At a recent Tulsa event, candidates gathered in mass. The nonpartisan organization, Women for Tulsa, invited all and many attended with the significant absence of Democrat Karen Keith, candidate for Mayor of Tulsa. Candidates from all levels: City Council, Tulsa County, and State spoke briefly, but Brent VanNorman, Republican for Mayor stole the show.

Demonstrating both command of municipal history and the current failures of the Bynum Administration, VanNorman provides a dramatic difference with Keith who has publicly supported open borders, public health lockdowns and LGBTQ(+whatever) agendas.

VanNorman began, “One of my major goals is to remove socialism from our city. Capitalism is the only system throughout history that raises people out of poverty. We must promote that. It must be inherent in our DNA that we build businesses in Tulsa.”

At his launch event on May 30th, VanNorman was introduced by former-Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor who said Brent VanNorman, “knew how to responsibly prioritize large budgets and serve others with honor.”

At the Women for Tulsa forum, VanNorman said, “I was a CPA and worked for a firm for about nine years then had my first midlife crisis and went to seminary and pastored for about ten years. I had my second midlife crisis and went to law school. I then went to work for an international law firm and became a patent attorney engaged in patent litigation work. In addition, I helped run three businesses: a title insurance company, an impact investment fund, and a software company.

“Tulsa has over a billion-dollar budget now and over 3,500 employees. I think the next mayor needs to be someone who has managed employees before, knows how to look at a budget, and knows how to cut fat from a budget and there is plenty of fat in the Tulsa budget. I have studied the budget for the next year and there are places we can cut,” VanNorman said.

“Public Safety is the number one obvious issue in Tulsa. In that, we are hundreds of police officers short. My idea right now is to go to those areas that are de-funding police and recruit their best and brightest officers. We can do the same where teachers are at risk and invite them to relocate to Tulsa. We can tell them, ‘In Tulsa, we will have your back,’” VanNorman declared.

“We also must address the homeless situation. Everybody sees it. It is all over the place. What we must realize is that homelessness is not a housing issue – it is a drug addiction and mental health issue. We must address the whole person. I suggest ministries like John 3:16 do a fabulous job and there are others, but there are some in Tulsa that, while well-intended, enable homelessness enough so that people remain homeless. They are not doing anyone a favor by doing that.”

VanNorman did not mention a city council candidate in the room that spoke earlier of building housing for the homeless and noted she works for a nonprofit engaged in the field.

While spending hundreds of millions on housing from New York to Seattle, any critical thinking observer can see such programs are not working for the existing homeless population nor could it possibly keep pace with 150,000 new individuals flooding the southern border each month – despite the trendy, leftist desire for that failed solution. The following highlights Seattle’s experience.

To Tulsa County’s credit we still have a district attorney that, mostly, prosecutes crime.

VanNorman continued, “The next thing is that we must be business friendly. The permitting process is broken. If it takes eighteen months to two years to get a permit, that’s too long. Tulsa cannot say it is open for business if you can’t open a business.

“We are going to do what a business would do with accounts receivable in aging permits. Saying this is 0 to 30, then 31-60 and so on. At some point, those age up to the supervisors desk. Then, if not resolved, it will hit the mayor’s desk with the question of why has that permit not been issued. We can resolve permit issues, if we give them visibility,” VanNorman declared.

“There are other priorities, but those are the top issues.  Obviously, we got into this race later than some, but I can tell you that no one is going to outwork us between now and the August 27^th primary. Thank you and God Bless Tulsa,” VanNorman concluded.

For more on Brent VanNorman, visit his Facebook page here.

About the author: David Arnett also publishes Straight Up on Substack which offers both free and paid subscriptions to over 3,100 readers worldwide.