Sunday, July 11, 2010

Randy Brogdon: Mary Fallin A 'Political diva...hiding behind the skirts of Sarah Palin and Jan Brewer'

Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brogdon increased his criticism of opponent Mary Fallin today, issuing a statement in which he called the congresswoman "a political diva" who is "hiding behind the skirts of Sarah Palin and Jan Brewer."

Brogon's heightened attack on Fallin follows a Rasmussen Reports poll which relegated him to a "not even mentioned" status and pitted Fallin against potential Democrat foes Jari Askins and Drew Edmondson.

Brogdon, who has drawn fire for a television commercial critical of Fallin, said his criticism won't stop until Fallin agrees to meet him in debate:

No doubt Rep Fallin would prefer that nobody offer criticism of her performance during her 20 years in politics. That way the elections would be little more than a formality on her way to a coronation. However, if I didn't have criticism of Rep. Fallin's job performance, I wouldn't have bothered to run.

Our TV ad is accurate, it is fair and it provides the voters information that they deserve to hear before casting their ballot. The premise of the ad is that Rep. Fallin too often compromises core values in the name of political expediency.

Rep. Fallin has spoken of the need to compromise, and work in a bipartisan way. She has chaired bi-partisan committees, and some of that is good. Our ad points to three instances where those compromises were very bad.

· Rep. Fallin voted for the trillion dollar Wall Street bailout, I would not have.

· Rep. Fallin has accepted well over $100,000 from the investment, banking and real estate industries who benefited from her vote for the trillion dollar bailout. I would have neither bailed them out, nor would I accept money from the beneficiaries of such a controversial vote.

· She has requested tens of millions in earmarks, even after she said she would not.

The facts don't seem to be in question. The objection of the Fallin campaign seems to be "how dare I." they call the ad misleading and mudslinging. It is neither; it is in fact the truth, the hard truth perhaps.

Nonetheless, it's a truth Mary Fallin has been avoiding like the plague since this campaign began. It's why she arrives at events late and leaves early, so she doesn't have to answer questions about her bailout vote, or finesse her earmark requests.

She avoids most candidate forums, and wants questions submitted in advance, and she has never responded to any question I have asked of her. She appears completely unwilling to join me in anything resembling a debate, with tough questions, posed by professional journalists, and respond to one another's questions, a free flowing exchange.

I would have preferred to bring these issues up to Rep. Fallin herself, and would have, had she joined me in a proper forum. I am genuinely interested to hear her answers. Her actual answer to the question, not this childish finger wagging of a political diva who feels she is above criticism. I want to hear the earnest response of the dignified woman who wants to be the next Governor of our state.

Rep. Fallin appears to lack the confidence that her beliefs will stand up to critical examination. Or, perhaps she lacks conviction in her beliefs. A lack of conviction would explain why Mary Fallin has so often compromised our Oklahoma values.

If Rep. Fallin will agree to three debates in these last two weeks, one in Tulsa, one in Enid and one in Oklahoma City, with undisclosed questions and where we can ask one another questions. I will take down the Compromise ad, and I will not broadcast any more critical ads. I will save them for the debates, where Rep. Fallin can respond directly to my criticism.

So Mary, stop seeing how many words you can use and still say nothing, stop acting like you are owed the Governor's mansion, and stop hiding behind the skirts of Sarah Palin and Jan Brewer and let the people of Oklahoma hear what you believe.

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