By Andrew W. Griffin

Oklahoma Watchdog, editor

Posted: May 13, 2010

andrew@oklahomawatchdog.org

EDMOND, Okla. – If you have seen a foldable laminated map, you may be surprised to learn that the inventor lives in the Deer Creek area of Edmond and is currently running for the 5^th Congressional District being vacated by Republican Mary Fallin.

The inventor/candidate is Dave White. He has never run for office before but he has been everything from a Navy SEAL platoon leader, served in Operation Desert Storm and is also a successful businessman.

Recently, White sat down with Oklahoma Watchdog in his office in his Deer Creek home and 24-acre-ranch. On the walls of his office was everything from his graduation certificate from the Naval Academy to his patent for the laminated map idea.

White, relaxed in casual clothing and offering a friendly, reassuring smile, said that his political philosophy had been in the Republican camp for a long time, but has shifted in recent years.

“The Republicans have become a little too liberal for me,” White said. “I’m a conservative independent who is more to the right than any of the Republicans running.”

Added White: “I’ve got a good resume. Some accomplishments. I didn’t do these things because I was thinking I would run for office.”

White said he has been “egged on to run for Congress for a while.” He said that his concern is that too many congress people are forced to “dial for dollars,”  preparing for the next campaign, and not focusing enough on important legislation they may be facing. Also, being debt-free, as he is, if elected he would “owe no favors, and no debts to special interests, parties, PACs, lobbies, corporations or wealthy constituents.”

White can’t understand how the system got to the point where congress people spend many hours a day pandering to special interests, rather than working hard to protect their constituents and represent Oklahoma with “dignity and pride.”

“I don’t know how they legislate,” said White. “I don’t want to do that. I’m not a fundraiser. I have leadership skills.”

White is certainly a different sort of candidate, amidst a field of Republican, Democrat and one Libertarian candidate.

And it was a chance encounter with Mary Fallin, in a nearly-deserted Home Depot on Christmas Eve that ultimately led White to consider running for her seat.

“I thought about helping her campaign” to run for governor, White said. But he got to thinking that with the open seat, maybe he should run for her seat himself.

And then, when his stepdaughter Jessica asked him about the financial problems America was facing, he told her what sort of financially precarious situation her generation faced.

“Kids look at their dads and think they can fix anything. She said, ‘Well, fix it.’”

It was a simple statement from a child. But White saw too many signs leading him to pursue the congressional seat, even though he knew it would be tough, in a crowded field, with a  number of conservatives running.

“Well, I’m debt free, I have a company that runs itself down in Florida, and I thought, ‘What’s my excuse not to run now?’ I’m in,” he said.

White, 45, has a fascinating history. Originally from Santa Ynez, Calif., White said after his time with the Navy SEALs, he returned home, working for his father at an insurance company office and living at his father’s home. It was the early 1990s.

“For a year I wandered around aimlessly, not sure what I was going to do,” he said, noting that he was “penniless.”

He tried to be a stockbroker, but that didn’t work out. He sent out resumes, one of which was seen by successful businessman and Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot.

Perot, White said, had been in the Navy and liked Navy SEALs and Delta Force guys. When Perot saw White’s resume, he brought him to Texas for an interview

“He said, ‘You’re the guy I’m looking for,’” White recalls.

But after visiting Perot’s business in Virginia and giving it some time, White took something Perot had told him to heart.

“He said ‘If you do something you love, you’ll be successful.’”

And since White didn’t have a heart for computers, which Perot’s business specialized in, he turned down Perot’s offer.

It was a tough decision, but one that would lead White to something arguably better.

“A month after my meeting with Ross Perot, I was sitting in a restaurant fiddling with the restaurant menu, the kind that folded.”

Suddenly, the proverbial light bulb went off. He had an idea. Why not laminate road maps and design them to where they fold, like regular paper maps, up flat.

“I thought about and I went after it,” he said.

He then put a patent together with a patent attorney. The attorney warned White that securing a patent is a long, expensive process.

But in this instance, White was shocked when the attorney informed him, three months after submitting the patent, that it had been approved, with no corrections necessary.

“Cool things started happening to me,” White said. “God’s looking out for me.”

Taking money he had from a car he sold, White came up with a  map of the nearby city of Santa Barbara, California.

Calling the company Frog Maps, since he had been a frogman in the Navy, White was rejected by the big map companies. So he started his own publishing company and maps of California and more followed. It was hard, with an overwhelming order from State Farm coming in.

A move from California to Florida and relieving himself of the publishing company portion of the business proved wise. It allowed White to focus on the laminating process and let the big mapmaking company to do the rest.

It had taken a few years, but as White said, by 1997 he was “making money.”

But one of the keys to his successful business was the die-cutting process he developed that allows the laminated maps to fold over and remain flat. That, he said, is a trade secret and no one else knows how to do it.

“I’ve always wanted to run my own companies,” White said, whose Clearwater, Fla.-based business, Laminating Services Inc., is still in operation.

And just last week, White mailed out information to athletic directors in Oklahoma and Florida outlining “Game Plan Paper,” which will allow coaches and others to print off their game plan with the laminating technique offered by White’s company.

“I guess we’ll find out soon if it will take off,” White said.

Five years ago, Dave moved to Oklahoma and married an old girlfriend, Lisa, whom he rekindled a relationship with after a number of years, after repaying her a significant amount of money that she had lent to him.

“It took me 22 years to get married to this girl,” he said.

Now, with six children, three of his from a previous marriage, and three of hers from her previous marriage, White and his family are preparing for the upcoming primary in July where it will be decided who goes up against.

“I’m to the right of my opponents,” he said. “Look at the track record of those running against me.”

White said he is not interested in political consultants or being beholden to anybody except for the constituents of the 5^th Congressional District in Oklahoma.

And if he makes it to Washington, he won’t be thinking of the fat cats who want favors, he’ll make decisions using a higher set of standards.

“I think, ‘What does the Constitution say?’ he said, adding, “I’m not addicted to the heroin of special interest money.”

White said he sees a real positive future for Oklahoma. Although he is a Californian, and talks in that easygoing, California accent, he has fully embraced the Sooner State and its conservative values.

“God, family and country is still alive here,” White said. “The atmosphere here is really positive.”

As for the issues that are important, he calls for tax relief and tax cuts for American families and businesses. He wants to pursue reasonable economic incentives “that liberate American business from burdensome government regulations.”

White emphasizes securing the northern and southern borders and both coasts.

“We don’t have an immigration problem; we have a border security problem.

He wants to pursue natural gas and expanded energy programs, bring the troops home – “give them a break. I can’t imagine how exhausted they are,” the Navy SEAL noted – and repeal ObamaCare.

White is also pro-life, pro-marriage and pro-gun. His campaign website has a thorough list of his conservative positions.

For more information, go to www.daveforcongress2010.com.

Copyright 2010 Oklahoma Watchdog