OKLAHOMA CITY — When voters booted a dozen Oklahoma Republican legislators from office in the primary, the common thinking was that educators angry about classroom funding were behind the ousters.
But there were forces at work beyond just agitated teachers.
A top GOP House leader actively participated in a plan to take down several hardline members of his own caucus, a move that went far beyond what former President Ronald Reagan once called the 11th Commandment: never to speak ill of a fellow Republican.
“They’ve gotten rid of us troublemakers who were holding the Republican principle line,” said Rep. George Faught, a 10-year Muskogee Republican targeted with a mailer that featured him with a long Pinocchio nose.
In Oklahoma, Republicans have been steamrolling Democrats in elections for a decade, racking up super majorities in both legislative chambers and laying claim to the entire congressional delegation and every statewide elected office.
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As a result, much of the state’s political wrangling takes place within the GOP, evident earlier this year when hardline conservatives like Faught in the state House thwarted GOP leadership’s plan for tax hikes to help fund teacher pay increases.
With a teacher walkout looming, Republican House leaders were forced to broker a compromise with Democrats to get the necessary votes, further exacerbating the rift within the GOP. Several anti-tax conservatives even joined an effort to roll back the tax hike that ultimately fell short.
But the last straw came when some of the Republican hardliners called publicly for more conservative challengers to run for office, said Rep. Chris Kannady, a House floor leader and chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee who acknowledged helping launch the attack on his own colleagues.
“All I did was have conversations with people and set things in motion to say that this situation has to be addressed. We cannot let members of our own caucus actively be against the rest of us because we disagree on policy decisions,” said Kannady, R-Oklahoma City.
“Sometimes you have to take leadership whenever it might be uncomfortable to do so, especially once we were provoked, and start having conversations with stakeholders in the community.”
Kannady declined to name individuals with whom he met but said there was a broad coalition interested in taking out the caucus’ more conservative members, a group that referred to itself as the “Platform Caucus.”
“You can name any sector in the community, and I can tell you every one was frustrated,” Kannady said. “That’s indicative of the amount of money that was infused into the process.”
Kannady said he acted separately from House leaders and did not discuss his plans with his colleagues.
Campaign finance records show Kannady gave $500 to Tulsa Republican Jeff Boatman, who was running against state Rep. Scott McEachin, and $2,000 to Stan May, a Broken Arrow Republican running against Rep. Mike Ritze.
Both Ritze and McEachin were defeated, along with six other GOP incumbents who had voted against leadership’s plan to raise taxes on cigarettes, motor fuel and oil and gas production to help fund a pay raise for teachers.
Ritze was a five-term incumbent best known for his anti-immigration rhetoric and personally financing a Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol.
A dark-money federal super PAC based in Virginia spent nearly $750,000 launching a parallel attack against several of the same Republicans. The Conservative Alliance PAC targeted several House Republicans with mailers, radio ads and other attack ads.
Republican consultant Trebor Worthen, whose clients include House Speaker Charles McCall, acknowledged doing some campaign work for the super PAC against GOP incumbents. But Worthen said he didn’t know who was behind the attacks.
“Look, the way the campaign finance rules are, we may never know that,” Worthen said bluntly.
Worthen said the hardliners who were targeted in GOP primaries made a lot of enemies by opposing efforts by business and political leaders to pass the tax hike to help fund teacher raises.
“There’s widespread dissatisfaction with that element of the Legislature,” Worthen said.
“My guess is it was a whole bunch of people from the more mainstream, pro-business type of element that said: ‘We need to get together and get rid of some of these people.’ ”