Tulsa's Mayoral Soap Opera

The primary is less than a week away and things just continue to heat up next door.

We've been particular impressed with Democratic candidate Don McCorkell's ability to entertain the electorate with bits of trivia on various opponents, particular the stuff on fellow Dem Kathy Taylor.

Seems records show that Mrs. Taylor voted in the 2000 presidential election in both Florida and Oklahoma. At least it's a dead certainty she voted in Florida, and she admits as much. But she testily glides around the issue of whether she voted in Tulsa. "Why would I do that?" is her basic defense. Election officials can't supply the original signed ledgers because, for storage reasons, they are destroyed after two years, but they can say that a mistake is about a 1% possibility.

Which would mean that there is a reasonably paltry, slim chance that Mrs. Taylor is telling us the truth as she issues her non-denial denials.

But Michael Bates shouts, "Whoa!" as he trots out the best evidence yet that would take that 1% and shrink it to something like "snowball's chance in Hades." We recommend reading the whole post because it's entertaining, as he fisks Taylor's denials and frisks the records for the truth.

The short version (for you lazy folks) is that there were four Taylors listed in her precinct in 2000, and ALL OF THEM are credited with voting. That means it is highly unlikely that an election worker attributed to Kathy Taylor another Taylor's vote. Michael has a better explanation of why.

There will be no charges in connection with this because the whole point of the elections is moot, the one piece of evidence no longer exists, and no one is that interested anyway. Taylor is Democrat, and if she voted for Al Gore twice, then she's a double loser. Why make her feel worse? Oh, yeah. She's running for mayor of Tulsa. That's a good enough reason for Mr. McCorkell, the recently clean-shaven one, who may or may not have been responsible for ...

... a recent article in Tulsa's daily dinosaur speculating on an improper relationship between candidate Randi Miller and a Tulsa city official. This newspaper offers itself online to subscribers only, and is mighty darn finicky about fair-use quotes (and links), going so far as to try to take BatesLine to court a year back. Bates, in discussing the newspaper's sliming of Miller, thinks she may have been subject to pressure to keep the matter secret.

The other public policy concern is blackmail. An official with something to hide might make a decision or avoid a decision in order to pacify someone who has an interest in city policy and information about the official that could be damaging. An official fearing for her reputation will have a hard time being bold in the face of harsh opposition.

Miller was pretty tough when she first came on the Council in 2000, and she was willing to buck the Mayor and the city establishment when it mattered, but over time she seemed to become more interested in going along to get along. Lately there's been a fearfulness about her.

Interesting take, and sad if true.

Gonna be a real interesting set of primary elections next week, that's for sure. Almost glad we live in BA and don't have to pick a horse to ride in this one.

UPDATE -- MeeCiteeWurker wonders why Don McCorkell's linkage to the failed Great Plains Airlines has yet to come up in the campaign season. With this prodding, we took a look back ourselves at some of BatesLine's posts on the matter. The most relevant one is HERE. If we read it correctly, McCorkell was hip-deep as an investor and an adviser. Since the issue is far from settled, the propriety of McCorkell sitting on the Tulsa city council seems questionable.