OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - With Republican supermajorities in the Oklahoma House and Senate and a GOP governor, it’s easy to think Democrats in the Legislature have been marginalized.
With 29 Democrats in the 101-member and now just eight senators in the 48-member Senate, there aren’t enough Democratic votes to pass a bill or sustain a veto without help from Republicans.
But House Minority Leader Scott Inman still believes the 29 members of his caucus can be relevant, especially when it comes to politically difficult issues like criminal justice reform and funding to complete the unfinished Native American museum in Oklahoma City that may divide the GOP caucus.
“The way you remain relevant at 29 (members) is when you find ways, and it happens five or 10 times throughout the year, especially with a House Republican caucus that fractures, to come in and either work with a small and vocal minority to defeat legislation or work with a small and vocal minority to pass legislation,” said Inman, D-Del City, who has been the Democratic leader since 2010.
Republican leaders have said increasing funding for common education, overhauling the state’s criminal justice system, and targeting some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax incentives will be among their priorities for the 2015 legislative session that begins in February. And Inman said all of those goals are shared by Democrats.
“If they really mean it, then I think they’ll find common ground with us,” Inman said.
Inman cited the passage in 2012 of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, a series of reforms designed under then-Speaker Kris Steele to curb the state’s inmate growth, as an example of how Democrats were key to passing a politically thorny issue.
“He couldn’t find 51 members of his caucus to pass it … and we could have been contrarians, stuck our finger in his eye and said we’re going to join up with this other group of Republicans,” Inman said. “But our guys believed in it enough that we didn’t do that.
“We were exceptionally relevant there.”
House Speaker Jeff Hickman said he appreciates Inman’s willingness to promote bipartisanship.
“I’ve never been into the political games,” said Hickman, R-Fairview. “I would sure welcome them to any conversations.”
Inman said his caucus stands ready to support funding to complete the Native American Cultural Center and Museum, a project with a $40 million price tag that has bitterly divided the GOP House caucus.
“If Republican leaders want to come up with a different plan to complete it, we’ll look at it,” Inman said. “The worst thing we can do is leave it mothballed there on the river, spending thousands of taxpayer dollars every year to do nothing. That’s a waste of money and an embarrassment to the state.”
Last session, Hickman said he wanted at least 51 Republicans to support a plan to finish the museum, a number that museum supporters weren’t able to reach.
Hickman said he hasn’t discussed with his leadership team whether to require a certain number of Republican votes on any plan to pay for to finish the museum.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Hickman said. “The story needs an ending one way or another.
“Our caucus has brainstormed on different ideas, but I don’t have an answer today about what that looks like.”
The 2015 legislative session begins Feb. 2.
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