My views on everything from welfare to a balanced budget to affirmative action can be traced to what Buddy and Helen Watts taught me as a young boy growing up poor but proud in Eufaula.

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. " 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. C.

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. Watts served in the U. Watts delivered the Republican response to Bill Clinton's 1997 State of the Union address and was elected Chair of the House Republican Conference in 1998.