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Oklahoma Primary 2014: BatesLine ballot card

Here are the candidates I'm recommending and voting for (when I can) in the Oklahoma primary elections on June 24, 2014. (This entry will change as I decide to add more detail or discuss additional races between now and election day. The entry is post-dated to keep it at...

Posted by Michael Bates on June 24, 2014 6:53 PM

Dewey Bartlett Jr: "As Mayor, I rely on The Weather Channel..."

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett Jr. was quoted in a web advertisement for The Weather Channel, part of the cable network's pushback in its battle against DirecTV's decision to replace the channel with WeatherNation on its satellite lineup. KJRH meteorologist George Flickinger posted a screenshot the ad on his Facebook page....

Posted by Michael Bates on January 14, 2014 10:46 PM

Voting for image, not understanding

There's a thought-provoking story from last week's local elections in Houston: An elderly, white, conservative man won a non-partisan race for a six-year-term on the board of Houston Community College, defeating a four-term African-American incumbent in a heavily African-American district. The victorious candidate, Dave Wilson, used stock photos of African-Americans...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 10, 2013 5:27 PM

Dewey Bartlett Jr: Republican for Kathy Taylor

I'll be on 1170 KFAQ Wednesday morning at 7 with Pat Campbell to talk about mayoral candidate and former Tulsa mayor Kathy Taylor's record during her term from April 2006 to December 2009.* Taylor is claiming to have "cut wasteful spending," but in fact the general fund budget under her...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 12, 2013 10:59 PM

Future of Journalism Summit

This weekend I was invited to Providence, Rhode Island for the Future of Journalism Summit, sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. Heritage is a well established national policy think-tank, while the Franklin Center is only about three years old, founded in response...

Posted by Michael Bates on June 10, 2012 3:23 PM

Inhofe calls for criminal investigation of Climategate

On Tuesday, U. S. Sen. Jim Inhofe called for a Department of Justice investigation into possible scientific misconduct and criminal actions by scientists involved in misleading or fraudulent research into anthropogenic global warming (AGW). Over the last several months, key assertions by AGW advocates have been exposed as lacking sound...

Posted by Michael Bates on February 24, 2010 10:30 PM

Will Tulsa's next mayor push liberal policies?

A mailer today from the Dewey Bartlett Jr campaign points out Tom Adelson's contributions to liberal Democratic candidates and causes. Adelson was an early and maximum contributor to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, gave $20,000 to the 2008 "victory fund" (money given to the Democratic Party to promote voter registration and...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 28, 2009 11:30 PM

Comprehensive plan or commie plot?

This week in Urban Tulsa Weekly, I address some of the concerns raised by members of OK-SAFE (Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free Enterprise) about PLANiTULSA, the process for developing Tulsa's first comprehensive plan in more than 30 years, and New Urbanism in a column with the title, "Comprehensive Plan or...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 17, 2008 3:57 PM

Her honor, the Boss

This week in UTW, I'm writing about Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor's vanished campaign promises and her failure to deliver on one of them in particular: a more collaborative relationship with the City Council. Her refusal to keep them in the loop about the hiring of an interim and a permanent...

Posted by Michael Bates on May 25, 2007 11:39 PM