Keating: When I was governor, Republicans and Democrats worked together

I had the honor of being the only governor in Oklahoma history to have served in both houses of the Legislature. Moreover, as a rare breed Republican, I was only third in line behind my luminary predecessors, Henry Bellmon and Dewey Bartlett. Statehood in 1907 was long past. The Party of Lincoln was a relic to most Okies. Few knew much about them. Republicans were curiosities, searched for on Saturday nights by probing headlights of the inquisitive. My one House term saw 25 Republicans serving alongside 76 Democrats. The Senate was worse. My brief service there saw me as Republican leader. There were seven of us out of 48 members. Pretty slim numbers.

Once on the Senate floor, I presented a bill that would drop the long-time legislative requirement that before a person could be institutionalized for drug or alcohol abuse, he had to commit a crime. Like beating a wife or child. My bill would simply require a medical jury to decide to send someone for treatment who was a threat to himself or others. Before I could explain the bill, a powerful Senate Democratic leader rose and asked if I would “yield?” I agreed and he promptly asked his colleagues for unanimous consent to remove me as the author of the bill “because it was too important a bill to be handled by a Republican.” Fortunately, the bill passed.

When I was elected governor, I proposed that the Democratic heads of the Senate and House have breakfast with me once a week. They agreed. I pressed on and proposed that the Senate and House Republican leaders join us at the same time. They balked. “Why would we do that?” one inquired. “They have nothing to contribute.” I pressed and won the issue. For years, both party leaders and I met, socialized and debated. Knowing and respecting your adversary is a good way to move forward. We are all in government together. If the USS Oklahoma sinks, we all go down together. The last people left laughing will be the Texans.

In eight years with me as governor and Democrats in charge of the Legislature, we put Right to Work in the Constitution; finished the turnpikes on the to-do list and four-laned hundreds of miles of state highways; legalized charter schools and public school choice; passed tort reform; cut taxes and put the dome on the Capitol with private money.

Democrats and Republicans worked together. For Oklahoma. For progress. Because we knew one another and respected one another. We created a DO culture. What we needed was DONE, by both parties, hand in hand.

Frank Keating was formerly the governor of Oklahoma from 1995-2003.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: When I was governor, Oklahoma Republicans and Democrats worked together