LaFortune endorsed by Oklahoma Eagle, Marvin Blades

| | Comments (3)

Today's edition of the Oklahoma Eagle features an editorial endorsement of Bill LaFortune. The column begins by lamenting the absence of McCorkell and Medlock from the general election ballot:

Both McCorkell and Medlock responded to a strong call in Tulsa to buck prevailing notions on moving the City forward; both spoke to the anger that many Tulsans have felt lately about the power of a tiny, highly unadventurous political-social elite in town and the growing influence of developers and their allies at City Hall. The race is decidedly impoverished owing to the departure of McCorkell and Medlock; both were "outside of the box" candidates who might have taken Tulsa in fascinating and new directions.

The editorial cites five challenges that face the next mayor: the council packing plan, the state of Tulsa Public Schools, community policing, growing the economy from within, and rethinking the organization of city departments. This section is interesting in its own right, raising some important issues that haven't received much attention in this campaign.

The Eagle praises LaFortune for the North Tulsa Vision 2025 projects, the North Peoria TIF district (anchored by the Pine and Peoria Albertson's), starting to restructure Tulsa's policing practices and policies, and starting to address substandard housing. (On the last two points, the editorial board says, "we note that these efforts would have benefitted greatly from a vastly better strategy for involving North side activists and from a thoroughgoing rethinking of community development in Tulsa and the role, makeup and mission of the Tulsa Development Authority.")

About Taylor, the Eagle writes:

While we appreciate the sincerity and energy that Kathy Taylor, the Democratic nominee, brings to the race, we must note her sketchy appreciation of the North Tulsa challenge and the task actually needed to manage a city with growing diversity. Talk of her being "Tulsa's CEO" is uninformative; would she be an inventive and imaginative CEO or a calculating and inaccessible number one? We also find that her over all experience in government is thin; she might, as we noted in our last editorial on this matter, make a good Mayor in a time of less challenge for Tulsa. She is not now the best choice for a City with several grand challenges; challenges that will require real experience and a wealth of hard earned insight into all of Tulsa's communities and the creaky, if still vital machinery, at Tulsa City Hall.

On the front page is a column by Marvin Blades, a 28-year veteran of the Tulsa Police Department and an officer of the Tulsa Black Officers Coalition, Inc., who explains his reasons for voting for LaFortune over Taylor. In a nutshell, he believes Taylor will be beholden to the current TPD leadership and won't address problems in the force. (Blades makes an interesting assertion: over 70% of FOP members live outside the City of Tulsa, while 85% of the Tulsa Black Officers Coalition members live in Tulsa, and less than 10% of the Coalition members are also FOP members.)

3 Comments

susan said:

Or would Kathy Taylor "a fairly new resident" be vacationing in her other home as Mayor of "Tulsa" be in Florida since her husband still considers himself a Florida resident and is registered as a Florida voter.

Bixby also has questions that need to be answered in their next City Council race. They want citizens to vote "yes" but I heard $300 will be added to property taxes if your home is $100,000, $600 a month if your home is $200,000
and Bixby also has homes $400,000 and above which would raise their property taxes significantly if the new "yes" vote is passed on all issues.
They have pushed "yes" for the good of Bixby
however they did not push how much the "yes" vote
will actually cost the homeowners.

Kathy has minor government experience. Landing the job she had given to her as a big democratic donor when she had previously lived in Florida --
and only kept that job for about a small amount of time -- Tulsa World newspaper editor Ken Neal is
biased and Tulsa World news reporting has been poor on
LaFortune.

If

susan said:

Mayor LaFortune is Pro-Life.

"On March 18, 2006, T.W. news carried an associated
press story about six women who have recently died following chemical abortions. Four of the women who died received pills at Planned Parenthood-affiliated clinics"

Is Kathy Taylor for funding of Abortion groups?
As Mayor, she will have influence and it would be good if the T.W. would get a direct quote from her -- yes or no answer. Is Kathy Taylor for funding Abortion
groups in Tulsa if she were elected Mayor of Tulsa?


Jim said:

What Blades didn't mention is that the majority of black officers are not members of his "coalition". It's funny how he left that part out or the fact that the President of the BOC (Busby) is in the same paper endorsing Kathy Taylor.

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Michael Bates published on March 31, 2006 12:12 AM.

Our options for mayor was the previous entry in this blog.

What was that last name again? is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact

Feeds

Subscribe to feed Subscribe to this blog's feed:
Atom
RSS
[What is this?]