The Oklahoma State Capital

The Oklahoman's headline made it unmistakably clear: a headline that was no doubt completely demoralizing to the many grassroots conservatives and Republicans who believe in Republican principles and policy and who have spent so much time and energy seeking to find and elect principled officeholders who would advance these concepts:

"Record Number of Democrat Bills Advance out of Oklahoma House"

The article, written by Oklahoma Voice reporter Emma Murphy, both highlighted the Democrats' success while also featuring House Speaker Kyle Hilbert as he spoke glowingly of his new two-tiered committee system, which double assigns certain policy bills to two committees instead of the historical practice of assigning them to just one.

The conflation of these two topics appears to have given The Oklahoman's onboard AI summation tool the impression that the Democrats' success was due to the new committee structure. It summarized the matter as follows: "The successful passage of a significant number of bills, including a record number of Democrat-sponsored bills, was attributed to a newly implemented two-tiered committee system."

Disappointing though this may be, it gets worse. As the article concluded, the astute reader would have noted another indicting disclosure. Near the end of the article, after highlighting the great success of the Democrats in passing bills, Murphy couldn't help but demonstrate how conservative policy had been killed off by the system. Kudos to Murphy because she deployed some great reporting instincts in that she managed to pick the very case-in-point proposal that perfectly demonstrated the Oklahoma State Capital's prediction of what was likely to occur under the new committee system.

That prediction? That Hilbert's system would naturally tend to punish grassroots legislation—legislation not driven by powerful bureaucracies or monied, politician-contributing special interests—that would have a difficult time navigating the hurdles of two committee chairmen, either of whom could kill a bill without so much as giving it a committee vote.

Navigating even one committee in the House's smoke-and-mirrors system is challenging enough, especially when certain privileged legislators can kill bills without proper consideration. Navigating two committees, however, is mighty difficult for grassroots legislation lacking institutional support. Such legislation will most certainly struggle to pass through the closed-door decisions of two separate committee chairmen, either of whom can single-handedly halt a bill's progress.

This essentially created a new layer through which grassroots legislation could be killed without the people closest to the Speaker having to get their hands dirty by refusing to give the bill a hearing before the full house.

So, back to Murphy's article? What was that case-in-point bill, killed by the system?

It was House Bill 1043. And it was a vital proposal, based on an already enacted Florida law, that closes the loophole by which illegal invaders of our nation are using blue-state driver's licenses to drive on Oklahoma roads.

Nineteen states reportedly offer driving privileges to the invaders, including New Mexico and Colorado, states that border Oklahoma.

The need for House Bill 1043 became very apparent when Oklahoma City Democrat Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, in declaring his opposition to the reform, reportedly claimed that "many" are using out-of-state licenses.

If Alonso-Sandoval is correct, Oklahoma's roads are likely buzzing with those who have been enabled by blue states to bypass our driving laws and regulations. They are presumably living in Oklahoma but aren't following the requirement that Oklahoma residents must obtain an Oklahoma driver's license to drive on our roads. They've found a blue-state-enabled loophole and once again, a way to get around the laws and regulations by which the citizens are governed.

This disrespect for our laws, is sure to have consequences. Anyone who has been in Oklahoma City traffic recently, has no doubt taken note that something is now very wrong: it’s almost impossible to drive through that city without encountering an insane driver who has no regard for the traffic laws—almost as if they have no reason to respect the laws or fear of their enforcement.

House Bill 1043, by Jenkins of the House and Bullard of the Senate, would have closed that blue-state-enabled loophole by refusing to recognize these illegal alien driver’s licenses.

The bill was heard in the public safety committee where it was unanimously approved.

At that point, the legislation should have advanced to the house floor for a hearing before the full house.

But that's where Hilbert's new system—and one tyrannical super committee chairman—stood in the way. That chairman, Robert Manger, recently eked out a narrow election win after declaring to his constituents that he was 100% conservative. How, or what he based that on, is unclear, but it was just enough of a head fake to eke out a victory. But what is known, is that according to The Oklahoma Constitution's Conservative Index—which since 1979 has been Oklahoma's gold standard for gauging the voting of legislators—Manger actually scored a mere 60% conservative score in 2024.

One of Robert Manger's mailers from the 2024 campaign, in which he narrowly won re-election, touts a 100% conservative rating. In reality, the Oklahoma Conservative Index—Oklahoma’s foremost gold-standard grading tool since 1979—ranks Manger at just 60%. It was Manger who refused to give a hearing to the bill that would have closed the illegal alien driver’s license loophole, even though the bill had already been unanimously approved by a House committee.

Now, those who follow the House closely knew that Manger was one of the purge candidates of 2018. This was recently proven when, after a long delay, the dark money group behind the purge of many House conservatives finally had to file their disclosure forms with the state Ethics Commission. This officially confirmed what we already knew: the dark money special interests had purged a conservative who had the courage to oppose new tax hikes and replaced her with someone who is in the view of this writer, clearly a faux conservative, Robert Manger.

And in an ultimate irony, it was Manger who just last year attempted to authorize the state's use of widespread surveillance scanners. These scanners monitor passing traffic for potential criminal activity but notably, they often specifically exempt immigration enforcement. In other words, it's a woke, politically selective law enforcement system—applied more strictly to citizens while exempting illegal invaders from the enforcement of the essential laws protecting our nation's borders.

Now, despite all of this, House Speaker Kyle Hilbert has appointed Manger as one of the few gatekeepers who can single-handedly refuse to hear bills, even after they have been approved in committee—unanimously nonetheless—thus keeping the Speaker's and his floor leader's hands clean. Had Manger done the right thing and allowed his super committee to vote on that bill, the committee members would have had to support it or face the wrath of their voters. Then the Speaker and his Floor Leader would have been more likely to have gotten blood on their hands, had they kept the bill off of the house floor for the full house to consider.

But no, the self-declared 100% conservative, Manger, simply refused to as much as give the bill a hearing in his committee.

Thus House Bill 1043 provides us with the perfect case-in-point of how Kyle Hilbert's new committee system is functioning. It's another new hallway of smoke and mirrors added to the already crazy house that is the House of Representatives.

Fortunately, the tides are changing. The rise of the grassroots and new independent media will ensure that this story spreads far and wide. One can positively sense the change in the air as recent comments and a press release by House leaders show how very defensive they are about what is going on. They do not like being exposed, and while some still have their heads in the sand, there's clearly change afoot, and the light can be seen at the end of the tunnel.

Politicians such as Hilbert and Manger won’t be able to keep this game going for much longer. The walls are closing in.

If you have found this article helpful, share it with your personal network and subscribe at oklahomastatecapital.com/substack.