Some of the people in our group were quite militant. I made sure they understood the nature of the fight. We cannot win this by being angry. We cannot win this by being loud. I proposed that we use Humor and gile.
McCurdy then gave us a present. He announced he was vacating his U.S. Rep. seat, and running for the Senate. Biggest mistake he ever made. I really didn't think we could take him down while he was running for the Southwest district, but running for the whole state ? With HIS liberal voting record ?
As an added bonus, J.C. Watts found his courage and announced he was going to run for the 4th district.
We found out McCurdy was going to make his Senatorial announcement at the local airport when he flew in in a couple of days.
We met him there with about 80 protestors. (Conservative Protestors is something I just ain't never seen before.
) We confronted him at the terminal and he was shell shocked. He just couldn't believe we didn't like him. He and Dr. Goss got into a verbal exchange that almost turned into a fist fight. It was definitely a shoving match.
We made the Local news. Then we made the news across the border in Texas. Then Oklahoma City, Tulsa, etc.
To make a long story shorter, we would find out where he was going to appear, and protest him. For several months.
I decided we needed more. I own a 30 foot trailer, and so I built an animatronic bill board 8'x24' featuring George Washington holding up the bill of rights while Kicking Dave McCurdy in the butt. In giant letters the sign proclaimed "KICK McCURDY OUT ! " Every time George Kicked McCurdy, McCurdy's head would Pop out about a foot. I added sound effects of McCurdy Screaming, and promising he wouldn't do it again, etc.
It was hillarious. We Dressed up as Continental soldiers with fife and drums and Muskets, and then we went to every McCurdy Rally, Speaking event.
The first time McCurdy saw us with this setup he was in the company of the speaker of the house of the state Legislature. They stopped the car and just stared. McCurdy was going to a flag rasing ceremony at the local Goodyear plant, and our operatives from inside said he was completely f*cked up. They said they could hear the screams from the sign all through the ceremony.
We made another trailer mounted sign which we borrowed from Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, and towed it all around the countryside. You know the sign i'm talking about. It's the Picture of Hitler doing a Nazi salute with the caption " All in favor of Gun Control raise your right hand. "
McCurdy changed his schedule to avoid Lawton, so we met him in Chicasha, Enid, Ardmore, Norman, and Oklahoma City. During OU football games, we would park on the side of Highway 9 going into the stadium and wave at the bumper to bumper traffic going to the OU game.
After the Game started, we would move the sign to the other side of the road and catch the traffic Exiting the game.
Most people cracked up. Some weren't so friendly and so we had to be careful. I remeber one paticular incident when we were walking around in front of the sign when a van pulled up, and someone inside was screaming something incoherent. Then the van door started opening and I thought to myself, 'uh oh, here comes trouble. " I turned the musket around so as to use it as a club and was prepared to get physical if necessary.
Some crazy guy was in the back of the van yelling at us but he wasn't attacking. That's when Larry (Dr. Goss) said, "Hey, it's Frank Keating !"
(Frank Keating was running for Governor. ) As I got closer I could here him saying, "You guys are GREAT ! You guys are FANTASTIC ! You have lent an excitement to this campaign that i've never seen before ! " I walked up and said "Let me shake the hand of the Next Governor of the State of Oklahoma! " And so it came to be.
As a result of J.C. Watts running for congress, the National Republican party pulled out all the stops in Oklahoma. At the time there was only one other Black Republican serving in congress, and the RNC was desperate to increase the numbers of Black Republicans elected to office.
We got visits from all the Major Republicans. During this time, I met Phil Grahmm, Haley Barbour, Bob Dole, Pat Buchanan, Governor Keating, Lt. Governor Mary Fallin, J.C. Watts, and John McCain. I had met George W. Bush 2 years previously while campainging for his #$%^%$$ father.
To be honest, I was absolutely NOT impressed with George W. He wore tasseled penny loafers which I have come to associate with the non-working yuppy rich class.
They all saw my sign, and loved it. Somewhere I have pictures of most of them in front of it.
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