Well, this is what happens when, as a Republican, you protect one of Congress’ most notorious Democratic liars while voting against conservative interests in important spots: You get primaried — and by someone with money to spend.
Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, is facing several primary challengers — but one sticks out, according to the Oklahoma Voice: Paul L. Bondar, which the outlet called “a newcomer with deep pockets who recently moved into the state.”
While Cole has represented Oklahoma in Congress for over 20 years, he’s been forced into spending hundreds of thousands in the run-up to the June 18 primary to fight off Bondar — a political newcomer who previously worked in insurance and said he’s running in the district because Cole has “turned his back” on the voters who keep sending him back despite a lack of “conservative values.”
Bondar faces some headwinds because he doesn’t live in the Fourth Congressional District, which Cole represents. He recently moved to Oklahoma from Texas and resides outside the district in Stonewall, although he registered to vote in the state one day before filing to run.
However, it’s worth noting that one need not reside in the district to contest a House election; according to the Constitution, they merely need to be a legal inhabitant of the state in which they’re running, in addition to being 25 years old and an American citizen for seven years.
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Bondar promises to be a permanent fixture on the Oklahoma political scene, however: “If I lose the election, I’m running again, and I’m staying in Oklahoma,” he said.
“That’s right. That’s right. This is not one and done. I’m here to stay.”
Cole has argued that Bondar is an outsider, while acknowledging he is “in a serious fight when somebody shows up with this kind of resources.”
Should Tom Cole be primaried out?
“We know he moved to Texas recently,” Cole said. “We found out obviously that he voted in Texas. Then all of a sudden, he registers in Oklahoma.”
And he has spent: Bondar has invested at least $2 million for ads in stations that broadcast in the district’s area, including in Oklahoma City, Lawton, and Wichita Falls, Texas, according to Federal Communications Commission filings the Oklahoma Voice looked at.
Cole has spent over a half-million of his campaign money on ads, the filings show. Neither figure includes the amount of PAC money that may have poured into the race, which would likely favor Cole.
“I find it quite funny that he says I’ve come to buy his seat,” Bondar said, pointing to so-called “dark money” that Cole has access to from PACs and special interest groups that are backing the incumbent.
So, why a run at his seat? For one, he was one of the 20 Republicans who voted against an initial censure motion against former House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff of California last June, according to The Hill. That censure motion, for helping push the Russiagate hoax during his time leading the committee, failed because some Republicans had an issue with a $16 million fine that would punitively punish Schiff financially for the $32 million that Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation cost voters.
Cole would later vote for a censure resolution that did not include the fine.
The Oklahoma representative not only backed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy against conservatives who voted to oust him, calling it a “disastrous move,” he said afterwards that McCarthy’s ouster should mean that appropriations cuts demanded by fiscal conservatives as part of the original deal that made McCarthy speaker should no longer apply, according to Politico.
“This agreement was faulty from the beginning. It’s changed over time, and now in a sense, it doesn’t exist at all because McCarthy isn’t the speaker anymore,” Cole said in October. “So we’re not really bound by this agreement now. That will be an interesting thing the new speaker will have to hash out.”
Apparently, this isn’t a man who learns things from experience.
Cole has also continued to vote for unchecked aid to Ukraine and also cast a ballot to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, both of which have become increasingly unpopular with conservatives.
Does this mean that he has a chance of losing? This is an interesting — and telling — tidbit from the Oklahoma Voice: “Democratic political consultant and lobbyist Pat Hall said turnout in the June primary could be a factor. Hall, who has contributed and voted for Cole previously, said it could be low because there are not a lot of contested races in the district.” [Emphasis ours.]
“Are Oklahomans going to be stupid enough to blow it?” Hall said, presumably rhetorically.
Depends. Are they stupid enough to listen to a Democratic political consultant who just happens to contribute to and vote for the Republican incumbent?
