Dewey Bartlett’s long goodbye

Soul food and contention

Mayor Bartlett was unhappy. It was the last week in June and he was calling about a column I had written called “Bartlett’s Trump Card,” in which I took him to task for, among other things, endorsing Trump for president and attempting to crash a Democratic event last year where Vice President Joe Biden spoke.

“You bum rush the Summit Club, try to strong arm your way into a Democratic event, and start throwing your mayoral weight around, as if such a stunt sways a secret service …” I wrote. He wasn’t amused.

He didn’t want to write a rebuttal; he wanted to talk.

So, the mayoral election comes and goes. He loses, badly, to City Councilor G.T. Bynum; still he wants to talk. Emails back and forth. He goes to Europe. Weeks pass, a month passes. Surely it no longer matters. 

It does. 

First week in August, the phone rings. He’s in my contact list by now. 

DEWEY BARTLETT. 

A line or two of pleasantries, if that. 

“I don’t have the article in front of me,” he says. “I’m driving.” 

“Me, too.”

He tells me about his father, Dewey F. Bartlett, former senator and governor, and his close friendship with then-Senator Joe Biden, despite their ideological divide. The mayor wishes I had called for the backstory.

“Mr. Mayor, I did a piece, as you know, with Mayor-elect Bynum. Just him and me at lunch. Let’s do the same.”

Evelyn’s Soul Food Kitchen is at the airport. I’m early. Wanda, who runs things, smiles. Soon, I see the mayor in the parking lot, alone, walking towards the front door. He enters.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were waiting for a celebrity?” Wanda says, seeing him. 

“Best food in town,” the mayor tells me.

THE TULSA VOICE: So where do you want to start?

DEWEY BARTLETT: The one thing I wanted to mention was the background on the Joe Biden deal. First of all I was not asked to leave, I was not kicked out of the Summit Club. 

TTV: But why go to a Democratic fundraiser in the first place?

DB: In the past when I met him, I knew he was coming into town. The one at the Summit Club, I didn’t know.

TTV: You didn’t know about this one? 

DB: That’s exactly right—not know until I think the day before … so I just said, “Shoot I’ll just go try to meet him down at the Summit Club.” So, I didn’t even know what time or anything, they’re always kind of guarded about that for security reasons. Anyway, so I showed up and introduced myself to the head of security and said I’d like to see him if it’s possible, and told him I did have somewhat of a relationship with him, which I’m sure they hear all the time. The security guy said, “Well, he’s awfully busy now. He was giving a speech,” and I said, “All right, I understand,” left my card, and that was the end of it. 

TTV: So why didn’t you go to the airport to meet him? 

DB: I honestly don’t know why. Probably I was busy. Who knows? 

TTV: You talked about the vice president and your father and their love and respect for each other. Have politics gotten more partisan? 

DB: Oh God, yeah.

TTV: Have you?

DB: No, not really. I don’t think so.

TTV: What about the Trump endorsement—

DB: I didn’t endorse him, first of all. A guy from Channel Six was interviewing me and … said “Are you in a position to support Trump?” or something. My answer was something to the effect of, if I remember it correctly, “Trump has gone through the process and he has won everything fair and square. And I would support him.” I wouldn’t endorse him.

TTV: Mr. Mayor, what’s the difference? GOP officials try to make that distinction all the time with Trump. 

DB: Endorsement to me is when you start out at the beginning of a campaign and say, “I’m for that person.” Supporting is a little more towards the end, where you’re saying “I’ll support him, I didn’t start out necessarily, he wasn’t my person.”

TTV: Well, do you think it hurt you in the election?

DB: I don’t know if it did or not. It was portrayed as if it was a bad thing. I try to steer clear of political correctness and, whatever my position is, I try to be as straightforward as I can.

TTV: The press in Tulsa, how do you feel it treats you? 

DB: Very fairly.

TTV: Really?

DB: I do. The one issue I have with the press is some that are involved with press haven’t had the experience that I wish they would have. Most of them are fairly understanding of politics and how government works. But many have not had the experience of running a business and what that means. It’s so unfortunate. In the schools of journalism, I would really enjoy seeing a stronger effort towards requiring that understanding.

TTV: Were you surprised no Democrat filed?

DB: Yeah I was, but I really didn’t spend a lot of time trying to strategize on this or that.

TTV: You didn’t?

DB: Oh, you know, some. I would say that most people probably don’t realize the amount of time that it does take to really do a good job as mayor. Now, others could approach it differently and probably have, but that’s how I do it. 

TTV: Was there a point in the campaign or the debates where you said “This is not going well”? 

DB: Sometimes they were structured in such a way that either I wasn’t fully able to answer a question. But no. I think there was some kind of overall desire that Tulsa is like the “sea of change,” and I think that entered into a lot of it. I assume it did. 

TTV: Were you surprised none of the city council came out for you?

DB: Not really. Mr. Bynum is very good friends—he has a relationship with all of them.

TTV: How would you describe your relationship with him through the years? He said growing up, he looked up to you. 

DB: I didn’t know him very well until he got on the council, really. 

TTV: He told me he worked on your original campaign? He was involved in your original, first campaign? 

DB: My first campaign for mayor?

TTV: Yeah.

DB: Maybe. I don’t remember. It was a long time ago.

TTV: From a policy standpoint, you’re both Republicans, what’s the difference between you two?

DB: Well, he supports the penny sales tax for education, I oppose it. But I think I’ll be able to answer that question much better in about two years, when we see how he handles things. There’s going to be something that’s going to hit the fan. 

TTV: It did—

DB: As it DID with me. My first day in office I found out that the economic collapse that we were just about ready to deal with, I handled that pretty well. 

TTV: Does the perception of Oklahoma nationally affect how a mayor of a city like Tulsa does his job? 

DB: It depends on the headline, obviously, but yeah! When they put it in such a way that makes it sound like we’re a bunch of bumpkins. 

TTV: But sometimes we do sound like a bunch of bumpkins.

DB: Maybe. Far be it for me to say that, but I don’t think anybody has that market corner of being a bumpkin.

TTV: But that ‘R’ hyphen after the name always goes out and we’re solid Republican here.

DB: It’s more of an urban/rural split than it is party split. 

TTV: Do you think the council took a lot of its grievances with you to the public that should have been best kept private?

DB: You’d have to ask them that. 

TTV: But what do you think? 

DB: I’m sure they did. I’m sure they’d say the same thing about me.

TTV: Let’s go back to what I perceive to be your political shift? An example: Five years ago, you said, “If I had my druthers I’d rather have a Christmas Parade, but I understand I live in a diverse city, and we should keep it sort of non-named.” This past year, you said “Let’s rename it the Christmas parade.” That was a change, agreed? 

DB: No, not really a change. I mean, still, there was a group, a strong group that wanted to have that, and I thought well, OK, it’s not against the law, and that’s what the group wanted in this case, for it to be Christmas. If that’s what they want, all right. 

TTV: On some of the national issues, you wrote the president about the Syrian refugees, you were against Obamacare. Why is that your concern as Tulsa mayor?

DB: Well I thought it very important because national security is a very, very important thing for me … it keeps me up nights. 

TTV: And ACA? Why come out and against that? 

DB: ACA? 

TTV: Affordable Care Act. 

DB: I have yet to hear anybody in the business community say “this is the greatest thing since sliced bread.” I’ve seen it in the city government. It’s costing us a lot more money. 

TTV: And you don’t blame the insurance companies gaming the system for that? 

DB: No, I haven’t seen good documentation that that’s the case. 

TTV: One of the things that G.T. Bynum told me was that he thought there was sort of a political fire rule that goes up, and it doesn’t really matter what the Tulsa mayor thinks about certain issues nationally—

DB: Oh, yeah. 

TTV: And that ACA and the Syrian refugees would be off the table? 

DB: Take off the table? 

TTV: Yeah.

DB: I was asked “What keeps you up at night?” and I said “national security” and used Cushing, Oklahoma, as an example. If somebody were to do something to it, it would bring the economy to a screeching halt, immediately, and it would devastate our country. And that’s a very real observation. That would hurt Tulsa. If somebody goes there and brings a nuclear device or just a hell of a big bomb and blows the hell out of Cushing.

TTV: It’s the Syrian refugee part of that, though, that breaks down. Let’s move on, though. Looking back, your successes?

DB: Well, the most recent one was the public safety portion of Vision Tulsa. That was my idea at the beginning. We had a lot of changes in the process and the intermediate in the mean time, but keeping it in a way that would pass. Some people wanted to add an increase in tax, and/or take out public safety. I was adamant that those would not be very smart to do because it would kill the whole idea. 

TTV: What are your plans now? 

DB: Still being mayor. I’m trying to complete several things before my term’s over. I’d like to put in an academy in each and every one of our high schools. Where I feel where we made some mistakes is we focus on telling people you have to go to college, and that’s not true for everyone, so what do we tell those people? 

TTV: That would probably be more effective if college-educated people weren’t making that statement.

DB: But they do make it. The important thing is, when kids graduate from high school, they ought to have a choice and right now, it’s just a college degree. 

TTV: Did you like the non-partisan election format?

DB: No. I did initially. It sounded good. G.T. was trying as hard as he could to say he wasn’t affiliated. And I said, “Well, I’m Republican.” I think it’s important to have some kind of label for people who don’t pay attention to politics. One of the real problems—and it’s kind of ironic—is the length of time between the primary and when a new mayor is sworn into office. 

TTV: Seven months.

DB: It’s a long time and it’s a terrible thing putting anyone in that position. And here I am. And the campaign starts a long time before that—last September. And G.T. had the time to do it. I had to be mayor.

TTV: Is there a mechanism where you could shorten those 7 months?

DB: I’d have to resign and I’m not going to do that.

TTV: You know how to work a room. Seems like you’ve been to every church in this city a couple of times. It seems genuine.

DB: I’m glad you pointed that out. It’s real. It’s not some bullshit deal. I’m not doing it for political purposes. I wanted to do it because it was outreach that had never happened. Now it didn’t necessarily show in the election, but that’s OK, because I wanted to establish a true friendship and relationship with a part of town that has pretty much been neglected, especially from an economic development standpoint, ever since the Race Riots.

TTV: Any regrets?

DB: No, the campaign, that’s all over now. The people have spoken. I do hope that Mr. Bynum does well and leads the city well. I’ll be around. I’m not going anywhere. It’s my city, too.

For more from Barry, read his article on SQ 779.