Gov. Stitt's pushback against the Senate is personal, leader Greg Treat says

Editors Note: This is the second of a two-part series about the ongoing feud between Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and Senate Pro Tempore Greg Treat.

When Sen. Greg McCortney was picked to succeed Sen. Greg Treat as Oklahoma's Senate president pro tempore in the next legislative session, some of the tension between the Senate and the governor's office faded. Not long after McCortney was chosen, the House GOP caucus picked Rep. Kyle Hilbert as its next speaker.

And for a moment, talk at the Capitol returned to policy, the budget and legislation.

But about the same time the contest for pro tempore was going on, Republican leader Treat announced a new budget transparency initiative for the Senate, intended to bring more visibility — at least on the Senate side — to the process by which lawmakers arrived at their funding decisions.

Agency heads were asked to appear at budget hearings, not to echo the governor’s call of a flat budget, but to answer questions about where their money was being spent and what the agency’s needs were next year.

The House continued to process its budget proposals the way it had done in the past and, at times, the differences between the two chambers became public. Still, the budget process moved forward.

Part 1: Stitt vs. Treat: Inside the fight between the governor and the Senate pro tempore

Then, in mid-March and just a few weeks away from the opening of the election filing period, the governor played a second card: A plan to defeat some of the Republicans who had opposed him.

Abandoning the GOP’s 11^th Commandment, Stitt reached out to previous staff members and supporters and began working to find opponents to run against some incumbent Republican senators.

At first, the governor’s actions were just rumors. But just about three weeks before the April filing period Stitt went public, telling the media that he would be actively campaigning for legislators who “support his issues,” such as school choice policies and lower taxes.

“Listen, I’m never going to shy away from limited government, smaller government, the freedoms that we believe in, the free market principles, the school choice, the smaller taxes,” Stitt said during a March 8 news conference. “So, absolutely, I mean, if there’s candidates that I think are going to line up with Oklahoma values, and there’s candidates that don’t, then I 100 percent will play in the primaries and get involved and try to let Oklahomans know what I think.”

Stitt, sources said, had connected with Donnell Harder, a former communication staffer of his and now part of a political action committee known as 46Forward. The PAC, founded by several contributors to the governor, began raising money to fund challengers to some incumbent GOP lawmakers, including McCortney and Sen. Adam Pugh, of Edmond.

Treat pushed back, warning Stitt during a news conference that attempting to defeat incumbents of the governor’s same party was a bad political move for the state’s chief executive.

“It’s a very small community when it comes to the political world. I know he is fairly new to it, but all of us talk. And it’s an even smaller group of people who fund these ventures, and we’ve heard from people who have been hit up from his operation to go after our members, and that’s not well received,” Treat said. “It’s going to be very unwelcome if he tries to take out members of our caucus."

Treat said he would fight the governor's effort.

“Even though I am termed out, I would do everything that I can outside of this building in a non-official capacity to help my colleagues who are really making a difference in Oklahoma,” he said.

A few of Treat’s opponents in the Senate, including Nathan Dahm, criticized the pro tempore on social media.

“The hypocrisy never seems to end with Sen. Treat. Apparently, he thinks it’s ok for him and his cronies to go after other sitting Senators to try to remove them, but it’s not ok for the Governor or anyone else to endorse in these elections? Total utter hypocrisy as always from Treat,” Dahm wrote in a message on X, once known as Twitter.

The filing period came and went, McCortney initially drew two opponents, Jonathan Wingard and Robert Crowley. A short time later, Crowley withdrew his candidacy, leaving only Wingard.

In Pugh’s race, no opponent filed, and because there was no general opponent and no primary race, Pugh automatically reclaimed his office. By late April, it appeared the governor's effort to recruit primary opponents against members of the Senate had stalled.

The 2024 session end game

Since mid-March, Stitt has remained mostly quiet.

Questioned recently about his relationship with the Senate leaders and how that would affect the state’s budget, Stitt said, “Listen, I’m not going to speak to that, that’s your words. Senator Treat (has) not asked us or showed us any Senate budgets. We’ve seen them roll that out. We love transparency. I’m asking for a budget before the end of session so Oklahomans can understand what’s happening.”

But the fact remains that the relationship between Treat and Stitt does have problems.

"I think it's a personal hatred of me," Treat said. "I'm hard-nosed and a tough negotiator, but we (Treat and the governor) share philosophically about 95 percent of what we believe in."

As an example of Stitt's personal animosity toward him, Treat said the governor's office will often communicate with many members of the Legislature on small, inconsequential issues, but won't talk to the Senate's leadership. Treat pointed to a recently vetoed domestic violence bill as an example of the problem.

More: Governor and Republican legislative leaders make budget progress; Democrats sidelined

"My newest members (will) receive texts from the governor or the governor's team on, say, raising a fee for $5, a hypothetical," Treat said. "But the leader of the Senate and the floor leader of the House were not consulted by the governor on this bill."

Still, even though Treat is quick to acknowledge the problems in the working relationship between himself and the governor, he said Stitt brings several positives to the role of governor.

"I personally, think the governor is a very gregarious, likable guy when you're around him," he said. "I think Kevin Stitt is a good family man. I think he's a strong Christian. I think he's likable. I used to enjoy being around him, but he's cut off all communication."

Since then, Stitt has denied any animosity between himself and Treat. Speaking at an April 26 news briefing, the governor said his decision to veto legislation "was not personal." Yet, at the same time, the governor didn't answer questions about whether or not he recruited candidates against incumbent Republican members of the Senate.

"I'm trying to make Oklahoma a top 10 state," Stitt said. "If we have disagreements, it is probably around whether we should cut taxes or not. I have no ill feelings toward him or anyone in this building. There may be philosophical differences between myself and Senator Treat. I hope it's not personal. It's not personal with me."

Former Senate President Pro Tempore Cal Hobson said Stitt’s plan to play in the primaries against incumbents of his own party was risky and could prove costly.

“I don’t know of a time, at least in the modern era, where an incumbent governor regardless of party would go after people in his own party and recruit against them,” Hobson said.

Hobson, a Democrat who served as pro tempore of the Senate from 2003 to 2005, said the move by Stitt was a signal the governor was “relatively clueless on how to make friends and influence people.”

“(Working against members of his own party) isn’t going to reward him when it comes time to find people to support his legislative agenda,” Hobson said. "Perhaps he's not used to being challenged, being a former CEO and all."

Like Treat, he pointed to then-Gov. Frank Keating as the example of how close political ties can benefit a governor. He said Stitt doesn't seem to care when he's overriden.

“But Frank Keating made it his priority to never lose an override vote," Hobson said. Keating, Hobson said, was successful because he understood state lawmakers. He said Keating’s vetoes were upheld more than 200 times during his tenure in office, while Stitt has been overridden several times.

“That’s what he gets for not knowing how the process works,” Hobson said. “This kind of thing will not reward him on policy and will certainly not earn him any friends when he needs them.”

More: Stitt backs away from .25 personal income tax cut; calls for 'flattening' of income tax brackets

Stitt’s final two years in office, Hobson predicted, will be difficult.

With less that a month remaining in the legislative session, there’s little time left for Stitt to make nice with the Senate — a fact that’s not lost on the Senate’s soon-to-be-retired leader.

Treat said the governor’s ability to influence state policy is fading.

“He’s got some real talent and charisma that has carried him a long way,” Treat said. “But as far as the ability to influence policy to oversee the agencies he is supposed to oversee, we’ve got some real issues at some state agencies right now.”

Stitt is a good politician, Treat said, but he doesn’t govern well.

“His ability to influence policy and cast a vision and lead is less than optimal,” Treat said. And when it comes to bare-knuckle politics, Treat said the governor isn’t prepared for a drawn-out, difficult political fight.

“If he thinks he can influence elections enough to handpick a pro tempore that will just do whatever he wants and will be his puppet, he is sadly mistaken,” Treat said.

With the session close to its end and the primary election just weeks away, both men will see the results of the governor’s political plays soon.

For Treat, the best result would be a lesson learned by the governor.

“I think when he came from the business world, which he mastered and became financially successful, he felt like he could come in, and I was a department head and so was my counterpart (Speaker McCall), and he could just tell us who to hire and fire and how to run these things more efficiently,” Treat said. “But that’s not the way.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Treat: Stitt breaks 'rule' not to work against other Republicans