Senate District 33 candidates sound off on tribal relations, 2nd amendment, illegal immigration

Written By: John Dobberstein

(BROKEN ARROW, Okla.) This is the third of a three-part series examines the positions of four Republican Senate 33 candidates on crucial issues facing voters.

Read this story on Broken Arrow Sentinel here. 

Their answers were pulled from a comprehensive candidate forum recently held in Broken Arrow, hosted by Citizens for Liberty.

The four official candidates are Bill Bickerstaff, Tim Brooks, Christi Gillespie and Shelley Gwartney. Much of District 33 lies within the city of Broken Arrow corporate limits. Bickerstaff was unable to attend the candidate forum and did not furnish answers to questions by deadline. But more can be found about his campaign here.

If one of the candidates reaches above 50% of the vote on June 18, they will face Democrat Bob Willis in the Nov. 5 general election. If no candidates reach that threshold, a runoff election between the top two vote-getters will be held Aug. 27.

The first article discussed legislative priorities of the candidates and tax policy. Article two highlighted the candidates’ stances on abortion and Oklahoma’s educational system.

The third and final article will cover the candidates’ stances on tribal relations, the 2nd amendment, illegal immigration and their religious convictions.

Q: This district sits within the boundaries of the Muskogee Creek Nation. The Supreme Court’s McGirt decision has changed our lives, especially when it comes to law enforcement. Was the McGirt decision the right decision?

BROOKS: When Justices legislate it creates a mess. One of the biggest problems is the safety of people on tribal lands. Now, 95.6% of crimes are not prosecuted. Violent crimes are going under the radar. People aren’t reporting them anymore. It is now a very dangerous time to be an American Indian. Now our state is trying to negotiate a treaty with a sovereign nation, and so our federal government has left us in a mess. This is something the states and the tribes need to work together on to protect the citizens in a fair and and comprehensive way.

GILLESPIE: When McGirt came down, all the cross deputizing that we had to do was needed. But it’s not just about if a tribal citizen commits a crime against someone who is not a tribal citizen. It is about if a non-tribal citizen commits a crime against a tribal citizen. We all should have equal rights under the law, no matter if you are a tribal citizen or you are not. My husband’s a tribal citizen. My grandsons are tribal citizens, and I want all of us to have equal protection under the law. That’s what America is.

GWARTNEY: My brother, when he pulls people over, just has to let them go. And we have two different systems of law in Oklahoma. No matter what your blood is, we’re all Oklahomans. Ideally we would all have one system of justice and protection of rights. It’s unfortunate it was a federal decision, not something our state legislators could decide.

Q: Do you feel an obligation to contact the Muscogee Creek Nation that your district sits in and have some kind of relationship? Or do you feel your duty is mainly to the voters of Broken Arrow?

GWARTNEY: Yes, absolutely. That’s something I’ve started doing as I announced my campaign last year was meeting with anybody who would meet with me, and that was also finding some sort of tribal leader of each of the tribes and trying to understand from their perspective, what actually happened with McGirt. They’re a large part of Oklahoma and our votes can affect them, but they have a different, legislative system. So we should understand how they’re doing things. And when we talk about cross deputizing and partnerships between their law enforcement and ours, we need to have a good understanding of what they’re doing so we can help our law enforcement.

BROOKS: In Oklahoma there are 39 federal federally recognized tribes. It’s important the state legislature is focused in this area because this will be the district that we’re representing, but we’re also representing Oklahoma trying to make laws that are fair and equitable for all Oklahomans. It’s really important that we don’t just say, ‘Well, the federal government has created a mess’ and just ignore it. We still have to live and work and fix our state and focus on our economy and work together. It’s very important that we don’t marginalize or separate from anyone, that we work together.

GILLESPIE: In the city of Broken Arrow, we have an amazing relationship with our tribal leaders with the Muskogee Creek Nation. We put together this meeting and every single member of the leadership team for the Muskogee Creek Nation came. They really genuinely wanted to figure out what we were doing and how we could work together. We were trying to figure out all the nuances of that. Peoria Tribe, which my husband is a citizen of. My grandsons are Cherokee. So I and Lisa Ford, our city councilors, are Choctaw. We’re meeting with all of those people and we all have the same goal: we want what’s best for the citizens of their nation. And we want what’s best for all of Oklahoma. There are many nations within our city, not just tribal, but people that speak different languages. And we want all of them to come together.

Q: The man you hope to succeed is state Sen. Nathan Dahm. He’s been a vocal supporter of the Second Amendment, even on national television. We know what the Second Amendment says, but what does it mean to you.

GILLESPIE: Shall not be infringed. The men that wrote our constitution didn’t just come home from a hunting trip. They just came home from liberating a nation. I believe in our Second Amendment. I actually have worked with the Oklahoma Municipal League with Rep. Kevin McDougall. This was another bill I worked on, getting it passed so that we could carry on a municipal property. And it got hung up. In the Senate. But I am very adamant that I want to carry in municipal buildings and on municipal property.

GWARTNEY: It doesn’t say, ‘Shall not be infringed unless dot dot dot,’ right? It’s pretty black and white. That is what keeps us safe, what keeps us free, what makes us different from other countries. And it must be protected. It’s something that we should talk about in our homes. Your kid should understand that this is an important right for a reason and what purpose it plays.

BROOKS: The purpose of the Second Amendment was not just for home defense. It was to fight tyranny. In Afghanistan, in Vietnam, apparently all over we can see the effect of having a weapon to fight tyranny. If anyone invaded or if things went south with our government, the reason that we have firearms is to prevent tyranny.

Q: In 1986, President Reagan with a Democratic House and Republican Senate banned automatic weapons. Was this government overreach, even by a Republican president? Or is there an acceptable level of gun control?

BROOKS: When you go into certain businesses and they have that a little sign that says ‘no firearms’ I would encourage you to not shop there. As a state senator I would propose legislation that would say if a business, municipality, anyone is saying no firearms, they are implicitly saying that they are not protecting you. And if they don’t, you have an ability to sue them that they are held liable for protection. When we start putting those things in place, where we start threatening the pocket books of businesses, we will start seeing them change.

GWARTNEY: One of the biggest things that scared me is the red flag laws where we’d ask people to turn in their neighbors or family members for perceived threats if they have a gun. That’s going to be used more and more to target Christians, Republicans — we know where this is going. Anything that is limiting our ability to use, to buy, to you know, store up 3D print, whatever it is, you have the right to do that. And yes, that was governmental overreach.

GILLESPIE: I think of these gun-free buildings like schools, we’re just saying, ‘Hey, come get us.’ School boards need to start passing rules that allow teachers and volunteers to carry in the school. It’s ridiculous to think putting up a sign that says ‘Gun Free’ keeps our children safe. It obviously doesn’t or we wouldn’t have school shootings in our country. So let’s be clear that we all have the right to carry and we need to take that right.

Q: A growing number of lawmakers are expressing more and more concern about the way child custody and DHS practices are carried out. Some current senators are even working on a DHS reform package. Is the current system broken, or is the state just being cautious when it comes to keeping children safe?

GILLESPIE: There are a lot of people have dealt with DHS personally and know what DHS can do to families to ruin their family unit, ruin them financially, and ruin their reputation. It’s not okay. And I’m not saying that every single DHS case out there is like that, but there shouldn’t be even one that is like that. Transparency is number one: We need to know where every single penny is coming from because there’s so much money being poured to DHS through the federal government. And we need to know where that money is coming and how it’s being spent, There needs to be financial audits and transparency. How about some customer service from DHS? DHS needs to remember that the point of this is to bring families together, not tear them apart.

GWARTNEY: As a foster family, we saw the rate of turnover is unbelievable. The new case worker almost monthly who doesn’t know anything about your family, doesn’t actually know the kids and isn’t even given the information needed about the kids. I can’t tell you how many times we would have them for a weekend or however long, and then the worker comes over and I was like, ‘Well, did you know that this girl has this issue? She cannot wipe herself.’ Well, that’s a sign of sexual abuse. Is that in her chart? I don’t have access to that information. Why do you not have access to the information of what this little girl has gone through? Working with the people in charge of DHS, what do we need to do so that people stay, so that it’s a livable, workable, doable job. The point is to safeguard families for reunification is always the goal.

BROOKS: There is a valuable place for DHS, but largely the system is broken. State Senator Prieto had a bill this year to make it so that a complaint could not be filed anonymously so that you could be able to face your accuser and have due process. There was this one family that went to a church and a gentleman molested one of the girls from the family. DHS filed a complaint against the family because they took her to a church where she could get molested. How backwards is that? There are situations in our community and families that need help. That’s not the job of the government. That’s the job of the church. That’s the job of neighbors looking out and saying ‘What’s going on with those kids? How can I help?’ The state legislature needs to look into what’s going on with DHS. Are they functioning according to their charter? Are they actually helping the people they need to help, and what can we do about that?

Q: The legislature wrote and passed a law that made being illegal in Oklahoma a state-level crime as a way of trying to control illegal immigration. Are you comfortable with the speed this bill was passed?

GWARTNEY: I would say yes, just from reading the language in it. It seems pretty common sense.

BROOKS: I like legislation that moves slowly. We passed a law within one month and it goes into effect July 1. That is very speedy. Have we had the opportunity to go through it and make a decision? I’m not sure if we’ve made it legally defensible. I’m not sure that it’s going to go further and actually do what, we want to do in principle.

GILLESPIE: I don’t believe this bill was passed because they just started talking about it a month ago. These are educated legislators that made these decisions. It wasn’t like they never talked about it before and all of a sudden they passed something. I also agree with the executive order that the governor passed with the task force to look at workforce issues and those things that are coming up, because that’s something we’re dealing with at a municipal level.

Q: Do you agree with the premise of the bill that was passed on illegal immigration being a state-level crime?

GILLESPIE: Yes, that’s why the task force was created. We’re looking at people committing crimes. If you’re committing a crime, you should be worried. If you’re not, if you’re going to work and doing your thing, you shouldn’t be worried.

BROOKS: With the premise of the bill, I think it’s very innovative. I think that it protects those who seek to immigrate legally. There’s plenty of people who we work with in our industry, uh, who have gone through the process. They get a green card, they go through the whole process to become citizens, and they present their citizenship certificate. That’s what we need to be supporting and pouring our energies into, not working on some form of amnesty – ‘Well, you’re here. So here’s the driver’s license, here’s benefits.

GWARTNEY: It was a step in the right direction. Returning power to local law enforcement so you can remove somebody from our state if they commit a crime and not wait for the federal government to help us. This is one way we can further protect Oklahoma by giving our local law enforcement the ability to find them, give them prison time and remove them from our state.

Q: Tell us about your faith in the Lord and how it will reflect your decision-making process.

BROOKS: Through my life I’ve tried to follow the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Not just calling on him as Savior, but Lord and following him that way. And that then influences the decisions that I make, the type of people I work with, the type of things that I would vote for, the things that I support or don’t support, directly related to my faith.

GILLESPIE: When I really developed my personal relationship with Christ was when I went through a divorce 20 years ago. I was a single Mom and I was alone. And when, when you’re alone and you have no money and you’re trying to figure out how to make ends meet, and I had been through a domestic violence situation, and that is when I really found a true relationship with Jesus Christ.

GWARTNEY: I’m blessed to come from many generations of believers, parents and grandparents on both sides. I’m also blessed that God answered my prayer that each four of my children have come into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. You couldn’t ask for anything more than that. Going to church as a family is very important when kids see you serving in that way. So I’ve loved to be a part of that and my kids now serve at my church as well.