The Rock, Paper, Scissors of Corruption: How Leadership is Killing Your Constitutional Rights

Part 1 of 2 part series on the Open Government Initiative

By Charles Key, Former State Representative – Oklahoma District 90

SB 1027, authored by Senator Bullard and passed in the 2025 legislative session, was a Trojan Horse. When it was moving through the Senate last year, a pro-life organization sent emails to every senator claiming it was a pro-life bill. That label was a lie used to bully conservative legislators into signing on as co-sponsors. Now, more than six months after the bill took effect, the truth is clear: SB 1027 was designed to dismantle your constitutional right to propose new laws. I warned about this here.

Oklahoma is one of only two states in the union with a constitutional right guaranteeing citizens the right to circulate petitions for state questions or to impanel county grand juries to investigate corruption. There are people in our government who despise this power and they are working overtime to take it away from you.

The Gatekeepers of Status Quo

The history of SB 1027 reveals exactly who is pulling the strings. Originally authored by Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, the bill eventually added House Speaker Hilbert. View SB 1027 history here. These individuals are the Leadership of our state. In Oklahoma, a leadership bill carries a silent threat: anyone who opposes it loses favor, committee assignments, and the ability to get anything done for their constituents.

Did Senator Paxton write this bill? Did his staff? Or was it handed to him by a lobbyist who wanted to shield the establishment from public oversight?

The tactics are already being deployed against State Question 840. After we filed the petition on September 12, the legal staff at the Attorney General’s office dragged out “approval” for over three months before finally giving us a green light. This wasn’t a mistake; it was a calculated delay. By burning ninety days of our time, they have intentionally shortened the window we have to reach voters for the November 2026 ballot.

Why They Fear SQ 840

The reason leadership is so desperate to stop SQ 840 is simple: it strips them of their absolute power.

Currently, legislative power in Oklahoma is not in the hands of the people you elect. It is concentrated in the hands of House and Senate leadership, special interest groups, and large donors. Your Representative or Senator cannot truly represent you because the Speaker and Pro Tem control every committee chair and bill assignment. They decide in secret which bills live or die.

To be heard, your representatives must trade their principles for favors. If they refuse, your concerns are buried.

SQ 840 ends this Rock, Paper, Scissors game. We’ve all been there: You ask a committee chairman to hear a bill, and he tells you to talk to the Floor Leader. The Floor Leader says it’s the Pro Tem’s call. The Pro Tem tells you to go back to the chairman. It is a circular runaround designed to avoid blame while the state’s problems worsen.

The Solution: Real Teeth

SQ 840 prohibits these secret vetoes. It guarantees that every single legislator, regardless of whether they play the game, has a minimum of three bills each year that must be heard and voted on.

And unlike most laws that politicians write for themselves, this one has teeth:

First Offense: A $10,000 fine for any individual violating this law.
Second Offense: Permanent expulsion from the Legislature.

This is why they are using SB 1027 to stall us. They aren’t protecting life or conservative values; they are protecting a system where they can operate in the shadows, fueled by donor money and special interests.

The Fight Ahead

The government is betting that you are too distracted to notice that your most potent tool for oversight and Liberty is being destroyed by design. They want a right to petition that exists only on paper, not in practice.

Oklahoma’s Constitution gives you the power to investigate corruption through grand juries and to bypass the legislature through state questions. If we allow leadership to use bureaucratic delays and Trojan Horse bills to kill SQ 840, we aren’t just losing a law we are losing our status as a free state.

It is time to stop the runaround. It is time to demand that our elected officials answer to the people, not the “Leadership” in the Capitol.

Here is a flyer which you are encouraged to reprint and circulate!

.https://okgrassroots.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Open-Government-copy.pdf (embedded below)

Open Government copy Download