The governor’race is really starting to pick up steam in Oklahoma. So far we have had Mary Fallin (R), RJ Harris (D) and Joe Dorman (D) announce their campaigns. However, new candidates have not stopped announcing their intent. Over Christmas, Randy Brogdon, former State Senator and primary challenger for the Republican nomination for Governor in 2010, has announced his plans to run for governor against Mary Fallin again in 2014.
This week, I am filing the necessary paperwork to challenge Mary Fallin for the Republican nomination for Governor of Oklahoma. In the coming months, I will be making my case to Republican primary voters why I believe Constitutional Conservative leadership is needed in the Governor’s office.
His announcement comes under the ideals that government has gotten too big and violates our liberties.
Government is too big and too powerful and we all know it. It spends too much, borrows too much, taxes too much, regulates too much and snoops too much. We are in the fight of our lives for liberty, and I feel morally obligated to lead that fight on behalf of Oklahoma families.
My promise as governor is to protect Oklahoma families from the overreach of federal and state government and to restore your God given unalienable rights of life, liberty and property.
At this time it is unclear how that translates to electoral freedom, particularly that of ballot access reform. There were no Ballot Access Reform bills put to a vote while Brogdon was in the State Senate and thus no vote history for him. He does not currently have any position statements on his campaign site. Yet, if he wants to be consistent with the idea that government regulates too much and wants to restore liberty to the people, then he should support ballot access reform.
After further research on the topic of Brogdon’s position on Ballot Access Reform, I found some evidence that I overlooked. While no ballot access bills came to a vote while Brogdon was in office, he did sponsor a bill, SB 28, in 2007 that would have reduced the current 5% requirement to a flat 5,000 signatures to form a new party. The bill also reduced the current 10% vote test for party retention to 1%. Additionally, Brogdon was the Senate author of HB1072 in 2009. This bill was considerably weaker than his 2007 bill as it only reduced the number of signatures need to 3% of the last Gubernatorial election and left untouched the 10% vote test. The sponsorship of the strong reform bill, SB28, even though it did not get a vote in either house, puts Brogdon up as a top candidate for ballot access reform.
We have contacted his campaign about this issue and will post again if we get a response.
