Many of you remember Oklahoma's 2004 Senate race that pitted then congressman Brad Carson against Tom Coburn. It was an open Republican seat that the DCCC heavily targeted. To top everything off, we had ourselves an outstanding candidate in 2nd district congressman, Brad Carson. Or so we though.
Carson, although a good man, looked too weak next to Coburn's agressive and ostensibly anti-establishment rhetoric. Carson tried to triangulate his way to the Senate and consequently only received 42% of the vote.
Carson's failures, however, has reinvigorated the state party to take down Coburn's ultra right wing twin, Jim Inhofe. Unlike 2004, we have a candidate who isn't afraid of straight talk and the word triangulate most certainly is not in Andrwe Rice's vocabulary.
From His Websites' Issues Page
Tax Policy – Andrew Rice is a "competence-in-government Democrat". His record on taxes shows he will work to ensure that American taxpayers are getting their money’s worth from their federal government. Oklahomans know that in today’s world, you get what you pay for. Rice believes that government’s basic functions like national defense, law enforcement, disaster relief and recovery, infrastructure, education and health care for the poor must be well funded and efficiently managed.
and he continues that
According to the Tax Foundation, Oklahoma already imposes the lowest tax burden on its residents among the 50 states. The state also ranks among the bottom five states in public education investments and, according to The Commonwealth Fund, is 49th among the states for its citizens’ access to health care.
For an Oklahoma politican, that is unusually blunt language about taxes. But as Andrew points out, Oklahomans are smart enough to know that "you get what you pay for." The bipartisan anti-tax rhetoric that invests both Democrats and Republicans in this state exists out of the false notion that the public will overwhelmingly oppose any tax increases.
Ironically, the anti-tax rhetoric in Oklahoma politics projects an allure of populism. The big bad government, as they say, will just sit on your tax dollars building bridges to nowhere and other obscene pet projects. Few politicans have the courage to talk real populism and demand that the state government has enough money to fix Oklahoma's endless list of social ills.
Andrew Rice, however, does. A draduate of Harvard divinity school who spent much of the late nineties in some of Asia's most impoverished corners, Rice is a solidier for social justice. Easily one of Oklahoma's most progressive state senators (along with Tulsans Tom Adelson and Judy Eason McIntyre and Constance Johnson of Oklahoma City), Rice demonstrates an incredibly important ability to remain a loyal, progressive Democrat while also working in bipartisan manner.
Rice's proud progressive platform along with his vast experiences of assisting the less fortunate make him Carson's polar opposite. I have never been more excited about a statewide candidate here in Oklahoma and I can't wait to help out as much as possible.