlesville. Thank you Senate District twenty nine. Thank you very much, Senator Julie Daniels. Once again, folks say you can catch all of our podcasts from all of our candidates on our website at Bartlesville Radio dot com. It's called the campaign Corner. It's enter the demand tab, so if you want to go there. And also a reminder

that we have early voting on Thursday and Friday upstairs fourth floor. Saturday as well, shortened time. I believe it's eight to two and that's upstairs two on the fourth floor as well. Again, thank you Senator Daniels for being our guest here tonight. Folks, you are watching and listening to our forum

for our twenty twenty four primary. It's right here at City Hall in Bartlesville, and it's being brought to you by Phillip sixty six and Susie use Vitage Mall on AM fourteen hundred KWN Bartlesville, FM ninety three point three K one Bartlesville and also at ninety five point one kW and Paul Husk as well as K one TV dot com. We'll be back with more after these words on K one the one you trust. Joe Riddle for Susie Q's Vintage Mall.

I've been a collector of my whole life, and if you ever went to the Tulsa Flea Market on a Saturday morning at the fairground, You're gonna love. Susie Cues Vintage Mall just east of the radio station at two twenty five South Commanchee with booths filled with homemade items, arts, craft, wood, jewelry, home decor, antiques, and collectible susie Ces Vintage Mall, a small mall with large variety just southeast from the radio station at two twenty five

South Command Gee susie Qs Vitage Mall. Attention Bartlesville. As residents of the hometown of Phillips sixty six, you can receive up to fifteen cents off per gallon of fuel by downloading the Phillip sixty six Fuel Forward app all year in twenty twenty four. So download now save up to fifteen cents per gallon all year in twenty twenty four. Download on your smartphone wherever you download apps and use your Phillip sixty six fuel Forward app at any ASAP general stores. Those

were the days. A little risk never scared us. Dands, tight clans loose He'd cruise down drags with our favorite bands. You bought good times with loose quarters and every night standing dates with the same friends. My life was simpler back then. We hustled, we bumped, you bus stopped, and we smoked all the time. If that was you, then get your lungs screened now visit screen your lungs dot org. Today it's been a quiet day

across bunch of southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma. We're looking for quiet weather again tonight. One more night of pleasant weather. Temperatures dropping down to the low sixties. Great start to get you going out the door on your Wednesday Wednesday afternoon party. Sunny. Unfortunately getting a lot warmer. Some call it hot hides me around ninety. We're being a load to mid nineties Thursday and Friday, and mid nineties for the weekend. HID index values around one hundred.

So summer's making a big surge into the area. With all the clouds and showers staying down in Texas, from the Bob Mills Weather Center. I'm News on sixteen as meteorologist Travis Meyer. I'm back to Barmarial City Hall. I'm Tom Davis and this is our June twenty twenty four primary forum and it's being brought to you by Phillips sixty six and Susiccu's Vintage Mall. It is now time for our state representatives to take to the stand here today for our forum

and this is for District to ten. And first off, we want to hear from our candidates. Are opening, Stevens, Chad McCarthy, you won the drum. Let's hear from you. Introduce yourself. Thank you. It's a privilege to be here today. Quick introduction. I've been married for twenty eight years. My wife Heather, and my son may be here. My youngest son, So married for twenty years, father to six children. We currently live on a farm outside of Dewey, Oklahoma. Most of my life

has been spending Christian ministry, church planting, doing missionary work. During that time, I also built half a dozen businesses in order to support us during Christian ministry, built and sold, so I've got some quite a bit of business experience. I have an earned Masters and PhD. I'm currently an interim pastor Whipperwell in Osh County, and so I just want to be clear where I'm coming from my biblical worldview. I clearly unequivocally confess the Creator's right to

guide our lives. I'm a conservative by conviction and as such, and as such let me reflect on the Oklahoma GOP platform. As Republicans, we believe our rights of life, liberty, and property are natural rights granted to us by God, protected by the Constitution, to be defended by our elected officials, even during a declared emergency. We believe that God is the author and creator of life, and that all human life, both born and in the

womb, should be protected. We believe that economic freedom is the cornerstone of individual liberty. The private sector and free market principles are the best means to stimulate economic development, not government programs. It is the right of every parent to act in their children's best interests, including the health decisions and choosing the form of education, whether at private or public schools, or education by other

means. By this of conviction, I would say representing you as a representative in host District Keen is not about fixing potholes, economic development, or service not primarily that is the job of the free market or the county commissioners. As we heard from earlier, We're not a socialist or a top down government. We are a constitutional republic, and so therefore supporting and protecting your rights as citizens will be my primary responsibility if elected. Now, the Republican Party

requires the candidate support the GOP platform. In order to receive GOP support. I have read and marked that platform. I have a copy with me today. It's spread out in front of me. I've marked and read up the platform. You will hear me cite section and page number this evening. This platform represents the belief that we as Republicans hold dear. The platform truly does represent conservative biblical values, and I will proudly stand with the OK GOP platform,

and we'll fight to protect, to protect and defend these values. On your behalf. Thank you very much, John Trump. Yes, sir, turned for opening remarks. Thank you. I have to apologize. I'm somewhere between a sneeze and a cough going here. I am Judge Strom. I have I live right now where I came, just about a mile from where I came home from the hospital too. So I've spent my entire life in District ten. I went to Bowery School, I went to Okenhma State University.

My family and everyone I've growing up with, we're very service oriented. We're very community oriented. I tell people, you know, my dad's been the president of the Bowering School Board for forty five years. My grandpa helped build the water district. My dad and my family we help build the rural fire Department up there and we've served on it. I've actually been a firefighter for thirty years. I was a certified firefighter before I had a driver's license.

And that's really what stemmed one of my directors to move me towards Wood government then was we were having trouble out in the rural areas as so much a District ten was getting what we needed to help those communities. The rural fire departments, the rural water departments. A lot of those came apart as federal government programs, and when those went away at the state level, we didn't have the help we needed, and so that's where I went in.

One of the things I say is I appreciate people that live on a platform I also have kind of a little different platform that I exist on. But one of the reasons I ran I ran against a guy that was a great man. He was a family man, he was a loving man, he was a very intelligent man. He come from a great family and everything. But his entire philosophy for governance came from a platform that I didn't think aligned

with the majority or the overwhelming majority of the people of District ten. Kind of an alternate idea to my opponent, I suppose, was that we did want good roads, we did want good bridges, we did want good schools. We were tired of being a left behind to the big cities. We wanted those opportunities out here. And I wanted to see what I could do. I wanted to go to work at the state level to see what I

could do to help my community. And in the six years I've been in this position, I have spent four of those years in leadership, and I'm very proud of the job we've done and the resources we've brought back to District ten and the job we've been able to do. And a lot of that has been even relinquishing some of that power from the state and giving that back to the counties, given that back to the cities, bringing that back to local control, which is a big party platform thing. So I'm proud of

that job. I appreciate and I'm proud of the six years I've served. I'm honored to have served the people for six great years, and I would like to serve for two more at least. Our first question goes to Dudstrom water conservation, water protection and even perhaps finding new sources of water, big issue in our part of Oklahoma as it grows. From the position of state representative, what can you do to pact our interest in these efforts and what

can be done in your position proactively. I think in the last two years, three years especially, we have been very proactive. You know, I have a great friend that's represented from lot and I used to send them snapchats of all the water fallen off in the watershed lakes and said, this is what we do with our extra water. Well that come back and bit me. In the last few years as we did face droughts, we worked very hard with the Okamororo Water Board or the Water Resources Board to get the things

we need to keep the water going. But we've we've worked since then to look to the future, and you have to have a plan, you have to do studies, you have to know what we need to do when that comes around again. We've looked at raising the levels on the lakes that we do have where our water sources are. We've looked at pipelines that run to other lakes and water sources. We've looked you creating new lakes for water sources.

I don't know if you'd say it's lucky or not, but Martlesville was built with the water source that was adequate and we haven't grown much past that. But that's in good years. When you have years like we had the last two years or three years when we were in the worst drought that we've ever faced, not only were our lakes down, but our aquifers were down, our ponds were down, with led to problems with livestock and livestock watering,

and we hit that head on. We created the Drought Commission. We came in and I think that my district or District ten, really got the most help from that commission that any other district did. We drilled wells, we cleaned out ponds, we cleaned out waterways, and Luckily, we got about twenty five inches of rain over the next winter and springtime. So what we have to do now is we have to make sure that we have alternatives

that allow for that to never happen again. The situation we were in last year, and we have worked on that problem for three years and we will continue to work on that problem. Same question, do you, mister McCarthy, what conservation would water and protection and perhaps even finding new sources of water big issues of course here in Oklahoma. But from the position of state representative, what can you do to protect our interest in these efforts? And what

could be done from your position proactively? So as I've been knocking doors and speaking with county commissioners around District ten, one of the comments that's come up in a number of situations has been the inefficiencies of our water lines. And I don't remember exactly which part of Noada County, but there are areas of Noada County where, in order to save money, water lines were put in.

My wife can tell you. At our home we have a motto and then, which is do it right the first time and just do it once. And in order to save money, they used water lines that were not appropriate for rocky ground, and now not long after the water lines have been

put in, they're losing upwards of fifty percent of the water. It's catastrophic for the people of Noada County, especially in areas where they're where they don't have as much revenue coming in. So on practical, you know, practically speaking, we can address issues such as water loss if necessary, try and find funding to put new water lines in and see if we can be efficient. In addition to as representatives strong mentioned, look at issues such as raising

water levels and on the lakes. So all right, mister McCarthy, this question is for you. House Build forty three to twenty seven. It's a bill that effectively ended surgical abortion in Oklahoma. Where do you stand on that? Well, I appreciate you raising that question. On page two of the ok GOP platform, it says this. It says, we believe that children are a special gift from God and their safety and protection are paramount. We

have a responsibility to protect children. Elsewhere we read that on page three. Page three, number three says we believe that intentional abortion is a contrary to the word of God and its murder. The incumbent voted again against HB forty three twenty seven, a bill which would have which would have effectively ended surgical abortion. I stand, I stand against all forms of abortion. Abortion is murder and we should have nothing to do with it, period. Mister Strong,

same question to you. House Bill forty three twenty seven, a bill that effectively ended surgical abortion in Oklahoma. Where do you stand on that? Well, I voted against it. I'll tell you why. When Roverts's Way felt and we knew that was coming, Oklahoma immediately reverted back to a nineteen ten bill that made giving or providing an abortion of felony and made it illegal in the state of Oklahoma. That happened as soon as Rob Versus Wave felt.

We've had several options in my six years. I voted every year, it seems, on some bill, and I voted for every bill that limit or ind abortions everything that's come up. But the problem I had with House Bill forty three twenty seven was that civil and criminal line that got crossed in our criminal justice system or our legal system in most of the United States, and certainly in Oklahoma, you offend the state, you affect your neighbor.

So if you offend the state, you're guilty of a misdemeanor, a felony. You're punished. You affect your neighbor, which is civil law. You back over the fence, you owe me twelve hundred dollars, you run into my car, you owe me something. But we don't cross that line to say you did something that I'm offended by. I consue you, and it has to go to court. A judge would throw that out. So if that doesn't affect you, so with I didn't believe that it was going to

actually end abortion. I did believe it was also probably unconstitutional because of discussions we had where every other person in the House of Representatives said, well, we can't possibly vote against that. That's an abortion bill. You can't do that. I said, I can, And it's because I'm not up here to stand on to be a show voter or show people at home what I

can do. I'm I'm p here to do real work. And I think that while this has a great title, it has a great name, it's very popular, I think it will do more damage to our legal system than it would do good. And I really I didn't think even then I was right. It came back in both sides of it were found to be unconstitutional and then therefore unenforceable. So there's a fine out there, there's a not a fine out there. There's a punishment out there that's not really attached to

any other law. And so again when roversus Well fed Roe versus Way fell, we reverted back to a nineteen ten bill that made it a felony to provide an abortion in the state of Oklahoma. Next question is to you, mister Strump, do you agree or disagree with using taxpayer dollars for economic development instead of allowing the free market to function. You are absolutely right that I

agree with taxpayer funding to create businesses or to help to create jobs. But the problem that has to be is it has to be a strategic and it has to be a good investment. We can look at those we can look at the path and see what failed or what worked. Sometimes we need a boost. And I'll tell you this, if we want to bring big businesses in that have great jobs, that have high wages, that keep our kids that have grown up here and gone to school here in Oklahoma, we have

to try to help that come along. We can move along slowly and hope the market works. But maybe the market works in Oklahoma City, but it doesn't work in Tulsa. Maybe it works in Tulsa, but it doesn't work in Bartlesville. And we don't do what we used to do, which is just write you a check and hope that you come here and do a good job. Right now, what we do in Oklahoma's we have a quality jobs

program. You have to prove that you have created a certain number of jobs ad or above the regional pay and keep those jobs for a certain time, for a certain amount of time, and then we will reward you back. But in the end, we actually become the winners, not only because we keep our kids here in Oklahoma and bring great people in here that are highway

journers, but we set ourselves up for the long term. Kind of the business begets business idea that comes about everything brings the feeder businesusiness is in. So I think if we can use that money to strategically invest it, and then the return on our investment is, you know, more jobs, more taxpayers. We'll have the opportunity in the future to have more taxpayers paying fewer taxes. And I think just almost everyone in this room would appreciate that same

question. Do you, mister McCarthy, do you agree or do you disagree with using taxpayer dollars for economic development instead of allowing the free market to function. That's an excellent question. Again. I'm going to refer to the Oklahoma GOP platform, and I want to be clear, You're gonna hear me over and over tonight refer to the platform. It's because I believe the platform represents

the values of the Oklahoma Republicans and states. We believe that Oklahoma's efforts to attract industry should be grounded upon the establishment of favorable and friendly economic climate rather than upon tax and government subsidy. I'm running on a platform of taking no lobbyist money for the simple fact that lobbyists by politicians, and this creates a doom loop. The encumbent supported HB forty four fifty five, which gave a

whopping six hundred and ninety eight million dollars to an unnamed corporation. Is this is systemic corruption. It's legal, it's legal corruption, but it's systemic corruption. Whereby our legislatures make special laws. Now, how do they get around this? They make special laws by not naming the corporation, but they make it so narrow that only one corporation can meet can meet those qualifications. These special laws then result in donations, and this is how a large majority of

our politicians get elected. It's corrupt. We shouldn't do it. It's forbidden, it's forbidden by the constitution, and it's against the platform. The free market is the best solution. Our next question involves money again, and this goes to humanster McCarthy. Now that the state has quote billions in savings, should the taxpayers be entitled to some sort of refund. That's an excellent question. But two and a half years ago, the Biden administration passed a one

trillion dollar infrastructure bill. This infrastructure bill is pretty amazing, and there are hundreds of millions of dollars, if my memory is correct, that were allotted to the building of electric charger stations. Two years into this process, how many charging stations were built? I think the I think the number was zero. Now we're two and a half years into it, I think it's seven hundreds, hundreds of millions of dollars and we have seven charging stations. Governments

are corrupt because of the lobbyist. The lobbyist tie with politicians. But at the end of the day, Sorry, can you repeat the question. Now that the state has billions in savings, bions of dollars, should the taxpayers be entitled to some sort of refund? Sorry got off track. We need to produce spending because COVID Sorry I didn't answer that. Well, COVID has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money coming to coming to the

state. That's going to come to an end. Combined with Social Security hitting a wall in twenty thirty to thirty three, our budgets can to radically change. We need to change how we spend money. Same question to you, mister Strom. The state now has billions and savings, should the taxpayers be entitled to some sort of refund? Absolutely, We've worked on that. Now we need to look at it. And again I keep using the same word, but I think it's how a lot of us down there think now we

need to do strategically and carefully. This last year, they passed the largest tax cut in the history of the state of Oklahoma. And I'm gonna be really honest with you that I didn't like it. And voted against it. I voted for thirteen other tax cuts. But the problem was they said it was going to be a three hundred million dollar tax cut when they took your

sales tax off of your groceries. The problem with that was the very no definition meant that only about ten percent of the food that you bought was considered groceries. So when they were telling you you were going to make three hundred dollars a year back, according to the Oklahoma Grocery Association, you were going

to get thirty dollars a year back. But I was there to vote on the bill that fixed it, that come back and made the definition food and food ingredients, so more of your grocery card you would save taxes on. Now, the problem that we have is or something that I'm cautious about, is something that opponent brought up, which is a lot of monopoly money's been dropped in this state over the last four or five years since COVID, billions

of dollars. Those were all went to shovel ready jobs. Those put people to work, that brought an income tax, and in twenty twenty five and into twenty twenty six, that money's all going away. So we need to be careful because I don't want to put this state back into a position where they were in twenty eighteen, where we were a billion dollars in the hole

and scratching for what we could cut and get rid of. I think that in the six years I've been there, we've worked to provide the services that people expected and the services that people want, and so I don't want to cut that back. I want to make it more effective and more efficient. But when it comes to tax cuts or getting a refund back, there are so many different options that you could do. I mean, I don't We've

looked at writing a check bick back to people. In the time that I have been there, we have cut income tax, we've cut franchise tax, we've cut a marriage penalty tax, and now we've cut the grocery tax. So we are looking at that and saying we are ahead. And I think people do want to pay lesson taxes, and I'm willing to work on that.

Mister Stroud, what is your stance on school choice. I've been very firm, and I'm one of those that kind of stands out I think in the Capitol, in my party, in the District ten, there are sixteen rural public school districts. I have no private schools. I think I do have thirty four kids that go to private schools. But every dollar we send on private schools leaves my district. And I don't think the overwhelming majority of

people want to see dollars leaving their district for education. They want those dollars spent right here in District ten. And So, while I love private schools, and I live right next door to some wonderful private schools that we have here in Bartlesville, I love homeschool I know a lot of I mean some of my family and some of my best friends, and some people that are

here I think do a wonderful job at homeschools. But I think that we should keep government dollars out of private schools and out of homeschools, because as soon as you start to spend tax payer dollars on those entities, you become accountable to the Oklahoma tax payer, and year after year, election after election, and rule making or lawmaking year after lawmaking year. We have said that we want to test our kids. We have said that we want four levels

of math. We've said we want four levels of science. We've said we want so much English. We have made those rules because that is what taxpayers wanted. I don't think people that have their kids in private school or people that are teaching their kids at home want the government or the taxpayers telling them how to educate their kids. And so as far as the scholarships for private schools or the money going into homeschools, I think we should keep public dollars

in public schools. All right, same question to you, mister McCarthy, what is your stance on school choice? Again, I'm going to refer to the Oklahoma platforms you GOPEP platform. It's the right of every parent to act in their child's best interest, including health decisions, choosing the form of education, whether at a private or public school, or education by their means. It seems to me that the concern for most Oklahomas comes down to the issue

of government intervention, money and government intervention. On page eight, page eight point four, the Oklahoma platform says this, we oppose government expansion and control by the use of public tax to fund and interfere with private forms of education.

If I'm elected, one of my primary responsibilities will be to protect your rights as citizens of Oklahoma, I'm firmly convinced by conviction that the government should not interfere with private education the incumbent the incumbents supported, I believe he authored bill HB thirty five to eighty five, which if it had passed, it did not it would have interfered with parntal rights. And so I stand with the people of Oklahoma and the platform that government should not interfere with private forms

of education, whether public or private. Our next question goes to you, mister McCarthy. The state of Louisiana's passing vaccine status related protection legislation? Would you support something like this and if a pandemic were to occur again, would you vote to require masks in public buildings? So? Can you? Can you read that once more? Yes, this came in from a little so I'm trying my best otor statu as well. Louisiana is passing a vaccine status

related protection legislation. Would you support something like this? And if a pandemic were to occur again, would you vote to require masks in public buildings? I would unequivocally stand against masks in public buildings. We had this question last night at the Washington County Forum. The incumbent was surprised to learn that many people have been fired from the hospital here in town, one of them which was my wife. Yes, my wife was fired for not taking an untested

gene therapy. In hindsight, I'm so thankful that she did not. As a nurse who works in labor and delivery delivery, she can tell you. She could talk to you for an hour about the terrible health issues anecdotally. She's not a research scientist, but anecdotally that she's seeing as a nurse with twenty I don't know, almost thirty years of nursing history, I'm going to stand against vaccine mandates without reservation. It is the role of government to protect

individual rights against business overreach, not the other way around. Same question to you, mister Stroump. Louisiana is passing a vaccine status related protection central legislation. Would you support something like this? And if a pandemic were to ever occur again, such as COVID nineteen, would you vote to require masks in public buildings vaccine status related legislation? It sounds for me like Louisiana is trying

to be more like the state of Oklahoma. We have a great system here in the state of Oklahoma for the people, for our workers, for the you know, our kids at school, when you go out in public, we have exemptions that are in place the kids can have, that people can have for the most part. One thing I will say again is when the pandemic came the last time, there were no state laws made, There were

no state mass mandates made. We didn't. I think I was the second person in the capitol down there with another colleague, and we said, it's very important that we don't destroy what we have for one thing, the whole past, the future, and a lot of what you saw during COVID in the state of Oklahoma came down to a money deal. The same as our hospital. We didn't say you have to do this. What happened was the CMS rules from the federal government said if you don't do this, you don't

get money. Well, our hospital would have closed down if they didn't follow those rules. And I worked through the pandemic from my kitchen table, which was after we got kicked out of the capitol, and I worked every day with the hospital. I was in touch with people every day, and we heard all the stories about people getting fired from Jane Phillips and Bartlesville. But every day people told me, we haven't fired anybody because they didn't take a

vaccine. We've tried to move people, we switched schedules, we've moved people working from home, and every day that's what they reported to me. So that's what I stand by. And you know, we don't know what's coming in the future. We've got to be able to be on the ball and move depending on what needs to happen. But again, I think Oklahoma did a great job. We came out of the pandemic better than anybody else. We come out with a stronger economy than anybody else. We went back to

work faster than anybody else. And a lot of what you saw were your big businesses that were holding on. But I'll remind you that any rules we made wouldn't have just been for the big companies. They would have been for the other the ninety nine percent of our companies, which are small businesses, and there's three hundred and fifty thousand of them, and they didn't want rules imposed on them by the state, and we didn't make any so they were

allowed to do what they wanted. During the pandemic, and I respect that. Our question now is to you, mister Strom, would you support something that's called track and tax if it comes up for a boat in the next latest slative session. You know, one of my favorite things to come out of the Capitol when you get home and you hear things that are just described in terrible ways track and tax, you know, And I've heard that I support track and tax, and I want to track every mile that you drive,

and I want to know where your car's at. And it's some more Wayian thing that I'm trying to do. I'll be straight with you right now. Your roads and bridges are paid for with gas tack and a diesel tax. Their nineteen cents of gallon for gasoline and nineteen cents of gallon for diesel. And that's how we pay for our roads and bridges. But in twenty twenty one, thirty percent of the new cars that come into the state of

Oklahoma where electric or high hybrid. They're not paying their share. By twenty fifty, the gas standards are forty nine miles per gallon or better for passenger vehicles is what they have to be. So what's gonna happen in fifty years, it's gonna get more expensive to build our roads and we're going to be

taking in less revenue to build our roads and bridges. So right now, the state of Oklahoma said, we need to be thinking about what are we gonna do in twenty thirty five, What are we gonna do in twenty forty, What are we gonna do by the time we get to twenty fifty. And I think it's important that maybe we do a study. We did. It was the Roads or the Drive Study or whatever they come up with, weird acronyms at the Capitol all the time. It started in twenty two,

it ended in twenty twenty three, and there was a full report. You can see it on the see it on the internet at the dot dot website. And I think it was a smart thing to do. Do I want to be tracked? Absolutely not. Do most of my friends and family want to be tracked. I don't believe so. But I also don't want to be the guy out here in my fourteen mileigallon truck that are paying for everyone else's roads and bridges that are be driven by heavier electric cars. More electric

cars. You know, if we're going to look into hydrogen. We're also gonna have to figure out how do we look into hydrogen or is there a different battery technology we're gonna have to do. I think it was very smart to do that study now, because in the future we're gonna have to make decisions, and I don't want to make decisions in a dumb way. I want the facts. I want to know what's up. We didn't have info from anywhere else, so we went out and found those facts ourselves. I'm

proud of the study. I'm glad we did it, and I'm glad we'll be able to meet that problem head on when it gets here to you, mister McCarthy, would you support so called track and tax if it comes up for a vote in the next legislative session. I would not. I think it's important to look at the world and society in which we live, both globally and here in side of the United States. The World Economic Forum is

discussing or making statements that we'll own nothing and be happy. They are actively talking about desiring to get rid of all private ownership of vehicles here in the United States. Locally, we have multiple states that are introducing legislation that would begin as a voluntary program that once it's passed. We're now seeing in other states a move to make these same types of legislation move from a voluntary to a mandatory law. Other states have talked about putting in a flat rate per

day with respect to how many miles that are driven. As a business owner, I've owned multiple businesses, I've started multiple businesses. I can tell you this idea, this idea that politicians think we're going to be mostly electric cars by twenty fifty is a pipe dream. All you have to do is look at our electric rid. We don't have the electric grid. You only have to look at silver to realize that we don't produce enough silver to make the

connections in electric vehicles. We could go on and on, look at rare earth minerals. Who owns the earth minerals China does. We are an oil based state. We ought to pursue energy independence. We should celebrate the fact that we have such God given abundance of resources and find better solutions while we can know to track and tax. More importantly, let's protect all of our rights, not just the right to travel. All righty, it's time now

for closing comments we'll start off with mister Judd Trump. Thanks sir. I think the most important thing I said that I said earlier, which is I've absolutely been honored to serve you for the last six years. I love my community, I love my neighbors, my families all here, my friends are all here, and I think we've worked. I've had the opportunity to work really for them every year, single day. And when I say every single

day, I'm not kidding. In this job, your phone starts ringing about six thirty in the morning and it quits about eleven eleven thirty, and then it just buzzes and you kind of ignored a little bit. But it's all day. It's every day, and I've loved the opportunity to do it. There's not one moment that I've regretted doing it. I have served in leadership

for four years and I'll continue in that position. I am the chair of General Government on a budget committee, and I've had the opportunity to really, I think, move this state forward in a better way. We've seen this state and the time that I've been in office, go from having a billion dollars shortfall to hav an over four and a half billion dollars in savings. I've had the opportunity in that to vote for over four point seven billion dollars

worth of tax cuts. We've had the opportunity to make strategic investments in our education. Since I've been there. We've given over one point two billion dollars

to our public schools and improve those. I just I'm proud of the work that I've been able to do when I was down there, and every time I thought, you know, it'd be a lot easier just to come home to the most beautiful place in the world, you know, look after my black cows and go a little wild or relax a little more, or something like that, I think I can't because I don't trust anyone to do the

job that I've done when I was down there. I've just I really appreciate all the people that I've had the opportunity to serve that Like I said, they really they call and they text, and they email, and they and they write and they come in and every day. I think it's just been an honor to be able to work for them, and I would appreciate the opportunity to continue to do that. I think we're on a great path for the first time in many years, I said, since the nineteen hundreds the

other day, and it really made me feel old. We've turned this state around as far as brain drain. Brain drain is your kids that you spend twenty years educating and then they pick up and leave the state. If they want to be successful, if they want to be happy, they think they have to go somewhere else. I said, when I was running, it was important to me that I wanted you to be able to get a good job and have a good life here. I wanted your kids to have a

good job life here. I didn't want their kids to ever wanted to leave. I wanted to be able to find it right here. And I think strategic investments we've made in workforce development and education, in science and technology and aeronautics and even terism have really moved this state forward. And I'm proud to have been a part of that. And I just I don't see yet that I'm ready to give up that opportunity to keep helping because there are a lot

of great people in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. Don't tell the Senator I said that, but they're really doing great things, and I'm proud to be a part of it. And I would appreciate your opportunity and your support on June eighteenth to give me the opportunity to continue what we're doing. Thank you and your closing statement, mister McCarthy, it's been a privilege to sit across from the incumbent both last night and this evening. One thing

I appreciate about and coming Strom is as honesty. So often politicians are duplicitous, They say one thing and they do another. I feel that Stram has been very honest, and I appreciate that. One thing that he has pointed out, and I'll remind you is we are presenting two different perspectives. I do come from a biblical worldview. I do clearly. I do clearly confess

without any shame or reservation, the Creator's right to guide our life. So when you've seen me reference the Oklahoma GOP platform over and over both yesterday evening, if you were there, and this evening, it's because I believe, I truly believe as a matter of conviction, not the not the politics solves everything, but I believe its a matter of conviction that standing up for the rights of life liberty and property, the belief that these are natural rights granted

by God. I believe these are worth protecting. I believe that family rights, parents rights. I think these are more important than than than than government interventionism. I think that we should be a bottom up country, where a constitutional republic. And I believe that the primary responsibility of an elected official is to protect the rights of the citizens, and if elected, this will be

my primary responsibility. I unashamedly stand on the Republican platform. I'd like to remind you that the Republican platform, specifically the Oklahoma Republican platform, this isn't something that I wrote. This is something that you wrote. We the people of Oklahoma, we got together as Republicans, and these are the values that together we decided. These are the values that matter to us. And I appreciate Stromp's honesty. He's told you yesterday, he told you again today.

I They're not his values, at least not consistently. I stand on the platform, and i'd like to defend your rights. Given the opportunity to elect you that if you would elect me to be your representative, appreciate your vote on June eighteenth. Thank you, Thank you both candidates. You've been watching and listing our District ten form and I want to think of both of our participants tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for being here

at the Bartlesville City Chambers. Pretty much a full house, maybe one or two vacant seats, that's okay. We have plenty of watchers on our K one TV, also on Radio one A fourteen hundred FM, ninety three point three and ninety five point one. We want to thank our sponsors, Phillip sixty six and Susie Q's Vintage Mall. We also want to remind everyone that we do have our campaign Corner page. You can review all kinds of interviews

with our candidates in this forum. Will also be a podcast form on the page on our website at Bartlesviielle Radio dot com. We do have our early voting coming up on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, fourth floor upstairs, and also our traditional election day which will be on Tuesday at the eighteenth. Once again, thank you all for coming, thank you all for watching, thank you all for listening. Make sure you vote. Make sure you tell your

friends to vote, because sometimes they forget. How could they? Thank you? Once again, You've been wonderful. Attention Bartlesville. As residents of the hometown of Phillips sixty six, you can receive up to fifteen cents off per gallon of fuel by downloading the Phillip sixty six Fuel Forward app all year in twenty twenty four. So download now, save up to fifteen cents per gallon

all year in twenty twenty four. Download on your smartphone wherever you download apps, and you is your Phillip sixty six Fuel Forward app at any ASAP general stores