David Walters: the Clear Senate Choice For Oklahoma's Working Families

In four years as governor of Oklahoma, David Walters (D) built a stellar record of creating quality jobs for state residents and improving the quality of education. He signed the first-ever state binding arbitration law for organized fire fighters and police officers, and broke new ground in appointing women and minorities to important state offices.

Now Walters is campaigning to take this same common sense approach on issues affecting the lives of Oklahoma’s working families to the U.S. Senate.

Walters’ record and his agenda both contrast sharply with those of the incumbent, Sen. James Inhofe (R), who has allied himself so closely with extremist elements of the Republican Party and wealthy special interests that he only votes on the side of working families 12 percent of the time, according to the AFL-CIO.

Recently, Inhofe has voted to:

• Repeal the tough ergonomics standard which CWA worked more than a decade to win and prohibit the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from issuing a similar rule. Inhofe’s action puts millions of workers, including many CWA members, at continued risk of painful, crippling injury.

• Deny displaced workers economically harmed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including 750 laid-off American Airline workers in Tulsa, $31 billion in desperately needed unemployment and health benefits. Three weeks later, Inhofe voted to give himself a $5,000 raise.

• Give away an average of $342,000 per family over the next decade in tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers — people whose incomes average more than $1 million a year — taking away precious resources from Social Security, Medicare, health care and education.

• Oppose guaranteed collective bargaining rights for firefighters, police and other public safety officers in all 50 states.

• Oppose a federal minimum wage increase. Over the course of his seven-year Senate career, Inhofe has voted against raising the wages of the lowest paid workers 12 times, while voting himself pay raises six times.

Walters and Inhofe stand poles apart on a host of critical issues. For example, Walters supports a real, enforceable Patients’ Bill of Rights that would protect working families from managed care abuses and allow patients to sue their health plan if they suffer harm, while Inhofe voted against legislation to do exactly that.

Perhaps the most notable of many differences is on the all-important issue of prescription drugs. Walters strongly favors a universal and comprehensive prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients — one that would cost senior citizens no more than $25 per month, provide benefits starting with their first trip to the pharmacy, and ensure catastrophic coverage for those with the highest costs. In addition, Walters wants to reduce prescription drug costs by combining the purchasing power of consumers to negotiate lower drug prices from the pharmaceutical companies, and by requiring drug companies to sell medicines at the average price they cost in foreign countries. This last measure alone would lower the cost of prescription drugs by nearly 40 percent.

By contrast, Inhofe recently voted against several attempts to add comprehensive Medicare prescription drug benefits, against making it easier for states to buy less expensive prescription drugs from Canada, and against giving Oklahoma a temporary $93 million increase to cover medical costs of the poor.

Walters also takes a much stronger stance on Social Security, supporting reforms that guarantee its solvency and opposing proposals that would lead to tax increases, benefit cuts, or increasing the retirement age. And he is a fierce advocate of increased corporate accountability.

Above all, Walters has the courage of his convictions. He was the highest profile public official to oppose Oklahoma’s recent “right-to-work” (for less) ballot initiative. He not only contributed financially to the “No on SQ 695” campaign, he also allowed television commercials to be filmed in his home and granted numerous interviews urging voters to reject this anti-worker, anti-union referendum.

The significance of this race extends far beyond one vote in the Senate. The outcome could determine which party controls the Senate for the next two years, with major consequences on every policy and budget issue that matters (see U.S. Senate: One Vote Makes All the Difference).

Walters has shown he has the courage and commitment to stand up for CWA members and fight for our working families agenda in the Senate. In short, David Walters has more than earned our vote to defeat James Inhofe and become the next U.S. senator from Oklahoma.

This portion of this website is paid for by the CWA Committee on Political Education - Political ontributions Committee, with voluntary contributions from union members and their families, and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.