Democrats in the Oklahoma House of Representatives could pick up three, maybe four seats, this fall, the chair of the Democrat’s political action committee said late last week.

State Rep. Bill Nations, D-Norman, said he expects House Democrats to “protect all their incumbents” and turn three or four seats in the November general election.

Nations made the prediction during a speech at the Cleveland County Democrats’ weekly Tyner Cornbread and Beans luncheon.

“Republicans nationally, and in the state, have given us an opportunity,” he said. “We have a great opportunity.”

For the state House of Representatives to go back under Democratic control, Nations said Democrats would need to pick up seven new seats.

“That sounds like a pretty monumental task,” he said. “And it sounded like a much more monumental task two to three months ago, when there were six term-limited Democrats and only one term-limited Republican.”

But since then, he said, things have changed.

“For various reasons a lot of Republicans have chosen not to run again; and that number of six to one, ended up being seven to six and that looks a lot more doable.”

Though Nations stopped short of predicting a Democratic sweep in the state House, he did say he believed Democrats would narrow the GOP’s 57-44 margin by “three to four seats.”

“There are three or four open seats that have been held by Republicans which we think we have a real good chance to turn,” he said.

Those seats include legislative districts in Ardmore, Chickasha, Stillwater and in Oklahoma City. However, for their plan to work, Nations said Democrats will have to hold open seats in Weatherford, Altus and a close district in south Oklahoma City. “Those two or three seats will be our toughest challenges,” he said.

Speaking about life in the Oklahoma House, Nations had harsh words for the House’s GOP leadership and some of its members.

“If we don’t have a speaker who is resigning in disgrace because he doesn’t pay his taxes, then the Republicans choose a replacement who, unfortunately, also hadn’t paid his taxes,” he said. “In fact, it was my understanding that when the Republican caucus was trying to find a speaker, they just asked for anyone in the room who paid their taxes to raise their hand and you know, Chris Benge was the only one who paid his taxes, so Chris became speaker.”

Addressing Rep. Sally Kern’s speech to the Cleveland County Republican lunch club a few weeks ago, Nations said Kern was an embarrassment.

“We get to have Sally Kern who has so much hate talk about gays going on that she’s not only made Oklahoma a national embarrassment, but an international embarrassment.”