Analysis: The Price is Wrong

Murphy, Terrill Win; Price Fouls Up, So What’s New?

Tom Price came out from under his rock yesterday, and his churlish and juvenile responses to once again having Randy Terrill’s boot up his butt is just yet another example of why that Price should seek another line of work, but expect Randy Terrill and Dana Murphy to oppose any efforts to oust the incompetent Price from his job as chief political screw up at Chesapeake. They just love the job he’s doing!

The natural gas company had kept Price muzzled ever since his disastrous performance in the 2008 legislative session. Price’s mouth and foolish strategy, in concert with the bizarre Harry Coates foul-up, torpedoed a heavily-financed effort to repeal HB 1804, the immigration and reform act from the 2007 legislature.

But the main reason the effort failed was that State Rep. Randy Terrill, the HB 1804 author, was just better than Price and his rich bosses. Terrill once again paddled the pro-illegal immigration lobby, and while the others wisely kept their mouths shut after their humiliating loss, Price’s big ego once again proved mightier than his little brain.

Capitol insiders once considered Price a skillful player with good political instincts. Now he’s seen a errand boy with a bad haircut, poor political judgment and a skin too thin to endure his continual political miscalculations.

“Let’s face it, Oklahoma politics is not on par with big states Texas or Florida in terms of sophistication, so we’re about a AA League political standing in that regard. If this Price guy is having trouble operating in this environment, he’s going to be a real liability to Chesapeake as they move forward in trying to be a national political force,” one highly respected analyst tells OKPNS.

Regardless, Randy Terrill has defeated Tom Price once again. Price’s fanny was also spanked when Judge Dana Murphy defeated Chesapeake’s pick in the Republican corporation commission primary, and now Chesapeake’s boy Roth is vulnerable. Price dearly wanted State Rep. Rob Johnson to be Roth’s opponent since he was seen as someone Chesapeake could have controlled in a general election against Roth, but Price bet on the wrong horse, and now Murphy no doubt will be very aggressive with Roth, a veritable Chesapeake proxy on the commission. “She’s gonna attempt to take Roth’s head off no matter how much money he takes from Chesapeake, and the company’s influence with Roth is going to be an issue,” another insider tells OKPNS.

So this fall’s elections will further expose Chesapeake’s political conniving, and the pressure will really build on Price if he keeps his job. Terrill and Murphy aren’t going to forget soon, and it appears from the election returns that public is finally figuring out that Price and his friends don’t have what it takes to compete. There appears to be no one at Chesapeake who can control their messages, or their political people have no influence on Price, so it’s no wonder that the Tulsa World caught the stammering and sputtering political operative doing what he does best: screwing up.