By Alan Webb

Posted: July 24, 2010

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Democratic and Republican Primaries are in less than a week. I am starting to look
more closely at the people running for the various political positions now that time is short. I see
that Askins seems to be the Democratic frontrunner for the Governor’s race in the Democratic
Party. Something she’s been campaigning on has rubbed me the wrong way.

Her commercials assert that women earn 76 cents to a man’s dollar. There have been
studies denying this claim and/or explaining personal choices that impact the pay disparity.
Setting the study specifics aside, it is clear that Askins’ blanket statement at least falls into the
category of “misinformation.” I called the Askins Campaign headquarters asking what her
solution would be to the problem she claims is true at face value. I was told that I would receive
a return phone call, but I waited two weeks with no call.

So I will tell you what I DO know. As Lieutenant Governor in 2007, Askins made just
over $107,000, and last year she made $121,833.34. Nice raise when we are in a state budget
crisis. Then I looked at two other factors, the average pay of teachers in the State of Oklahoma
and the Median average of what Oklahoma families had made in 2008. The state average for
teacher pay in this state is $42,379, which means that teachers in this state make 35 cents to
Askins’ dollar. The average Oklahoman family in 2008 made $44,154 which means an
Oklahoma family averages 36 cents to Askins’ dollar.

Jari Askins seems to be doing something I like to call ‘schinkering’ (the act of drawing
someone's attention away from something, or to deflect). If you throw out feeble statistics about
what a particular study says about the gender pay gap, you will avert people’s attention away
from the fact that being a politician is always good business. The reality is, whether the
economy is good or bad, politicians can still make more than the majority of taxpayers paying
their salary.
Here is a good question for Jari: “When did becoming a politician go from being a ‘public
servant’ to a nice, cushy job? When will WE start making 76 cents to your $121,833? That
would be an average of $92,593 per Oklahoma family. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Copyright 2010 Alan Webb