Who will succeed Greg Treat as Senate President Pro Tempore? That question seemed to be answered until the senator in line to move into the position lost in the primary.
TRANSCRIPT
Dick Pryor: This is Capitol Insider - taking you inside politics, policy and government in Oklahoma. I'm Dick Pryor with Quorum Call publisher Shawn Ashley, and our guest is Dr. Christine Pappas, chair and professor of political science and legal studies in the Department of Politics, Law and Society at East Central University. Dr. Pappas, thanks for joining us.
Dr. Christine Pappas: Thanks for having me.
Shawn Ashley: Dr. Pappas, you are a resident of Senate District 13, where Senate Pro Tem-designate Greg McCortney lost the Republican primary election to challenger Jonathan Wingard. You had a front row seat to that race as a constituent and a political scientist. What happened?
Dr. Christine Pappas: Well, it's interesting to say a front row seat. I'd say it was a pretty quiet campaign. Sometimes these House and Senate races can be. And the fact that Senator McCortney had just been elected Senate Pro Tem really underscored the importance of this race. In Ada, Pontotoc County, where I am there were definitely lots and lots of Wingard signs. There were Wingard mailers that went out to almost every house in the whole county, and I can't really speak to the other counties. As a member of the Sunrise Rotary, we also had a debate of the candidates, and we had Greg McCortney and Jonathan Wingard come and about 35 people came and listened to the two candidates, and it just kind of seemed like a regular old campaign where you expect the incumbent to win with 65%, 70% of the vote. And it was just quite shocking to see the outcome, which had Wingard narrowly beating McCortney. In fact, McCortney won no counties. There was a tie in McLain County, but McCortney didn't even win Pontotoc. And I think anyone who was watching this race would have expected that he could easily win Pontotoc County.
Shawn Ashley: The legislature met after Memorial Day, which it normally doesn't do in election years. Do you think that had an impact on McCortney's loss? Perhaps he wasn't in the district enough?
Dr. Christine Pappas: Well, you know, I think back to, you know, he ran for the first time in ‘16 and, you know, and he was a challenger at that point. So, there's a little bit more campaigning but I think back to ‘20 and there had been very little campaigning, very little retail politics, the door-to-door kind of stuff, and so it didn't seem that unusual that he maybe had been spending a lot of time doing leadership activities in Oklahoma City and not in the district. I think he assumed that he had a great reputation and that was going to carry him through. I did hear people talking about Wingard enthusiastically, and I didn't really hear anybody talking about McCortney but it just seemed so inconceivable that he would lose. So that didn't seem that unusual to me.
Dick Pryor: Looking at the implications of the race on a bigger scale, do you think that race tells us anything about the direction this election year may be going for races around the state?
Dr. Christine Pappas: I think it could. I think, I think what we're seeing is the competition between more moderate Republicans and more Stitt related or further right Republicans. And I think that's what this race came down to. Where McCortney, like, he did take positions that were more moderate. And that doesn't mean that, like overall, they were moderate positions but in comparison to some of the challengers like Jonathan Wingard they did turn out to be a little bit more moderate. So, if McCortney had won, I think he would have been more of a Greg Treat-type Senate Pro Tem - more of a stumbling block for the governor and the governor's agenda. And I think when, when we see moderate candidates like McCortney lose it's going to open the door to more people that’ll enable the governor to pursue his agenda. So, I do think that there was a lot of dark money that came into the districts. I heard that there was up to three million dollars that have been spent to support Wingard. So, if we're going to see that kind of money and that kind of influence in the election, then it is possible that candidates who aren't spending a lot may end up on the losing end.
Dick Pryor: In Oklahoma, a lot of incumbents win reelection without opposition because nobody files to run against them. More than half the legislative seats are already settled. What does that tell you about the political environment in the state?
Dr. Christine Pappas: Well, I've long looked at those seats that run unopposed, and I just, I can't believe that there's no one who could even just put their name out there to get on the line of the ballot. So, I think every single seat needs to be contested. I'd like to see multiple candidates in each party, you know, so that we have very competitive elections. But historically, Oklahoma has just not been a state that supports competitive elections. We have very low voter turnout, and that just leads to few candidates, little interest in the politics. People don't feel like they should have a say or they do have a say in politics. And that just leads to a lot of these open seats. In this particular race, there's no Democrat that signed up to run. So now, Wingard has now become the elected senator from District 13.
Dick Pryor: Dr. Christine Pappas, thanks for being with us.
Dr. Christine Pappas: You're very welcome.
Dick Pryor: For more information, go to quorumcall.online. You can find audio and transcripts at kgou.org and look for Capitol Insider where you get podcasts. Until next time, with Shawn Ashley, I'm Dick Pryor.
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