Alva Review-Courier -

In a meeting held in Alva Friday, Feb. 17, Sen. Carl Murdock spoke about the high cost of voting the way his district wants him to vote.

“Carl (Newton) and I work together on a lot of things. We make a pretty good team down there (at the capitol) which is good for you. I know when I was in the House, I did not work well with our senator. It seemed like we were fighting all the time. And it’s good that your senator and representative have the relationship that Carl and I have,” said Murdock.

Speaking of the voucher bill last year that originated in the Senate, Murdock said, “Last year, the voucher vote, I voted against it. I was punished. People that voted against that bill were punished. What irritated me about the punishment … two hours they held that open. The reason they held it open was you had the pro tem who was running the bill and his people twisting arms.

“And the governor; I got a phone call from the governor that night, putting pressure to get you to switch the vote. I didn’t, got punished. What made me mad about this, and I sat there and told the pro tem, I’m voting my district. My district does not want this.

“What irritates me about the punishment … and you’ve heard me talk about it all the time, the process down there, the 30,000-foot view of what our capitol does, what it’s meant to do … well by punishing me and by punishing other members that said no on this, he’s muzzling my district. He’s muzzling the will of my district for what an Edmond senator wants. For me that’s not okay,”

Murdock said when the new legislative session began “Me and several other people decided it’s time for a change. This is not how the Senate should be run. A member should be able to vote his district without the threat of being punished because at the end of the day, he’s muzzling you when he does that. If I’m scared to vote your way because I’m going to lose something, what kind of representation do you have at the capital?

“So we ran somebody against him (pro tem). We lost by one vote. Well, because the pro tem has the personality that he does, I’m no longer a chairman. He’s put me in basically political Siberia down there. But, one thing he forgot. He didn’t win with a mandate. We’re still 19 strong. Our people are still a force to be reckoned with. We still have power.

“I had a group of kids from Panhandle State came down. They said, ‘What are you most proud of in your accomplishments down here?’ I said, ‘My door. There’s nothing on my door. There’s no chairman on the door. There’s no vice chair. I’m proud of that because I stood up for principles. I stood up for my people. That’s what I’m most proud of.’”

Having opposed the Senate pro tem, Murdock said, “It’s going to be a little rough year this year. I went into the pro tem’s office this week, trying to help some other members that are being punished. And I said if you want things to go smooth, you need to kind of move them back onto committees that they are experts at.”

Murdock reports Pro Tem Greg Treat said, “No, I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it.”

“I said, ‘Okay, I just thought this would help session,’”

In closing the topic, Murdock said, “If you all paid attention last year, things were not good in the Senate. The House were the adults in the building. It was a bad year last year.” He expects this year to be more of the same.