Mr. Lazy and the Crazies?

“In between naps, Cloud has let it be known that he is opposing Gary Jones, perhaps the hardest-working chairman the party has seen in recent years.”

There are many informed observers who believe State GOP Chief Gary Jones has a real race on his hands for another term as chairman. Jones, who lost the 2006 race for state auditor to now-convict Jeff McMahan, largely in part due to the refusal of the state media to cover the race, is facing a stiff from challenger Cheryl Williams. Most believe Jones will win if there is a large turnout of Republicans at the state convention, but if the numbers are small, Mrs. Williams has a good chance of unseating Jones due to her small but fiercely loyal group of supporters.

But a comical element to the race us emerging: insiders say one of Jones’ leading opponents is none other than Corporation Commissioner Jeff Cloud, the ‘D’ student who won re-election in the 2008. Cloud’s laziness and proclivity for hanging out with liberals was exposed last year, and he was embarrassed and apparently angered that Jones did not come to his “rescue.” Cloud has not explained to our sources exactly what he wanted Jones to do, since erasing the facts from the media does not seem to be within Chairman Jones’s power.

Observers are still shaking their head that Cloud was re-elected while fellow Commissioner Jim Roth was defeated. Roth and Cloud had virtually identical liberal records on the commission, and many believed that Roth, superior to Cloud in work ethic, intellect and campaign funding, stood a better chance of re-election. In fact, energy lobbyists worked feverishly to get Cloud out of the race so that Roth could run for the full six-year term, instead of the two-year seat Roth held as a result of his appointment by Gov. Henry to fill the Denise Bode vacancy.

But the anti-Obama backlash propelled Republican Cloud to victory and Democrat Roth was swept away in the same wave. Roth’s management team, led by lobbyist Pat Hall, made critical errors, and the strategy used by Roth’s opponent Dana Murphy capitalized on those errors. Jones masterminded the anti-Roth earned media campaign and insiders say was he was critical to the Murphy’s success.

Since his re-election, Rip Van Cloud had resumed his six-year nap, accomplishing little and working on his golf game. But in between naps, Cloud has let it be known that he is opposing Gary Jones, perhaps the hardest-working chairman the party has seen in recent years. For Cloud, hard work is a foreign concept, something that should have him in line for an Obama cabinet seat; but we digress.

At OKPNS, we’ve had our differences with Jones, but it’s hard to argue with success: as Chairman, he was at the helm as Republicans took over the House of Representatives and the State Senate. The old-guard liberal-leaning Rockefeller Republican wing of the party despises Jones because he has succeeded without their money and their help. Two years ago, he defeated their candidate, and now he faces a challenge from the blue-bloods and the Ron Paul forces, a group one long-time observer tells OKPNS that is serious minded but includes a large percentage “of crazies.”

We don’t know about that characterization of the anti-Jones coalition, and we have nothing against Mrs. Williams, but we do know that if the state’s laziest politician is working talking smack against you, then you must be conservative AND hard working. And that’s something that Jeff Cloud simply does not understand.

Related:

OKPNS FLASHBACK: Video: Corporate Commissioner Jeff Cloud Gets Caught!