OKPOLICY.ORG
During the lull in legislative action in “crossover” week last week, a bit of politics filled the void. Crossover week is the week after floor deadlines during which House bills that remain alive officially move to the Senate, and Senate bills move to the House. Next week, the committee process will begin, aimed at hearing bills in committee so they can be considered for floor action.
Bills that have passed through one or two committees still must pass muster with the leadership before they can get a floor vote and move to the governor’s desk or back to the original chamber if they have been amended.
The floor team reviews the bills coming out of committee and decides whether to give the bill a floor hearing. The floor leader then either puts the bill on the floor agenda or doesn’t, which has the effect of killing the bill. Killing bills at that level can cause friction with the authors who usually didn’t introduce the bill just to see it get killed by a leadership decision.
In the Senate, President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, added two new members to the Majority Floor Team that screens bills for floor consideration. The two new floor team members are Sen. Brent Howard, R-Altus, and Sen. Jerry Alvord, R-Wilson.
I don’t know the back story, but the Pro Tempore would likely not have added new members to his floor team at this stage unless it was to satisfy some element or elements in the Republican caucus. It’s no secret the Senate is closely divided between farther right Senators and those closer to the center ideologically. The friction could have come with one or the other of the factions or both.
Added to the political equation, the Republican runoff election to fill the vacant Senate District 8 seat replacing former Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, was held last Tuesday, and the candidate said to be the more conservative, Bryan Logan, won with an 11-point margin. He still faces a general election next month, but the district seems destined to remain Republican. This could figure into the balance between the factions in the Senate.
In other elections last week, Amanda Clinton, in a strong showing, swept the field of four candidates to win the Democratic nomination in the downtown Tulsa and Sand Springs District 71, replacing Amanda Swope, D-Tulsa, without a runoff. She will face a general election, but that district is expected to remain Democratic. In District 74 that covers the Owasso area, Sheila Vancuren and Kevin Norwood came out of a five-way Republican primary to face each other in a May runoff.
Next week the legislative process will return in earnest pointed toward committee and floor deadlines to set the stage for end-of-session wrangling over budget and other issues to meet the May 30 constitutional deadline for sine die adjournment.
