National commentator joins state think tank


On Tuesday (July 3), the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), a free-market “think tank,” announced hiring of Tina Korbe as new policy impact director.
  
Korbe has been associate editor of the conservative news and commentary website HotAir.com, in Washington, D.C. OCPA officials said, in announcing the new hire to CapitolBeatOK, that Korbe “covered more than 1,000 political stories including the 2012 presidential primaries, the debt limit crisis of 2011, scandals in the Obama White House and the ongoing culture war.”

Her exclusive interview subjects have included former Sen. Rick Santorum and House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan. She has also interviewed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, business leader Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and others.

She has contributed commentary to Fox News and Fox Business programs, including “Hannity,” “Fox and Friends,” “Cavuto” and “The Willis Report,” and has been featured on several national radio programs. 

Previously, she worked at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Media and Public Policy. Her reporting experience included traveling to Madison, Wisconsin, where she covered teacher union protests and interviewed Governor Scott Walker.

A journalism graduate of the University of Arkansas, she minored in Spanish. Korbe said she will live in Edmond.

Korbe said that her study of government helped her “really understand and appreciate the genius of our Founders in designing a federalist system, where states have sovereignty over their own spheres of influence.” This led her, she commented, to focus on solving problems “on a more local level, or, in this case, on the state level, and OCPA is the perfect place to do that. I’m really excited to be working with the staff here to try to create the best possible society for Oklahomans.” 

Korbe will be a spokesman for OCPA and provide policy analysis “across multiple platforms.”

Michael Carnuccio, the group’s president, said the group wants to elevate public policy dialogue and “also to elevate Oklahoma in the national public policy dialogue. … Tina Korbe is a perfect fit as our policy impact director. Her experience and her expertise combine to elevate this position, the organization and our state on a national level.”