Moore candidates for Okla. House District 54 at odds over what

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 10, 2008 by Sarah Clough

The race for state House District 54 is a battle for the ages - of sorts.

State Rep. Paul Wesselhoft, 61, is a Southern Baptist minister and retired U.S. Army Airborne Ranger chaplain. He has been the state representative for District 54 since 2004.

His opponent, the youngest candidate on the July 29 primary ballot, is Dustin McGowen, a 21-year-old senior at Northeastern State University and waiter at IHOP whose legislative experience is limited to student government.

With no Democrat in the race, the primary victor will serve two years in the House of Representatives.

The two found common ground on only one district issue: property tax.

Both candidates said it was important to their constituents to have property taxes capped at some point after retirement.

"I think at a certain age, your property taxes ought to be locked in and not increased again," Wesselhoft said.

"They're not making any more income, they already own the property," McGowen said from one of the tables he waits regularly at IHOP, where he held his first fundraiser. "They've been paying on this for 30 or 40 years. On their fixed incomes, they're not able to keep up."

Wesselhoft cited high prices for fuel and prescription drugs as pressing issues in his district; McGowen said state employee pay and pensions and roads mattered most.

"They want to be able to go five feet and not hit a pothole," he said.

McGowen said he's running because Wesselhoft isn't accessible.

"I feel I can help the people of this district be represented, answer their phone calls, respond to their e-mails, things that don't get done right now. I've heard that from actual constituents in the district."

Wesselhoft said the assertion was not true - that he is one of only a few legislators who publish their phone number, and that every piece of mail he sends out has his home and office numbers. Wesselhoft said his wife and legislative assistant assist in answering phones at home and at the Capitol.

Wesselhoft said there are e-mails that aren't answered, but his office receives thousands, many from out of state.

"But I always answer phone calls, even if they're not in my district," Wesselhoft said. "He's just a very negative campaigner."

McGowen said more money needs to be put into transportation, saying if it wasn't included in the budget process, it needed to be included in a bond.

Wesselhoft railed against the passage of this year's $475 million bond issue for the Department of Transportation, saying it was irresponsible and unnecessary for government to leave it up to future generations to pay for the infrastructure needs of today by going into debt.

The generational gap was evident in the two candidates' answers on what they would like to focus on if elected.

"I think we ought to import (prescription drugs) from Canada," Wesselhoft said. "We tried that two or three years ago and it got voted down, but I'm certainly in favor of that."

His opponent said his priorities have more to do with education than medicine.

"I want to make OHLAP (the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program) more accessible to Oklahomans. I want to raise the (qualifying parental salaries) cap from $75,000 to $100,000," McGowen said of the financial aid program from the State Regents for Higher Education.

McGowen said the change should come with higher GPA requirements so that the program is more of an investment than a social handout.

Though Wesselhoft has seen only two of his House bills get passed in the past two years, he said he worked on several successful Senate bills, like the Taxpayer Transparency Act, which last year set up a user-friendly Web site that details all state government spending, and the Funeral Picketing Act passed in 2006, which made it a misdemeanor to picket within 500 feet one hour before or after a funeral.

Though he was not listed as author on this year's so-called Scum of the Earth bill, which made it a misdemeanor to assault a pregnant woman on the first offense and a felony with no less than 10 years' imprisonment on the second, Wesselhoft said he shared his bill language with Rep. Rebecca Hamilton, D-Oklahoma City.

"Sometimes you may not get credit, but from my perspective, the most important thing is that good legislation is passed," he said.