The Lorton Touch

Last week I wondered in this blog why the Tulsa World, whose editorial board leans toward the moderate Democrat part of the political spectrum, has not endorsed a Democrat for president since Roosevelt days. In looking through the campaign contributions records at Fundrace I see that the World's publisher, Robert Lorton, has given the maximum of $2,000 to the Bush campaign. Seems that his spouse, Roxanna, director of the World Publishing Company, also gave $2,000 to the Bush campaign. Could it be that the Lortons overruled their editorial board?

Speaking of the Lortons, there was a full-page ad in the Sunday World that purported to score Oklahoma Legislators on their economic development voting records. The scoring and the ad were sponsored by something called the Research Institute for Economic Development based in Edmond, Oklahoma. Democrats didn't fair well in REID's scoring scheme. I'd never heard of the REID so I checked it out at www.probizok.com . Wow! There's Bobby Lorton again - on the Board of Directors. I recognize a bevy of Republican CEOs on REID's board - Paula Marshall Chapman to Bob Funk of Express Personnel. In neither the ad nor their website does REID explain their scoring method or the criteria used to score the Legislators. I guess we lowly plebians are just expected to accept the REID Boards' executive wisdom. Why confuse us with facts?