Istook Receives Support Of Rivals

Now that the primaries are over, civility and Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment is almost back in vogue. Republican governor candidate Ernest Istook has received the endorsement of two of his former rivals for the nomination at a press conference at the Capitol Thursday. Tulsa oilman Bob Sullivan, who finished second with about 31 percent of the votes, gave Istook the maximum amount allowed, $5,000. Oklahoma Political News Service wonders if an apology accompanied the check. Sullivan joked that “The check hasn’t cleared [yet]“. Sullivan went on to say, “We have a candidate who is not only capable but determined to beat Brad Henry. I want to throw my support 100 percent behind Ernest Istook because he will carry those good conservative values into the fray, and I’m convinced that he will prevail.”

Party Chairman Tom Daxon read a statement of support for Congressman Istook from Jim Williamson saying, “I have the utmost respect for Congressman Istook, and I am certain he will be a conservative, pro-growth governor.” Jim Evanoff, the last place finsher in Tuesday’s contest, (who was absent at the press conference) said he is undecided whom he’ll be supporting November. Rumor has it that he was miffed for not being invited. I can’t imagine the party or Istook not wanting a photo op or statement of support from his vanquished foes. Grow up Jim, you lost!

Stretching their dollars: For candidates in Tuesday’s primary, more money did not necessarily mean more votes

By Janice Francis-Smith
The Journal Record (Illustration by Neil Cambre)

OKLAHOMA CITY – Though the candidate with the most contributions is generally considered the front-runner in any race, the results of Tuesday’s primary elections showed that money doesn’t always guarantee votes.

On the Democrat side, the lieutenant governor’s race followed the traditional formula. State Rep. Jari Askins, D-Duncan, had raised the most money – more than $530,000, including $350,000 she had loaned to her own campaign – and she came in first at the polls, with just over 40 percent of the votes. Pete Regan came in second in fundraising, with just over $420,000, and he came in second at the polls with 29 percent of the vote.

State Sen. Cal Hobson, a latecomer to the race because he chose to wait until after the legislative session was over to announce his candidacy, raised more than $205,000 and came in third at 18 percent. Jim Rogers, who didn’t raise enough to report to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, came in last with 12 percent.

The Republican primary in the lieutenant governor’s race, however, bore some surprises. House Speaker Todd Hiett’s more than $1 million in campaign contributions garnered him first place in the race, with 42.82 percent of the vote. Sen. Scott Pruitt came in second with 33.73 percent of the vote and more than $748,000 in contributions – coming closer to Hiett’s lead in votes than he did in contributions.

State Sen. Nancy Riley came in third in campaign contributions and third at the polls. But she managed to parlay just $11,000 in campaign contributions into 23.46 percent of the vote. Pruitt raised 68 times as much money as Riley, but Tuesday night’s primary results showed a 10-point difference between the two candidates, representing less than 20,000 votes.

“We spent less than a dollar per vote,” said Riley from her Tulsa home on Wednesday. “My husband says Hiett spent $13 per vote and Pruitt spent $15 per vote. We had the right message, I think. We didn’t have the media money.”

While Hiett’s and Pruitt’s television ads ran repeatedly during the last weeks of the campaign, Riley had no television ads at all – just a half-page ad in the newspaper and radio spots on the agricultural networks on Friday and Monday, she said.

“People want to hear good things about Oklahoma,” said Riley. “And they just responded to that message wholeheartedly.”

She and her husband/campaign manager worked hard and worked smart, she said, paying attention to the statistics and directing their efforts to areas where the registered Republican numbers provided the greatest bang for the buck. Riley said she next plans to run for re-election in her Senate district, but she did not rule out another run for lieutenant governor in the future.

“They probably will not underestimate me on the next go-around,” she said.

In the governor’s race as well, Tulsa oil and gas businessman Bob Sullivan raised well over $1 million, which included a $100,000 loan from himself, while U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook’s campaign raised about $700,000. Still, Sullivan said his campaign could not overcome the fact that from the beginning of the campaign, voters were already familiar with the 12-year congressman. Istook garnered nearly 55 percent of the vote, while Sullivan won just under 31 percent.

Calvey Endorses Fallin

State Rep. and former CD5 candidate Kevin Calvey has endorsed Mary Fallin in the CD 5 run-off.

Developing…

WSJ Points Out Henry’s Weaknesses

From the Wall Street Journal’s Political Diary

The importance of beating Henry

Rep. Ernest Istook survived being portrayed as a Washington porker by a comedian who made pig noises in a TV commercial and won yesterday’s GOP primary for the Oklahoma governorship. The pig jokes were courtesy of his primary rival, Tulsa oil millionaire Bob Sullivan, who combed Mr. Istook’s Congressional record looking for pork buried in bills that Mr. Istook voted for in his long career (Mr. Istook served seven terms). The Congressman may look back on such indignities fondly in the next round. The primary outcome was never in doubt: Mr. Istook had the name recognition and won with 56% of the vote. He also undoubtedly attracted a certain number of votes out of simple respect for his decision to give up a supremely safe House seat in order to challenge a sitting governor, Democrat Brad Henry, who may be nigh unbeatable.

Step one in improving these odds is appropriating some of his late opponent’s campaign themes. Despite an oil boom and popular tax cut that have given the incumbent Democrat a 75% approval rating, the GOP upstart Mr. Sullivan insisted during the primary that Oklahoma was still “going sideways in 46th place. We’ve done that for 99 years.” Mr. Sullivan offered several sensible ideas for modernizing the state, including a taxpayer bill of rights to control spending (Mr. Istook said he wanted to study the idea). He’s also been a leading supporter of the national “65% solution” movement, a mandate that at least 65% of school funding should go to the classroom rather than overhead. Mr. Sullivan also proposed gradually eliminating Oklahoma’s state income tax as a way to attract new businesses and keep more wealth inside the state.

These are all good ideas that Mr. Istook is now free to adopt. He also could make up some ground by attacking Mr. Henry’s excessive reliance on the expansion of lottery and casino gambling. Not only are the sin industries unpopular with Oklahoma’s many social conservatives, but they represent exactly the kind of unproductive, faux “development” you’d expect from a state setting itself up to “go sideways” for another century.

– Holman W. Jenkins Jr.

WSJ Points Out Henry’s Weaknesses

From the Wall Street Journal’s Political Diary

The importance of beating Henry

Rep. Ernest Istook survived being portrayed as a Washington porker by a comedian who made pig noises in a TV commercial and won yesterday’s GOP primary for the Oklahoma governorship. The pig jokes were courtesy of his primary rival, Tulsa oil millionaire Bob Sullivan, who combed Mr. Istook’s Congressional record looking for pork buried in bills that Mr. Istook voted for in his long career (Mr. Istook served seven terms). The Congressman may look back on such indignities fondly in the next round. The primary outcome was never in doubt: Mr. Istook had the name recognition and won with 56% of the vote. He also undoubtedly attracted a certain number of votes out of simple respect for his decision to give up a supremely safe House seat in order to challenge a sitting governor, Democrat Brad Henry, who may be nigh unbeatable.

Step one in improving these odds is appropriating some of his late opponent’s campaign themes. Despite an oil boom and popular tax cut that have given the incumbent Democrat a 75% approval rating, the GOP upstart Mr. Sullivan insisted during the primary that Oklahoma was still “going sideways in 46th place. We’ve done that for 99 years.” Mr. Sullivan offered several sensible ideas for modernizing the state, including a taxpayer bill of rights to control spending (Mr. Istook said he wanted to study the idea). He’s also been a leading supporter of the national “65% solution” movement, a mandate that at least 65% of school funding should go to the classroom rather than overhead. Mr. Sullivan also proposed gradually eliminating Oklahoma’s state income tax as a way to attract new businesses and keep more wealth inside the state.

These are all good ideas that Mr. Istook is now free to adopt. He also could make up some ground by attacking Mr. Henry’s excessive reliance on the expansion of lottery and casino gambling. Not only are the sin industries unpopular with Oklahoma’s many social conservatives, but they represent exactly the kind of unproductive, faux “development” you’d expect from a state setting itself up to “go sideways” for another century.

– Holman W. Jenkins Jr.

Cornett, Fallin To Meet For Runoff In Istook’s District

By Aaron Blake (excerpt)

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett didn’t declare for Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District race until May and didn’t move into full campaign mode until this month.

But the popular former sportscaster qualified for a runoff with Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin in Tuesday’s GOP primary, and now he’ll have a month to make up some ground and try to continue his fast rise in Oklahoma politics.

Fallin and Cornett emerged from a six-way nomination race as the top two vote-getters Tuesday, and they will meet in the runoff Aug. 22 to determine the favorite to replace Republican Rep. Ernest Istook.

Fallin finished first, with 35 percent of the vote, and Cornett edged out third-place finisher and state Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode 24-19 to earn the second spot in the runoff. The winner will face Dr. David Hunter, who won the Democratic primary 63-37 over teacher Bert Smith.

The seat is generally not considered a takeover opportunity for Democrats. Istook, who is running for governor and won his primary Tuesday, routinely won two-thirds of the vote in the district. He will face Gov. Brad Henry (D) in the general election.

The Republican congressional match-up pits the longtime favorite in the race, Fallin, against the candidate whose entry assured she would face a runoff. Before Cornett joined, Fallin had been polling around 50 percent and higher.

Keith Gaddie, a professor of political science at Oklahoma University who has polled the race independently, has been doing second-choice polling in recent weeks and said most of Bode’s voters chose Fallin in a runoff. Fallin is the early favorite and would take about 60 percent of the vote if the runoff were held today, according to his numbers.

While the campaign has been downright amiable until this past weekend, Gaddie said that should change quickly and Cornett will have to go negative on Fallin somehow, which is difficult to do in Oklahoma politics.

“Now we have an actual campaign,” Gaddie said.

He said the two remaining candidates will have to mobilize their bases and try to grab the hardcore conservatives who voted for further-right candidates like Bode as well as the Club for Growth- and Minuteman Project-endorsed state Rep. Kevin Calvey, who finished fourth with 10 percent of the vote.

Gaddie added that Cornett might struggle in that regard because he doesn’t appeal as much as Fallin to traditional conservatives and older voters, who tend to dominate primary voting. And Cornett could be hurt by past support for increasing taxes and for a measure urging Congress to vote against restricting local governments’ powers of eminent domain.

In an interview with The Hill yesterday, Fallin acknowledged that such issues constitute differences between the two candidates. Until now, they had been content to cast themselves as ideologically similar. She also emphasized Cornett’s relative newcomer status and the fact that he has not yet served a full term in any office.

Cornett, who worked in television for 20 years, was elected as a city councilman in 2001 and won a special election to become mayor in 2004. He elected to a full term four months ago with 87 percent of the vote, and two months later he declared for Istook’s seat.

Fallin, meanwhile, has been in her office since 1995 and said she has been much more involved in the Republican Party.

“I’ve always been with the Republican caucus when it come to cutting taxes and working towards things that would make more efficient government and reform government,” Fallin said. “He’s come out against some things like the sales tax holiday, and that’s been one of the issues that we felt we needed some relief on.”

Cornett should perform better in debates because of his background in television and would have a good shot to win if he can outspend Fallin, Gaddie said.

Cornett raised $173,000 in the first two months of his campaign and had $119,000 on hand through July 5. Fallin raised $859,000 and had $316,000 on hand.

The mayor has been bolstered recently by news that an Oklahoma City group is buying the Seattle SuperSonics franchise in the National Basketball Association. Cornett was instrumental in getting the New Orleans Hornets to play in Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina displaced the team last season, and the sale of the SuperSonics has led to speculation that the team will soon move to Oklahoma’s capital.

Cornett has cautioned against assuming the team will move, but the news put him in the spotlight less than a week before the primary. Calls to his campaign seeking comment were not returned.

The Hill: CD 5 Runoff Analysis; AJS Calls Investigated

State Attorney General Drew Edmondson issued a release Tuesday saying the calls might have broken the law because they didn’t give recipients a contact phone number for the organization placing them, Americans for Job Security, which is based in Alexandria, Va. The release said the calls might violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and could lead to action in criminal or civil court.

Americans for Job Security is nonprofit issue-advocacy group and is exempt from the TCPA. Reached by The Hill yesterday, President Michael Dubke said the attorney general’s office told him it was not investigating his organization but instead making sure one of the other candidates wasn’t behind the calls.

Dubke said the attorney general’s office told him one of the candidates had done prerecorded calls incorrectly in the past, and he got the impression the office was making sure that candidate wasn’t responsible for the calls.

Dubke said only Americans for Job Security paid for the calls.

Read more…

Voters Reject Negative Attack Ads

The final two weeks of the primary campaign had OK voters listening and viewing a myriad of negative commercials, especially in high profile races to replace Congressman Istook in CD5 and to take on Brad Henry for Governor. Denise Bode and Bob Sullivan were both accused of breaking written pledges to not go negative. In these two cases, their ads didn’t make much of a difference, both candidates came up woefully short.

Negative advertising on both sides of the aisle for Lt. Governor didn’t help these candidate’s separate themselves enough in the public mind to avoid an August runoff. Hiett led the GOP primary with 76,622 votes or 42.8 percent. Pruitt was second with 60,357 votes or 33.7 percent.

In one television ad, Hiett criticized Pruitt for missing close to 40 percent of the votes cast in the Senate this year. Pruitt criticized Hiett for refusing to publicly support the taxpayer’s bill of rights initiative petition, called TABOR, which would limit government spending.

Pruitt, who signed that petition, also criticized Hiett by saying government spending has increased by 31 percent during Hiett’s leadership of the state House.

In the Democratic primary, state Rep. Askins had 103,499 votes, or 40.2 percent to 74,773, or 29.1, percent for Pete Regan.

Askins had some ads that called Regan a lobbyist. Her ad on Hobson referred to problems he had that caused him to resign as the Senate President Pro Tempore. Hobson resigned from that post because of a drinking problem.

Fallin & Cornett In CD5 Runoff

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Lieutenant Governor Mary Fallin and Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett were the top two vote getters in the Republican primary to replace outgoing Representative Ernest Istook.

Fallin had 35 percent of the vote and Cornett had 24 percent in a crowded field.

Since neither got 50 percent of the vote, they will face each other in an August 22nd runoff that will determine the Republican nominee.

From CQPolitics.com,:

Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin and Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett are headed to an Aug. 22 runoff as the top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s Republican primary for Oklahoma’s 5th District seat, which Republican Rep. Ernest Istook left open to run for governor.

The district, which includes most of the state capital of Oklahoma City, is a Republican stronghold: Istook won a seventh House term in 2004 with 66 percent of the vote, as President Bush was taking 64 percent in the district.

The promise of longterm political job security for the winner drew in six Republican hopefuls, five of them current elected officials. Fallin topped the field with 35 percent of the vote; Cornett took 24 percent to claim the other runoff slot.

State Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode, whose strong fundraising boosted her into the top tier, ran third with 19 percent of the vote. Further off the pace were state Reps. Kevin Calvey and Fred Morgan, with 10 percent and 9 percent respectively, and surgeon Johnny B. Roy with 3 percent.

For the most part, the candidates conducted an amiable campaign, frequently discussing their opponents as “friends.”

Fallin and Cornett, who must now court voters who did not support them in the primary, can be expected to continue highlighting their conservative profiles. According to political scientist Keith Gaddie of University of Oklahoma, Cornett is popular among casual and infrequent voters, and Fallin is highly popular with voters over the age of 50.

Gay Candidate Makes Oklahoma History

First openly gay candidate elected in Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY For the first time in state history, an openly gay candidate is poised to become a member of the Oklahoma Legislature.

Democrat Al McAffrey won a three-candidate primary race tonight with 51 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff in the House District 88 seat in the heart of Oklahoma City. No Republicans filed for the seat.

McAffrey, a longtime Oklahoma City funeral director and a Navy veteran, said he didn’t hide his sexual orientation, but didn’t make it the focus of his campaign.

The District 88 seat was held by longtime state Representative Debbie Blackburn, who’s being forced out of office because of term limits.