{"id":30631,"date":"2018-08-09T16:39:47","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T21:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=30631"},"modified":"2018-08-09T16:39:47","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T21:39:47","slug":"education-and-tax-vote-winning-and-costing-oklahoma-candidates-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/08\/09\/education-and-tax-vote-winning-and-costing-oklahoma-candidates-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Education and tax vote winning and costing Oklahoma candidates elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30633\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 5407px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30633\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-Hasenbeck-HR.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5407\" height=\"3833\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-Hasenbeck-HR.jpg 5407w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-Hasenbeck-HR-1920x1361.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-Hasenbeck-HR-500x354.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-Hasenbeck-HR-768x544.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-Hasenbeck-HR-150x106.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-Hasenbeck-HR-300x213.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-Hasenbeck-HR-620x440.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-Hasenbeck-HR-1523x1080.jpg 1523w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 5407px) 100vw, 5407px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Toni Hasenbeck, a 7th grade teacher in Elgin Public Schools, is running as a Republican in House District 65.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>About 100 teachers and school administrators filed for political office in the 2018 election. Most are not shy about supporting the first tax increase in nearly three decades, even though it\u2019s a progressive political message in a deeply conservative state.<\/p><p>Pro-tax campaigns from educators seem to be resonating with voters in many parts of Oklahoma \u2014 but not everywhere.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/483428634&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Polarizing tax package<\/h3><p>Oklahoma lawmakers passed a $450 million tax increase to pay for the first state-funded teacher raises in 10 years, but many educators wanted additional revenue for their classrooms.<\/p><p>Lawmakers refused to budge, saying they had done all they could for the year, and teachers responded. First, there was a nine-day teacher walkout. Later, teachers and school administrators signed up to run for office \u2014 and worked with supporters to unseat incumbents they felt were anti-public education, targeting legislators who voted against the tax package.<\/p>\n<h3>Tax-wary teacher<\/h3><p>Two incumbents that voted against this year\u2019s tax package lost their primary race, and challengers forced another six into runoffs.<\/p><p>The situation is reversed in House District 65, which covers three southwestern counties and stretches down to the Texas border. There, Representative Scooter Park, who voted for the $450 million dollar tax package, lost in the Republican primary. And he lost to a teacher \u2014 Toni Hasenbeck \u2014 who criticized him for voting to raise taxes.<\/p><p>Hasenbeck has been a 7th-grade English teacher in Elgin Public Schools for nearly 18 years. She says lawmakers didn\u2019t need to pass the tax package to fund teacher raises.<\/p><p>\u201cAccording to reports there was money to pay the teacher pay raises before the walkout started,\u201d she said in an interview with StateImpact.<\/p><p>It\u2019s unclear which reports Hasenbeck is referring to. Most legislators voted for the tax increases, and many said it was the only practical way to give teachers a salary boost.<\/p><p>Hasenbeck says she\u2019s not anti-taxes, but on Facebook and in campaign mailers ahead of the June 26 Republican primary she criticized Park heavily for voting to raise them.<\/p><p>Park says it was the right thing to do.<\/p><p>\u201cWe were in four years of very huge budget deficits,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were having to do everything we could legislatively to make the budget balance.\u201d<\/p><p>Park says local teachers thanked him for voting for the tax package, and that Hasenbeck\u2019s stance confuses him. \u201cWhenever she is criticizing me for raising taxes, with her being a teacher herself, is she saying she would have voted against her friends?\u201d<\/p><p>Hasenbeck says teachers needed a raise, but instead of hiking taxes to pay for it, lawmakers should have prioritized funding education over other agency\u2019s budget needs.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of raising revenue,\u201d she said, \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of prioritized spending. There will never be enough money if we don\u2019t prioritize our spending.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30632\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 5508px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30632\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-background-HR.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5508\" height=\"3132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-background-HR.jpg 5508w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-background-HR-1920x1092.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-background-HR-500x284.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-background-HR-768x437.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-background-HR-150x85.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-background-HR-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-background-HR-620x353.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/08\/HD65-180724-background-HR-1899x1080.jpg 1899w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 5508px) 100vw, 5508px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign promoting Toni Hasenbeck outside of Elgin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Campaign messages<\/h3><p>Amber England is the former director of Stand For Children Oklahoma, which spent $85,000 on a pro-Toni Hasenbeck commercial in 2014 when she first ran for office as a Democrat.<\/p><p>At the time, England\u2019s organization was working to elect candidates it hoped would fight for increased education funding and other school reforms. England thought Hasenbeck fit the bill. But now, England\u2019s not so sure.<\/p><p>\u201cI think it\u2019s ironic,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\u2019re an educator you have seen firsthand the impact of years of underinvestment in this state. And you should understand that it\u2019s going to take an investment, i.e., a tax increase, to be able to fund public schools to the level that we need to.\u201d<\/p><p>Unlike many other teachers running for office, Hasenbeck\u2019s campaign seems designed to appeal to two different types of voters.<\/p><p>Her campaign website touts her credentials as an educator, and Hasenbeck marched in a local parade behind a banner emblazoned with a teacher\u2019s apple. She also earned the endorsement of an influential Facebook group of parents and educators that championed tax increases.<\/p><p>But Hasenbeck\u2019s criticism of tax increases is enticing other voters in the southwestern Oklahoma district.<\/p><p>Larry Holcomb, who was getting his hair trimmed at a small barber shop on the main strip in Elgin, said he voted for Hasenbeck because he thinks she has a backbone.<\/p><p>\u201cI like the fact that Toni didn\u2019t necessarily go along with all the teachers and just say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m gonna get you all the money you need,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p><p>Barber Kevin Ambrose thinks Scooter Park, the Republican incumbent, lost the primary because he angered voters by raising taxes after signing a pledge saying he wouldn\u2019t.<\/p><p>Park thinks \u00a0Hasenbeck\u2019s repeated attacks are a major reason he lost the primary.<\/p><p>Hasenbeck\u2019s campaign sent out multiple flyers criticizing Park for voting to raise taxes, voting to fund the Oklahoma Healthcare Authority, and his work on a plan to impose a small tax on Oklahoma-produced electricity exported to other states \u2014 a plan he said would have brought millions of dollars back to Oklahoma.<\/p><p>With the primary behind her, Hasenbeck is campaigning for votes in November\u2019s general election. Her Democratic opponent, Brandon Thompson, is the son of a longtime local school teacher that\u2019s campaigning on increasing school funding \u2014 and says would have voted for the tax increase.<\/p>\n<h3>Teacher advantage?<\/h3><p>The Mayor of Elgin, Larry Thoma, thinks Park was unlucky.<\/p><p>\u201cIt would be a tough year if you have an educator running against you,\u201d he said.<\/p><p>Hasenbeck, for her part, says some residents told her they wouldn\u2019t vote for her because she was a teacher. \u00a0But Amber England, the former pro-education political organizer who\u2019s now a campaign consultant, says teachers have a distinct political advantage in Oklahoma elections in 2018.<\/p><p>\u201cIf you\u2019re an educator on a ballot going up against a non-educator, you\u2019re going into the race with a 15-point advantage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When teachers and school administrators filed for political office in the 2018 election, most were not shy about supporting the first tax increase in nearly three decades, even though it\u2019s a progressive political message in a deeply conservative state. But one teacher won her primary, and beat an incumbent who voted for the tax increase, on the opposite message. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":30636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[912,158,779],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30631"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30638,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30631\/revisions\/30638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}