Oklahoma Corporation Commission
Who did J. C. Watts work for in Sep 1993?
J . C . Watts Julius Caesar Watts Jr . ( born November 18 , 1957 ) is an American politician , clergyman , and athlete . Watts was a college football quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners and later played professionally in the Canadian Football League . He served in the U.S . House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003 as a Republican , representing Oklahomas 4th Congressional District . Watts was born and raised in Eufaula , Oklahoma , in a rural impoverished neighborhood . After being one of the first children to attend an integrated elementary school , he became a high school quarterback and gained a football scholarship to the University of Oklahoma . He graduated from college in 1981 with a degree in journalism and became a football player in the Canadian Football League until his retirement in 1986 . Watts became a Baptist minister and was elected in 1990 to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission as the first African-American in Oklahoma to win statewide office . He successfully ran for Congress in 1994 and was re-elected to three additional terms with increasing vote margins . Watts delivered the Republican response to Bill Clintons 1997 State of the Union address and was elected Chair of the House Republican Conference in 1998 . He retired in 2003 and turned to lobbying and business work , also occasionally serving as a political commentator . Early life and career . Watts was born in Eufaula in McIntosh County , Oklahoma to J . C . Buddy Watts Sr. , and Helen Watts ( d . 1992 ) . His father was a Baptist minister , cattle trader , the first black police officer in Eufaula , and a member of the Eufaula City Council . His mother was a homemaker . Watts is the fifth of six children and grew up in a poor rural African-American neighborhood . He was one of two black children who integrated the Jefferson Davis Elementary School in Eufaula and the first black quarterback at Eufaula High School . While in high school , Watts fathered a daughter with a white woman , causing a scandal . Their families decided against an interracial marriage because of contemporary racial attitudes and Watts family provided for the child until she could be adopted by Watts uncle , Wade Watts , a Baptist minister , civil rights leader and head of the Oklahoma division of the NAACP . He graduated from high school in 1976 and attended the University of Oklahoma on a football scholarship . In 1977 , Watts married Frankie Jones , an African-American woman with whom he had fathered a second daughter during high school . Watts began his college football career as the second-string quarterback and left college twice , but his father convinced him to return , and Watts became starting quarterback of the Sooners in 1979 and led them to consecutive Orange Bowl victories . Watts graduated from college in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism . Watts was drafted by the New York Jets of the National Football League . The Jets tried Watts at several positions and could not guarantee that he would play quarterback , so he opted to sign with the Canadian Football Leagues Ottawa Rough Riders . As Ottawas quarterback , he helped the team reach the 1981 Grey Cup game , which they nearly won in an upset . Watts stayed with the Rough Riders from 1981 to 1985 and played a season for the Toronto Argonauts before retiring in 1986 . Watts returned to Oklahoma and became a youth minister in Del City and was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1993 . He is a teetotaler . Watts opened a highway construction company and later cited discontent with government regulation of his business as reason to become a candidate for public office . Watts family was affiliated with the Democratic Party and his father and uncle Wade Watts were active in the party , but it did not help Watts when he ran for public office and he changed his party affiliation in 1989 , months before his first statewide race . Watts later stated he had first considered changing parties when he covered the 1980 U.S . Senate campaign of Republican Don Nickles . Watts father and uncle continued to strongly oppose the Republican party , but supported him . Watts won election to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in November 1990 for a six-year term as the first African-American elected to statewide office in Oklahoma . He served as a member of the commission from 1990 to 1995 and as its chairman from 1993 to 1995 . U.S . House of Representatives . 1994 congressional election . Watts ran for Congress in 1994 to succeed Dave McCurdy , who had announced his retirement from the House of Representatives to run for the Senate . He positioned himself as both a fiscal and social conservative , favoring the death penalty , school prayer , a balanced budget amendment and welfare reform , and opposing abortion , gay rights , and reduced defense spending . After a hard-fought primary campaign against state representative Ed Apple , Watts won 49 percent to Apples 48 percent of the vote in August 1994 , and 52 percent in the resulting run-off election in September 1994 with the support of Representative Jack Kemp and actor and National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston . Watts started his race against the Democratic nominee , David Perryman , a white lawyer from Chickasha , with a wide lead in several early polls and 92 percent name recognition in one poll . Watts hosted former President George H . W . Bush , U.S . Senator Bob Dole , and Minority Whip Newt Gingrich and focused on welfare reform and the necessity of capital formation and capital gains , as well as a reduction in the capital gains tax as beneficial for urban blacks . Some voters were expected to not vote for Watts because of race , but the editor of a local political newspaper argued Watts established Christian conservative image and his popularity as a football player would help him win . On November 8 , 1994 , Watts was elected with 52 percent of the vote as the first African-American Republican U.S . Representative from south of the Mason–Dixon line since Reconstruction . He and Gary Franks of Connecticut were the only two African-American Republicans in the House . Oklahomas Fourth District at the time was 90 percent white and had been represented by Democrats since 1922 . As Congressman , Watts was assigned to the Armed Services Committee and the Financial Services Committee . Watts emphasized moral absolutes and was considered in line with Republican Speaker Newt Gingrichs agenda , the Contract with America , and at the time was the only African-American who did not join the Congressional Black Caucus . He initially supported ending affirmative action , declaring inadequate education the main obstacle for racial equality , but subsequently opposed legislation banning the practice for the federal government . Watts focused on promoting his party , attending NAACP meetings and meeting with representatives from historically black colleges . In 1995 , Watts was named national co-chairman for the presidential campaign of Republican Bob Dole . Reelection and successive terms . Watts 1996 reelection campaign featured state representative Ed Crocker as the Democratic candidate in a negative campaign . Crocker questioned Watts business dealings because of tax issues for a real estate company of which Watts was the principal owner , and whether he was paying child support for one of his daughters born out of wedlock . Crocker suggested Watts might use drugs or sanction their use because he declined to participate in a voluntary drug screening in the House of Representatives . Watts denied the charge , took the test , and accused Crocker of draft dodging during the Vietnam War and later living at the center of the West Coast drug culture . Watts was given a featured speaking role at the 1996 Republican National Convention and was re-elected with 58 percent of the vote in the 1996 U.S . House election . Following the election , Watts switched from the Financial Services Committee to the House Transportation Committee . He was the only African-American Republican in the House and was chosen to deliver the Republican reply to President Bill Clintons State of the Union address in February 1997 , the youngest congressman and first African-American to do so . In his response , Watts focused on providing a positive vision of the Republican Party and advocated deficit and tax reduction and faith-based values . Watts had previously spoken to The Washington Times and created controversy by criticizing race-hustling poverty pimps as keeping African-Americans dependent on government . These remarks were viewed as critical of activist Jesse Jackson and Washington , D.C . mayor Marion Barry , and Jesse Jackson Jr . demanded a public apology . Watts stated he did not speak about Barry and Jackson but about some of the leadership in the black community . In his 1998 reelection campaign against Democrat Ben Odom , Watts faced accusations about debts , unpaid taxes and over actions in a federal bribery investigation in 1991 , where he arranged to receive campaign contributions from a lobbyist for telephone companies that were investigated during Watts membership on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission . Odom used portions of a transcript to try to discredit Watts , and the accusations were widely publicized in Oklahoma . Watts argued he had been exonerated from any criminal conduct and that his financial problems were a result of losses for Oklahoma oil and gas businesses during the 1980s . He was re-elected with 62 percent of the vote . From 1995 until 1997 , Watts was only one of two black Republicans in Congress ( along with Gary Franks of Connecticut ) . From 1997 until 2003 , Watts was the only black Republican Congressman . There would not be another until the elections of Tim Scott and Allen West in 2011 . Leadership position and retirement . In Congress , Watts had established himself as a devoted conservative . He had a lifetime 94 percent rating from the American Conservative Union and a lifetime liberal quotient of 1 percent from Americans for Democratic Action , and was regarded as a team player by Republicans . Watts was elected House Republican Conference Chair in 1998 , replacing John Boehner , after a vote of 121–93 . Watts assumed the position in 1999 and was the first African-American Republican elected to a leadership post . In his leadership position , Watts opposed government regulations and President Clintons attempt to restore the ability of the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products . He voted to impeach Bill Clinton , was appointed by Speaker Dennis Hastert to lead a group of House Republicans to investigate cybersecurity issues , and became a member of a presidential exploratory committee for George W . Bush . Watts argued for using tax reduction to improve education , job training and housing in poor urban and rural settings , and advocated letting religious institutions carry out the work . Watts worked to make his party more inclusive , promoted African trade , supported historically black colleges and universities , and was opposed to federal funding of embryonic stem cell research . To keep a majority of House seats in the 2000 election , Watts advised Republicans to moderate their language and criticized the party for creating the perception it favored a view of family values that excluded single mothers . Watts opposed the Confederate battle flag flying over the South Carolina State House and advised Republicans to go slowly on opposing racial quotas . By then , Watts had become involved in a contest with other members of the Republican House leadership , including Tom DeLay , over control of the partys message and nearly announced retirement in early February 2000 , due to strains on his family , who remained in Oklahoma during his tenure in Washington , but changed his mind after consultations with constituents , Hastert , and his family . He ran , despite an earlier pledge to serve not more than three terms . Watts won re-nomination with 81 percent against James Odom and was re-elected by his largest margin yet against Democratic candidate Larry Weatherford . After George W . Bush took office as president , Watts co-sponsored a bill to create tax incentives for charitable donations and allow religious charities to receive federal money for social programs , and proposed several new tax reductions in addition to Bushs tax cut plan , targeting the estate tax and marriage penalty . Watts was one of ten congressional leaders taken to an undisclosed location following the September 11 attacks . In 2002 , Watts stated he would not seek reelection , citing a desire to spend more time with his family , but stated the decision was difficult because Rosa Parks asked him to stay . Republicans argued Watts complained about the party message and the cancellation of an artillery system in his district by the Bush Administration , which Watts denied . Watts supported the candidacy of Tom Cole , who won the election to fill his seat . Post-congressional career . After he left Congress , Watts was appointed by President Bush to be a member of the Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy for a term expiring December 30 , 2003 . Watts founded a lobbying and consulting firm , J . C . Watts Companies , in Washington , D.C. , to represent corporations and political groups and focus on issues he championed in Congress . The John Deere Company hired Watts as lobbyist in 2006 and Watts later invested in a Deere dealership and sought financial support from United States agencies and others for a farm-related project in Senegal . Watts wrote an autobiography , wrote regular opinion columns for the Las Vegas Review-Journal , and joined the boards of several companies , including Dillards , Terex , Clear Channel Communications , and CSX Transportation , and served as chairman of GOPAC . Watts supported the Iraq War in 2003 , stating : America did not become the leader of the free world by looking the other way to heinous atrocities and unspeakable evils . He was later hired as a political commentator by CNN and following the 2006 House election , Watts argued the Republican Party had lost seats because it failed to address the needs of urban areas and did not offer a positive message . He stated : We lost our way , pure and simple . In 2008 , Watts announced he was developing a cable news network with the help of Comcast , focusing on an African-American audience , and that he considered voting for Barack Obama , criticizing the Republican party for failing in outreach to the African-American community . Reports showed he contributed to John McCain , but not to Obama . Watts considered running to succeed Brad Henry as Governor of Oklahoma in the 2010 gubernatorial election , but declined in May 2009 , citing his business and contractual obligations . On April 7 , 2015 , Watts joined U.S . Senator Rand Paul on stage during Pauls announcement speech for U.S . president . Watts endorsed Paul in his presidential bid . For most of 2016 , Watts served as the President and CEO of Feed the Children ( FTC ) . The Board of Directors announced his appointment on January 21 . On November 15 , the organization and Watts announced that he was no longer serving in those roles . The following April , Watts sued both FTC and its Board of Directors for wrongful termination . According to Watts , he was fired after uncovering rampant financial mismanagement at the charity and notifying the states Attorney General Office of potentially illegal practices . Feed The Children denied there was any validity to Watts’ claims and preceded to file a counter-suit against him . The case was settled in 2019 , after FTC agreed to drop their counter-suit and pay Watts $1 million to resolve all his claims against them . In 2019 Watts began plans to start the Black News Channel , which launched on February 10 , 2020 as a 24-hour news channel aimed at an African American audience .