|
 |
Thursday, July 27, 2006 WSJ Points Out Henry's Weaknesses From the Wall Street Journal's Political Diary
The importance of beating Henry
Rep. Ernest Istook survived being portrayed as a Washington porker by a comedian who made pig noises in a TV commercial and won yesterday's GOP primary for the Oklahoma governorship. The pig jokes were courtesy of his primary rival, Tulsa oil millionaire Bob Sullivan, who combed Mr. Istook's Congressional record looking for pork buried in bills that Mr. Istook voted for in his long career (Mr. Istook served seven terms). The Congressman may look back on such indignities fondly in the next round. The primary outcome was never in doubt: Mr. Istook had the name recognition and won with 56% of the vote. He also undoubtedly attracted a certain number of votes out of simple respect for his decision to give up a supremely safe House seat in order to challenge a sitting governor, Democrat Brad Henry, who may be nigh unbeatable.
Step one in improving these odds is appropriating some of his late opponent's campaign themes. Despite an oil boom and popular tax cut that have given the incumbent Democrat a 75% approval rating, the GOP upstart Mr. Sullivan insisted during the primary that Oklahoma was still "going sideways in 46th place. We've done that for 99 years." Mr. Sullivan offered several sensible ideas for modernizing the state, including a taxpayer bill of rights to control spending (Mr. Istook said he wanted to study the idea). He's also been a leading supporter of the national "65% solution" movement, a mandate that at least 65% of school funding should go to the classroom rather than overhead. Mr. Sullivan also proposed gradually eliminating Oklahoma's state income tax as a way to attract new businesses and keep more wealth inside the state.
These are all good ideas that Mr. Istook is now free to adopt. He also could make up some ground by attacking Mr. Henry's excessive reliance on the expansion of lottery and casino gambling. Not only are the sin industries unpopular with Oklahoma's many social conservatives, but they represent exactly the kind of unproductive, faux "development" you'd expect from a state setting itself up to "go sideways" for another century.
-- Holman W. Jenkins Jr.
Posted at 7/27/2006 01:49:00 PM  
|
|
|
 |
