On March 25, the Oklahoma House Subcommittee on General Government (part of the Committee on Budget and Appropriations) passed SB 76 by 5-1. This is the bill that doubles candidate filing fees. The new fees will be: legislature $400; Governor $3,000; U.S. Senate $2,000; U.S. House $1,500; other statewide state executive office $1,000. The bill had already passed the State Senate. Thanks to E. Zachary Knight for this news.
I am really frustrated that after a one hour discussion on this bill that my Representative, who is a member of this subcommittee, ignored every point I raised and voted for this bill.
Why? It’s a good bill, even if the fees are too low. They should actually equal the annual salary of the office being run for times the number of years a winning candidate will hold it. If that was the case, then we could be sure that the only people elected in Oklahoma are either on the take or independently wealthy and telling others what to do out of the goodness of their hearts, sort of like the current Mayor of New York City.
Oklahoma already has some of the toughest ballot access laws in the nation, so why not make it even more difficult to get on the ballot in Oklahoma? Way to go Oklahoma legislators! Maybe they should just cut to the chase next time and do away with elections all together and declare themselves as dictators for life.