What Criteria Guide the Independence Scorecard?
Common signals of political beholdenness to hidden special interests:
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Tulsa has a long history of electing school board members who rely on hidden political interests for policy guidance and winning elections. Instead, our teachers and parents need local control to provide the best education for all our students.
Elected representatives should listen to the ideas and concerns of all teachers, parents, and concerned citizens – while using their own independent mind, values, and expertise to make choices that affect our schools. The Candidate Independence Scorecard measures candidate and campaign behaviors against 15 common signs revealing that once elected, the representative will only serve special interests OR the whole community. Low scores denote likely beholdenness to special interests, whereas high scores show likelihood that the candidate's motivation and community support authentically represents a wide spectrum of Tulsa constituent concerns. |
Photo by fauxels
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Partisanship Signals
1. Campaign received direct funding from a political party.
2. Candidate endorsements come from political figures and groups from only one political side.
3. Campaign Treasurer and/or vendors on the campaign organization filing are known political party insiders.
4. Candidate changed political party registration within 6 months of filing.
5. Campaign uses partisan technology systems, while pretending to be nonpartisan.
- Measured by: A nonzero balance reported on Line 5 of any of the candidate committee's Contribution and Expenses reports.
2. Candidate endorsements come from political figures and groups from only one political side.
- Measured by: The presence of a large number (more than 4) of endorsements from individuals and groups of a shared political agenda without endorsements (less than 2) from individuals and groups known for supporting the other political side, or multiple sides.
3. Campaign Treasurer and/or vendors on the campaign organization filing are known political party insiders.
- Measured by: Reviewing the names of the Campaign Committee's Treasurer and list of vendors on the known Contribution and Expenses reports for companies and individuals who have appeared previously on prior campaigns and who only serve candidates on one side of partisanship.
4. Candidate changed political party registration within 6 months of filing.
- Measured by: Whether or not the candidate charged his or her individual voter party registration within 6 months of candidate filing. This information is available to the public by calling the county election board.
5. Campaign uses partisan technology systems, while pretending to be nonpartisan.
- Measured by: The use of technology systems (such as email newsletter platforms, credit card processing, crowdfunding, etc.) whose terms and conditions limit the use of their services to only Conservative/Republican causes or candidates or only to Progressive/Democrat causes or candidates.
Power Signals
6. Major donors ($1,000 or greater aggregate) make up more than 50% of total donations.
7. The majority of the candidate's personal income or career impact comes from insider control groups.
8. Campaign employs a team that disregards election transparency laws (has violated at least three election laws).
9. Percentage of campaign donors who have never contributed to a campaign before.
10. Campaign receives substantial financial and/or organizational support from the entrenched political class earning benefits from status quo.
- Measured by: The total funds given by individuals who have given $1,000 or more during the course of the campaign exceeds the total number of funds given by all other donors.
7. The majority of the candidate's personal income or career impact comes from insider control groups.
- Measured by: Whether or not the candidate's personal income or career impact (vocational advancement and achieved sense of accomplishment) come from organizations within the billionaire class of companies or recipient nonprofits controlling Tulsa politics and having a personal benefit interest in controlling the educational direction and personal data sharing of Tulsa Public Schools. A complete list of such known organizations that have a political agenda in lockstep with their financial controllers is in development and will require ongoing maintenance because of the hundreds of present and emerging organizations that are controlled by a small, influential group. Note that a candidate's majority income may come from the candidate's spouse. What is clear is that some candidates' income derives from sources and organizations that have no financial or political interest in the policies of the public school district, and therefore the candidate is more likely to represent a variety of constituent groups.
8. Campaign employs a team that disregards election transparency laws (has violated at least three election laws).
- Measured by: The presence of one or more campaign leaders who are known to have violated at least three election laws and therefore have demonstrated little regard for public transparency in order to win a political contest. A clear example is the team that led the Stacey Woolley campaign for school board in 2023, which violated at minimum the following laws: 1) Not printing who paid for and authorized the first push card they distributed on January 14, 2023; 2) Not disclosing several pages of key donors in the pre-election Contributors and Expenses Report reviewed by the general public and the Tulsa World specifically; and 3) Placing yard signs illegally on state, city, and private property in violation of several codes.
9. Percentage of campaign donors who have never contributed to a campaign before.
- Measured by: Reviewing the names of all donors on the filed Contributors and Expenses reports from the candidate committees. Those donors who are not known to have contributed to another political campaign before are noted and calculated as a percentage of the total number of donors. A higher percentage of new donors is evidence of an independent, community-focused campaign.
- This criterion is the only one measured as a percentage. All others are a binary "Yes" or "No" answer, with one degree of ".5" allowed for a partial fulfillment of the criterion.
10. Campaign receives substantial financial and/or organizational support from the entrenched political class earning benefits from status quo.
- Measured by: The filed reports from the candidate committee reveals three or more names of individuals or groups known to be politically benefiting from status quo control of Tulsa Public Schools that is not benefiting teachers, parents, students, or the community at large.
Policy Signals
11. Candidate seeks to serve on a special interest group, as evidenced by sharing campaign staff, vendors, and advisors with other school board candidates.
12. Candidate did not vote in the last school board election before he or she was a candidate.
13. Candidate publicly supported a specific astroturfed policy proposal that no candidate would arrive at independently.
14. Candidate's personal political contributions favor totalitarian government power over constitutional republican form of government.
15. Candidate celebrated support received from a known political manipulator and/or beneficiary of special interest policy.
16. [For Incumbents Only] Candidate's actions in office demonstrate a regular pattern of beholdenness to special interest influencers.
- Measured by: The use of campaign management, consultants, office space, and key vendors such as voter contact platforms, banking, or other campaign administration that is also being used by other current or previous school board candidate committees. For example, the Sarah Smith, Calvin Moniz, and John Croisant campaigns are sharing the same social media team and schedule.
12. Candidate did not vote in the last school board election before he or she was a candidate.
- Measured by: Using public records to determine whether or not the candidate voted in the last school board election he or she was eligible to vote in. If that election would have been held outside of Tulsa County, then that county's records will be accessed.
13. Candidate publicly supported a specific astroturfed policy proposal that no candidate would arrive at independently.
- Measured by: Clear, published educational policy positions that are not naturally arrived at by an independent candidate because it is extremely specific, violates existing laws or policies, and/or doesn't benefit any school constituent group (such as teachers, support staff, administrators, parents, or community groups). The only likely reason the candidate would come to this conclusion enough to publicly publish it is because a special interest instructed others to take this policy position and all vocalize it together to give the appearance of broad political support. (Example)
14. Candidate's personal political contributions favor totalitarian government power over constitutional republican form of government.
- Measured by: Reviewing public records of the candidate's personal political contributions to candidates, parties, and PACs. Recipients are identified not by party affiliation, but by whether or not they were growing totalitarian power at the expense of constitutional law guaranteeing a republican form of government at the time of the contribution. If more of the candidate's personal contributions (by amount, not by number of donations) exceeds giving to those people or groups that protect constitutional limits on government power, then this criterion is met.
15. Candidate celebrated support received from a known political manipulator and/or beneficiary of special interest policy.
- Measured by: The public celebration of receiving an endorsement or material support from a proponent of special interests. The candidate's public celebration could be in the form of a social media post, email publication, or press release.
16. [For Incumbents Only] Candidate's actions in office demonstrate a regular pattern of beholdenness to special interest influencers.
- Measured by: The objective pattern of votes made, agenda items proposed by, and strong public advocacy positions taken by the incumbent candidate that either favor narrow political interests or the wider interests of the general public, families, and teachers. This pattern will be identified and defended on a candidate-by-candidate basis until an incumbent educational leadership scorecard is developed.
- This criterion does not affect the scores of non-incumbent candidates.
- For incumbent candidates, the scorecard weights this one criterion as being worth ten individual criteria (so, an incumbent's score is the average of 25 criteria, and this one criterion determines the score of 10 of those slots). This weighting is included because of the critical importance of an incumbent's actions in office, as compared to signs of his or her current candidacy (which still determines the majority of the candidate's Independence score).
Page cover photo by Edmond Dantès
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that helps Tulsans engage effectively with their public schools.
Our partner organization, Women Working for Tulsa, has graciously offered
to process your online donations and will ensure your gift supports this cause.
Thank you for your support!!