Who is Denise Bode?


So who is Denise Bode? She is running against incumbent Edmondson for the Attorney General of Oklahoma. Here and there I had heard a few people say she was the Christian conservatives' hope to put one of their kind in this crucial job. I've met her. She seemed like a nice person. Now I hear that the National Rifle Association has given GOP attorney general candidate Denise Bode an A rating for her conservative stance on gun issues. Well, that's nothing for Bode to brag about. I thought I better look a bit deeper into this race.

According to the Daily Oklahoman Ms. Bode has been a Democrat most of her life. She worked for David Boren when he was Governor and U.S. Senator. She received a law degree from George Mason University and a masters from Georgetown. After Clinton was elected she switched to Republican and then Governor Keating (a fellow Georgetown grad) appointed her to fill a vacant Corporation Commission seat in 1997. Bode's husband, a longtime Republican, worked for President Reagan's administration. She was elected to the position in 1998.

In reading through newspaper reports in both the Tulsa World and the Daily Oklahoman it would seem that Bode has chosen the old "God, guns and gays" strategy to unseat Drew Edmondson. She has criticized Edmondson's friend of the court brief in a case heard before the U.S. Supreme Court that pitted the Boy Scouts of America against a gay scout leader. Bode says the brief advocated big government against individual rights. Edmondson sez, and the three deans of Oklahoma's law schools agree, that the amicus brief actually defended states' rights . Bode seems to have made several accusations against Edmondson that would indicate a lack of knowledge about what the job of the attorney general is. As the Tulsa World editorialized in today's paper, Denise Bode has focused on criticizing Edmondson for not doing things that the AG's office is not supposed to do. She has criticized him for not getting into law enforcement and legislation - both areas that an AG is not supposed to get into. If she doesn't know what the job really is, do we want her in that job? I don't think so. She might be a great friend to the NRA, homophobes, and religious fundamentalists but not to Oklahoma taxpayers. Her apparent ideological agenda would make Oklahoma a laughing stock and the target of lawsuits and Supreme Court challenges.

I listened to Edmondson the other day on KRMG radio. He seemed levelheaded, reasonable, articulate. He may be a Democrat (I don't care) but he seemed grounded in law and didn't seem to care about partisan politics or ideological agendas. I like that.