Red Dirt Report - Dorman Talks Top Campaign Issues During Recent "Birthday Bash"

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By Andrew Griffin

This week, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joe Dorman spoke to Red Dirt Report during a birthday bash at the Farmer's Market, celebrating the Rush Springs native's 44th birthday.

Our first question was why Gov. Mary Fallin, the Republican incumbent, only agreed to one debate, when Dorman has offered to debate her a half-dozen times in all corners of the Sooner State.

"I feel the governor's afraid to debate me," Dorman said, over the sounds of Derek Paul and the Handsome Devils, one of the bands at his bash. "She's afraid to stand up and defend the issues she's championed over the past four years. She's been very unpopular when it comes to the positions she's flip-flopped on -- and there's multiple issues -- and I don't think she wants to be held accountable for them."

Dorman fired off a list of issues related to education that Fallin has "flip-flopped" on, including the third-grade high-stakes tests and Common Core.

"I've been opposed to (Common Core) since Day 1," he said. "I didn't feel that it truly measured the standards appropriately. We did not have the funds in place to cover the costs that came with that demand, and it truly does not provide sufficient standards when it comes to students with learning disorders. It's a one-size-fits-all package and it does not do a good job on providing the right standards for our students. I think we can develop better standards at the state level. And the commission that I proposed, I think, will do a much better job."

We then asked about the Justice Reinvestment Initiative that she supported and then pushed away.

"JRI is another flip-flop. She signed it into law and then it was documented in the newspaper how the private prison industry executives met with her and then she changed her opinions on that. It's simply unacceptable because that bill would have provided opportunities -- 85 percent of people of the people in Oklahoma, in jails, in prisons, are locked up for drug or alcohol abuses. They need treatment. They need alternative forms of sentencing. We must do a better job. We simply cannot keep locking Oklahomans up. The highest incarceration rate for women, the third-highest rate for men ... it's simply unacceptable."

Dorman addressed how Oklahoma is "at the bottom of the barrel" for nursing-home standards and education reform.

"We must do better to provide better opportunities for our kids and protections for our seniors to make sure the Oklahoma quality of life is top-notch. Mary Fallin, over the last four years, has failed to do that. We need someone at the Capitol who is in touch with the real needs of the Oklahoma citizens that will deliver on those promises."

Dorman said he is putting an emphasis in his campaign, on the need for Medicaid expansion.

"We need to make certain that Oklahomans have the right quality of life. With Medicaid expansion we're going to see people covered, there will be less dependence on the emergency room, hospitals will be saved, many, many dollars, jobs will be protected. Frank Keating was the last governor that implemented Medicaid expansion, so it is certainly not a liberal program. When we trade off Medicaid expansion from what we have with Insure Oklahoma, the businesses that were paying 25 percent of the cost to cover employees insurance will now save that money. It is a business friendly program."

Dorman brought up the fear factor Fallin is facing.

"I think she's afraid to delve into the issues and she's afraid of appearing to support federal healthcare programs, but then she turned and applied for a $3 million grant under the Affordable Care Act, so there's one more flip-flop where she's been going down paths," he said.

Rural Oklahomans, he said, want someone to "champion their fight for adequate pay." The Department of Corrections, Dorman noted, is at 53 percent staffing levels and the employees there are in unsafe conditions every day."

If Dorman is elected, he said he would be the first Oklahoman who actually lives in western Oklahoma.

"We need to have someone who will not forget those people who live outside a certain circumference of the State Capitol building," he said. "We've got to have someone who will fight the fight for those Oklahomans who are living paycheck to paycheck and live in all four corners and all points in between."

Joe Dorman will debate Mary Fallin in Stillwater at Oklahoma State University on October 2, 2014. It will be broadcast on OETA public television.

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