Claremore Daily Progress

Our View

March 5, 2010

Political miscellany

Bailey Dabney Publisher

CLAREMORE — “Congress is so strange…a man gets up to speak and says nothing…nobody listens…and then everybody disagrees.”

— Will Rogers



Boren looking strong

Today, Dan Boren looks nearly invincible in District 2 serving Rogers County along with 20 other counties north, south and east of us. 

Public Policy Polling, a national group out of North Carolina, found that while District 2 has a 70 percent disapproval rate for the Democrats in Congress, Boren,  a Democrat, enjoys a 51 percent approval rate in his district.  They dislike his colleagues. 

The only sign of Boren vulnerability the polls show is that 31 percent of his district thinks he is too liberal. 

His Republican challengers have little or no name recognition yet.  Howard Houchen, R-Hugo, and Daniel Edmonds R-Henryetta, polled best head-to head among the Republican challengers, but neither of them has more than 21 percent name recognition at this point.  Houchen has visited Claremore a couple of times in the last few weeks.

Boren has stepped up with vocal party leadership. He called for fellow Democrat Rep. Charlie Rangel to step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee (which he did), and publically declared that he would never sign on to a health care bill that wasn’t stronger in its prevention of federal funds being used for abortion.

Statewide toll-free calling plan

Did you know there is a movement afoot to make in-state long distance calls free?  The devil may be in the details.  The Corporation Commission projects a $38.23 charge per assessable phone line per year to cover the costs. 

That charge, as the language reads for this proposal would even charge for numbers who already have free long distance.  The measure would require legislative approval. 

The Corporation Commissions’ comment period ends on March 15.  By the end of March, supporters will submit this phone surcharge plan to the legislature. 

In tough financial times, this seems like an odd use of time and resources.  Supporters of this idea have been hard to locate.

State House District 9

Who is running for the House District 9 seat that Tad Jones will vacate? 

Eric Cullen (D) formally announced his candidacy in October.  Marty Quinn (R) has quietly raised a healthy campaign war chest but has not formally announced his candidacy. 

The winner of this race will have their face in the pages of the Claremore Progress at least weekly for the next two years.  It is tough to replace a congressional representative like Tad Jones, who has been acquiring political capital for Claremore and Rogers County in Oklahoma City for nearly 12 years. 

One of these two people is likely to replace him, so expect to get to know them both pretty well in the next few months.

• Bailey Dabney is publisher of the Claremore Daily Progresss.

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