FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 7, 2011

Republican Leadership Showing Cracks While Trying to Force Legislation Through.

Today, Leadership in the House Republican Caucus failed. In their attempt to strong arm members to vote for an emergency clause for House Bill 2139.

HB2139, which strips the State Board of Education of powers and gives Superintendent Janet Barresi control of 35 percent of the budget, passed in session last week. Immediately after, the vote on the emergency date for the bill failed. The emergency needs two-thirds of the vote or 68 votes. It received only 60 votes. The emergency votes intend to immediately implement the law after Gov. Fallin’s signature. Without the passage of an emergency clause, the law cannot go into effect until 90 days after the 2011 session ends.

Instead of accepting this outcome, Republican leadership asked for the emergency to be reconsidered today.  Over the weekend, Fallin, Barresi and House Speaker Kris Steele, R-Shawnee, attempted to go to their 70-member caucus and strong-arm some members into voting for the emergency.

Today, once the voting on the emergency was opened, it looked as if the vote was going to fail again. Before the speaker could close the vote, a member of the House Republican Leadership asked for a Call to House, a procedural motion which was granted to force House members not in attendance to come to the Chamber for the vote. This motion is virtually unheard of for an emergency clause vote. The vote was held open for an hour when the measure still lost, 63-33, with five Republicans refusing to come to chamber for the vote and who were believed to have left the Capitol premises to avoid the call. The 31 Democrats all voted against the emergency.

“For an emergency measure to get three different votes and fail each time shows the cracks in the Republican caucus,” Megan Dubray, Director of Communications for the Oklahoma Democratic Party, said. “Today was a pivotal moment is showing the weaknesses within the House Republican leadership, and I predict the caucus will continue to crack as the session continues. The Governor, Superintendent and Speaker of the House were all trying to convince members to change their vote and failed to do so. With such an extreme majority, Republicans failure to secure this vote after political strong-arming is indicative of the factions within the party. Democrats will continue to fight against legislation that hurts working Oklahomans and will work with any legislators who are also willing to champion the same causes.”

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