Scoring points with constituents

STATE Sen. Kenneth Corn insists his decision to camp outside the Capitol this week wasn’t a political stunt. Of course it wasn’t. Apparently the senator just likes to camp. Why not on the plush grounds at NE 23 and Lincoln?

Please. Truth be told, just about everything that goes on at the Capitol is a stunt of one sort or another. Posturing has been elevated to an art form by many legislators. Corn, D-Poteau, and fellow Democratic Sen. Tom Ivester of Elk City, who joined in the campout, are just the latest examples.

They did it (surprise!) to score points with constituents, particularly older Oklahomans. The lawmakers were protesting the Department of Human Services’ decision to cut $7.4 million from senior nutrition programs, a move made by DHS after its budget was trimmed due to falling state revenue.

Sen. Mike Johnson, R-Kingfisher, rightly noted that Republicans and Democrats approved the DHS budget, and that Democrats knew cutting the senior nutrition programs is an executive agency decision. Johnson also wondered where Democrats were six years ago when tough budget times resulted in cuts to DHS.

"I didn’t see any of them pitching a tent and rolling out sleeping bags to show their concern for the elderly” at that time, he said. Why? Because Democrats held the majority then. It’s much easier to throw stones — or in this case, camp out — when you’re not the party in charge.

When it pours, it drains. Oklahoma’s constitutional Rainy Day Fund is almost sure to be drained in coming months to meet a fiscal emergency. For the first time, Gov. Brad Henry this week signaled that the state may not be able to wait until the regular legislative session in February to begin tapping the fund. That’s a shame because a special session itself would drain money from state coffers. Nationally the economic skies are starting to clear, but rain clouds are massing over Oklahoma. Until a global rebound gets under way and energy prices start to rise, the state revenue picture will be muddied. Henry is under enormous pressure from interest groups affected by budget cuts. Calling for a special session would relieve some of that pressure; ultimately, though, the reserve fund can absorb only so much of the current economic woes.

Tulsa’s partisan mayor’s race is not only vitriolic but costly. Democratic nominee Tom Adelson has raised nearly $1.3 million in his quest to lead a midsized city in a job that pays $105,000. That’s chump change for Adelson, a state senator and attorney who’s so wealthy he could afford to loan his own campaign $850,000. The Tulsa World reports that Adelson has spent nearly $700,000 on radio and television ads, dwarfing the expenditures of his Republican opponent, Dewey Bartlett Jr. Adelson, Bartlett and independent Mark Perkins are on Tuesday’s ballot to succeed Mayor Kathy Taylor, who contributed to Adelson’s campaign (her husband gave a like amount to Bartlett). By contrast, Oklahoma City’s nonpartisan mayoral races attract little attention and little money because the city manager here, not the mayor, does the heavy lifting.

We know Madeleine Albright is a Democrat. Turns out she’s also a democrat. Writing for Sunday’s issue of Parade magazine, Albright, the former Clinton administration secretary of state, salutes the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a glowing defense of democracy over despotism. We hope President Obama absorbs Albright’s message and stops marginalizing the ability of democratic forms of government to create stability and prosperity. People are never too poor or uneducated to participate in democratic elections. Albright quotes Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen: "Democracy is not a luxury that can await the arrival of general prosperity.” Obama has already won his Nobel. A man who didn’t — but should have — is Ronald Reagan, who was very much responsible for getting that Berlin Wall torn down 20 years ago come Monday.

We tired late in George W. Bush’s administration of hearing how much foreigners disliked America. Barack Obama’s overseas mea culpas upon succeeding Bush played to that theme. To be sure, there are those who can’t stand our ways (read: freedoms), but our sense is that the United States remains a beacon to the world and a source of admiration. Air Force Gen. Roger Brady gets a sense of that in his role as commander of U.S. air forces in Europe. "The blood of a lot of Americans is in the soil of Europe and the Europeans have not forgotten that,” Brady told our Bryan Painter this week. "So regardless of what politics may or may not be from one nation to another, people receive us very gladly.”

That footfall you may be hearing a year or so from now is the sound of the other shoe dropping on state revenues. It’s not common knowledge, but State Legislatures magazine says tax collections not only fall during a recession but continue dropping after the recession ends and "often end up falling further than the rest of the economy.” The current downturn is the longest since the Great Depression, but this recession is believed to have officially ended. Yet the budget woes facing state governments may not bottom out until long after the return of positive growth in the gross domestic product. Tax collections never precisely align with GDP growth or decline. State revenues continued to fall dramatically after a recession that began in 2001 had ended.

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