Tim Pope R.I.P.

God speed Tim,

Goodbye old friend, you will be missed.

Wishing the best to LaDonna...

*****

A friend and colleague of former state Rep. Tim Pope, who left the Legislature to make an unsuccessful run for state labor commissioner in 2002, says Tim pass away at the age of 52.

Randy Terrill, a current member of the House, said Tim collapsed and was pronounced dead at Canadian Valley Hospital today after suffering what appeared to be a heart attack.

Tim went out ot feed a small collection of farm animals and his wife, LaDonna, found his body later.

Tim served 14 years as the Representative of District 98 which encompassed parts of Canadian (Mustang) and Cleveland County .

He was the first Republican ever elected to that seat. Tim served from 1989 through 2002 before deciding to run for State Labor Commissioner in 2002.

He had a lifetime conservative rating of 87 on the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper’s Conservative Index, an impressive accomplishment for anyone in office that many years.

Tim was an aggressive conservative lawmaker who was always willing to speak his mind.

Anyone that is outspoken and aggressive like Tim will have both detractors as well as those of us who liked him and respected him for his courage and willingness to mix it up, rather than play life cautiously, hiding behind the issues of the day.

Following his years of service in the legislature, Tim did political consulting work and coached several of his clients to victory, many times against the more well financed establishment candidates in Republican primaries as well as victories against Democrats.

He was hard hitting and was well equipped for the rough and tumble world of politics, a competition which is both a science as well as an art.

In an effort to inform citizens of Jim Roth’s county commissioner district, Tim sent out a robotic phone call suggesting Roth was using his position to advance the homosexual agenda. The robo call stated a couple of facts then asked citizens to call one of two phone numbers if they agreed or disagreed with Commissioner Roth’s agenda.

That phone call ended up by having Attorney General Drew Edmondson file a legal action against Tim seeking what I believe was a $10,000,000 judgment against Tim.

The complaint was not that Tim misrepresented any facts, but that he violated the no call laws by not including his phone number in the script.

That suit finally ended up in some level of state court where the Edmondson machine was willing to settle for what I believe was a $5,000 fine.

Tim, still believing he had done nothing wrong appealed in federal court to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver where the case was thrown out.

The Court declared the law that was supposedly broken was to apply to commercial calls and not political calls which, by the way, is the purest meaning of the First Amendment’s free speech provision.

Tim was elected to serve as President of the Oklahoma Republican Assembly (OKRA) a state affiliate of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies.

It was during his tenure as President that he formed a PAC which decided to help Brent Rinehart win the election against then County Commissioner Cornet, a rather liberal Republican.

Rinehart won the primary and went on to win in the general election against the Democrat. If I remember correctly, Tim was accused by AG Edmondson of violating campaign finance laws by taking money from three contributors for the PAC which was then used to help elect Rinehart.

The problem was that each of those 3 contributors had already given the maximum of $5,000 to Rinehart’s campaign.

The legal wrangling went on for several years and Tim finally pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, agreeing to pay a small fine.

The real damage was the near $200,000 in legal expenses which caused Tim to have to declare bankruptcy.

I personally believe Tim never intended to break any law.

Funeral arrangements are pending.