A controversial figure known for his advocacy to decriminalize cockfighting is facing off against a former county commissioner in the Aug. 25 Republican runoff election for House District 19, with both candidates pledging to protect southeast Oklahoma’s resources and vowing changes to the state’s judicial system.
Former Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission President Anthony DeVore and former Pushmataha County Commissioner Michael Brittingham advanced from HD 19’s three-way June 16 Republican primary to replace Rep. Justin Humphrey (R-Lane), who lost his campaign for lieutenant governor during the June primary. The HD 19 runoff winner will take the seat outright after no Democrat or other candidate filed.
Brittingham received 49.1 percent of the vote (2,053 votes), falling less than a percentage point from winning the primary outright. DeVore finished second with 25.7 percent (1,076 votes).
The former county commissioner said his time in public service provided firsthand experience with the problems facing rural communities.
“In southeast Oklahoma, being a county commissioner for 15 years, I saw that there’s a lot of things that we’re missing out on,” Brittingham said. “As a commissioner in county government, I dealt with that every day, and I want to be here to represent the voters, the constituents of these four counties.”
HD 19 covers parts of Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, Pushmataha counties and includes the cities of Antlers, Clayton, Durant, Hugo, Rattan and the Choctaw Nation’s Capitol of Tuskahoma. Both HD 19 runoff candidates agreed to interviews ahead of the election.
Undeterred by his bankruptcy case, his misdemeanor cockfighting charge and his former PAC’s Ethics Commission violations, DeVore is framing his campaign around his experience working in law enforcement and education, along with his fight for the protection of rural property and water rights.
“I think the people need good representation,” DeVore said. “[We need] to protect our land, our property, to make changes in our education system, you know, and in law enforcement and correction systems. I just think our people need good representation.”
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25. Early voting is set to take place from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Aug. 20 and 21, as well as from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22
HD 19 candidates share water, data center concerns
Both Republican candidates for HD 19 voiced their support for the protection of southeast Oklahoma’s natural resources.
Brittingham said he opposes the sale of water from southeast Oklahoma and views the resource as a key component of the region’s future.
“Our water is here. That’s our gold,” Brittingham said. “It’s just like oil and gas is to other people. Water is our natural resource, and it’s something that we survive on here for recreation, and that’s what we need to build our district up in.”
Brittingham said protecting water could also play a role in bringing jobs to southeast Oklahoma.
“Jobs is a big issue for our counties because the jobs follow water,” he said. “That’s one reason I am so adamant about protecting our water resource here.”
DeVore similarly listed water, land and natural resources among the most significant issues facing HD 19.
“I think that we have to put safety measures into place,” DeVore said. “I think that we have to write legislation that will protect our homeowners and our citizens, our landowners.”
Both candidates’ concerns about natural resources extended to data centers, which have become an increasingly prominent issue in southeast Oklahoma over recent months.
DeVore said he is “pretty adamantly against” data centers based on what he currently knows about their resource demands. He expressed skepticism that closed-loop systems would eliminate concerns about water and other resource consumption.
“We have to look at cost to the citizens versus benefit, and right now there’s no benefit,” DeVore said. “I think that we should put them in places that already have the resources, you know, instead of taking up 1,000 acres of land down here.”
He questioned why developers should consume rural acreage when existing buildings in Oklahoma’s metropolitan areas could potentially accommodate projects.
“So why are we taking up our farmland?” he said.
Brittingham acknowledged he has not studied data centers enough to develop a specific position. Still, he said what he has heard so far has made him opposed to them.
“I’m not educated on data centers,” Brittingham said. “Everything I hear right now is in the negative, and until I can have somebody with professional information, I think data centers is bad for our area.”
He also questioned why developers have shown interest in rural Oklahoma.
“Why are they pushing data centers to rural areas?” Brittingham said. “If there’s nothing wrong with them, why don’t they keep them in the urban areas?”
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Education, criminal justice reform separate candidates
While DeVore and Brittingham shared concerns about natural resources, they gave different approaches on the handling of the state’s education and judicial systems.
DeVore, the former executive director of a Dallas area career tech school that underwent a federal investigation a decade ago, said he is making workforce education one of his campaign priorities, arguing that Oklahoma’s public schools should provide more career training for students who do not aim to attend four-year universities.
“Every student’s not meant to go to a four-year school,” DeVore said. “I think we need to put some of our workforce education classes back into our public schools and make them more accessible to provide an earlier learning pathway for our students.”
DeVore also questioned requiring every student to take the ACT, citing an example of a student with cerebral palsy who was required to take the exam.
“That does no good for the student, the family, the school, the state,” DeVore said. “I just think that we need to teach our children how to work again.”
Brittingham emphasized local control, stating that individual school districts and teachers are better positioned to determine how students should be educated.
“I think our schools need to be brought to the local level, not national or even the state level,” Brittingham said. “Let our school districts teach our kids because every school district is different, whether it be rural or urban.”
Brittingham said teachers understand the needs of students in their communities and should have more control over academic decisions.
Both candidates also called for changes to the state’s criminal justice system.
DeVore said people convicted of violent crimes should face tougher minimum sentences, arguing that someone convicted of a crime such as rape should not be eligible for probation.
For lower-level crimes, however, DeVore said Oklahoma needs a “progressive sanction model” to reduce pressure on police, sheriffs and courts.
“Law enforcement’s backed up. The courtrooms are backed up,” DeVore said. “I think that we should revamp our entire crime and punishment system.”
DeVore said lawmakers should reexamine classifications and sentencing requirements so that “the punishment should fit the crime.”
Brittingham focused on the burden mental health and substance abuse issues place on county jails, and he said those facilities lack the resources and training to handle people experiencing mental health and substance abuse problems appropriately.
“Our jails, it’s just a revolving door,” Brittingham said. “We also have a lot of mental health issues, and I think we need to look at the mental health issues, not using our jails as a mental institution for these people.”
DeVore, who received a six-month deferred sentence for a misdemeanor charge of being a spectator for a cockfight in McIntosh County, declined to discuss his case. However, he did comment on his recent bankruptcy filing that was denied after a U.S. trustee claimed DeVore failed to disclose his assets accurately.
DeVore said his former company, Texoma Solar Solutions, lost access to third-party financing following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. DeVore said the company lost $1.8 million “in a phone call” and that he put his own money into the business in an unsuccessful effort to keep it operating.
“We were in business for over 10 years, with thousands and thousands of customers,” DeVore said. “The business model was solid, but the funding sources got jerked out from underneath us.”
‘The people know me well enough’
Brittingham declined to discuss DeVore’s court records — which include a series of state court lawsuits over the failed solar company — saying he did not want to run a negative campaign.
But the former county commissioner did choose to discuss DeVore’s videos about a March 2017 petition for a grand jury that lodged allegations of abuse of power and embezzlement against Brittingham and other county officials.
Records show Danny Ray Shirley filed the petition March 28, 2017, asking for a grand jury to convene and investigate whether Brittingham had abused the power of his office and improperly influenced law enforcement in an investigation involving a woman named as Brittingham’s girlfriend, Krystal Heath, who was charged in 2013 for possessing methamphetamine that was found in a storage unit within a storage business owned by Brittingham.
The petition also alleged misappropriation or embezzlement of public money involving county road projects and funds given to the county by the Choctaw Nation and FEMA. It also asked for an investigation into the Oklahoma State Auditor’s Office and Brittingham’s alleged coercion and involvement during an investigation into a deputy sheriff named Polly Culver, who was named as an investigator in Heath’s case and ultimately charged in 2016 with six counts of embezzlement.
A judge dismissed the petition after it failed to garner enough signatures within the required 45-days needed.
Asked about the petition, Brittingham said Shirley was motived to file it after his daughter, Culver, was charged. According to Brittingham, no signatures were ever gathered.
“So the story is when [Deputy Culver] was caught fraudulently using P.O.’s for the county and got charged, that’s when her dad stepped up, and that’s when he asked to do a — he just did a petition. He was doing a petition on his own. There never was a petition ever talked about or grand jury. They never went to anybody,” Brittingham said. “He just took some papers around to businesses and had on the top of the paper saying ‘signatures for Mike Brittingham for grand jury hearing, proposed signatures for spending funds that wasn’t allocated correctly’ or something like that. I can’t remember how they worded it. But anyway, there never was anything that went to a grand jury or nothing.”
Instead of focusing on the negative, Brittingham pointed to his own work history, including 15 years in county government, 15 years at UPS and experience owning businesses.
“I know what it’s like to be the working person,” Brittingham said. “I know working for large companies, and I know now working for county government and working for state. I think I have the best experience for the job.”
Brittingham said voters should consider each candidate’s experience when they cast their ballots Aug. 25.
“The people know me well enough and trust me, and trust me in my decisions, and trust me in representing them at my fullest ability,” Brittingham said.
