House Speaker @charles_mccall3 sent an editorial to rural papers across the state yesterday.

In it he says the Senate “carelessly amended” and “butchered educational choices for parents.” He also says “the Senate attacked rural public schools.” #OkLeg

facebook.com/27501305604319… Full editorial includes a break down of the funding disparities for Public Schools between the Senate and House plan.

#OKPol As of this morning 38,003 people have returned their absentee by mail ballot:

Rep. 17,962
Dem. 16,077
Ind. 3,862
Lib. 102 In Oklahoma County 11,600 people have returned their absentee by mail ballot:

Rep. 5,043
Dem. 5,197
Ind. 1,336
Lib. 24

#OKPol As of this morning 34,730 people have returned their absentee by mail ballot:

Rep. 16,437
Dem. 14,699
Ind. 3,497
Lib. 97 Oklahoma County 10,395 people have returned their absentee by mail ballot:

Rep. 4,490
Dem. 4,685
Ind. 1,198
Lib. 22

The #OKGov debate is about to start. I will be live tweeting it below

Also, there is an open bar here tonight so any misspellings or grammatical errors can be attributed to that Stitt touts the state's saving account in his opening and expresses his support for tax cuts and says "Biden's party wants to raise taxes."

I'm at the @okstatechamber Open Senate seat debate. In attendance is Dahm, Holland, Pruitt and Shannon Q1: What is the solution to inflation besides criticizing Biden? What would pass the Senate and avoid a filibuster?

Sen Pro Tem Greg Treat: “What the House passed today cannot become law and I’m shocked the Governor doesn’t realize that.”

Calls the bills “political theater” so the members can go home and put it on mailers. Treat said the Governor got “hoodwinked” by the House passing bills that are nothing more then “political shenanigans.”

”Gov cheerleaded what the House did without even knowing what they did.”

Lots of IE’s ramping up their spending ahead of the June primary

Oklahoma Conservative Alliance dropped $377k in support of TW Shannon American Jobs and Growth PAC dropping $21k in support of Avery Frix

H/t to @CATargetBot for the graphics

On Tuesday I spoke with Sen. James Lankford about the Uvalde shooting and whether he would support stricter gun laws. I specifically pressed him on constitutional carry which both Texas and Oklahoma have and whether he would support repealing that in wake of Uvalde.

His answer was:"I don't because I've not seen a dramatic increase in crime based on the Constitutional Carry over the past years."

The first House Special Investigative committee into Swadley’s and tourism has begun Chairman Ryan Martinez is not happy: “LOFT has fully complied with their subpoena, OMES has not fully complied. Director Steven Harpe is not here, evidently he is on vacation.”

Says that from here on out he needs full compliance with the committee by the deadline.

The debate has started:

@NathanDahm said that he sees what the Democrats are doing to America is the same thing that happened in Romania where he grew up. Said he wants to prevent the "liberal Marxists" from turning America into a communist country like Romania was. @LukeHollandOK: said the left is trying to kick God out of everything and he wants to keep the federal government out of everything so "Oklahomans can thrive"

The US Dept of Ed released this report on Oklahoma’s use of GEER funds and here are some of the key parts:

First, the federal review found that “the Governor put the GEER funds at potential risk for fraud, waste and abuse.”

documentcloud.org/documents/2167… Second: The report states that "The Department notes concerns about the lack of transparency and documentation related to the allocation of GEER funds" saying there appeared to be "no formalized, documented process for entities to receive the GEER funds"

Stitt gave families $8 Million for school supplies in the pandemic; They bought Christmas trees, gaming consoles and hundreds of TVs

readfrontier.org/stories/stitt-… On Friday after weeks of asking for about this deal the state released a demand letter they sent to ClassWallet that blames them for the non-education purchases. But, that isn’t fully the case. Before he was a state official, Ryan Walters told CW not to limit the items.

THREAD of Some intense things in this termination letter including: Swadley’s is responsible for all unemployment claims and any other costs that come from the termination of their contract…

documentcloud.org/documents/2174… No Foggy Bottom employee is allowed on the premises unaccompanied and unsupervised