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OKLAHOMA CITY(AP) The state Election Board certifies the results of the November seventh election in which Democratic Governor Brad Henry beat Republican U-S Congressman Ernest Istook.
The board also certified other election results, except for a state House race in southeastern Oklahoma and judicial races in McClain and Oklahoma counties and a district that includes Craig, Mayes and Rogers counties.
Re-counts were ordered or hearings were set to investigate alleged voting irregularities in those races.
Board Secretary Mike Clingman says 926-thousand-462 people, or 45 percent of Oklahoma’s registered voters, voted in the governor’s race. That’s more than 100-thousand votes less than the more than one (m) million people who voted in the 2002 election.
Clingman says historically, voter turnout has been low in elections in which an incumbent governor is seeking re-election.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe says he can secure any additional money that’s needed to complete a buyout of homes in the Tar Creek Superfund site.
Because of the mid-term elections, Inhofe will no longer be the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, a position he used to help secure the initial funding.
But the veteran senator says others familiar with the Superfund program will continue to support adding money for Tar Creek.
The 20 (m) million dollar federal buyout involves heavily undermined homes and businesses within a 40 square-mile area in the state’s northeastern tip. Years of lead and zinc mining left mounds of mine waste, tainted water and land that’s susceptible to cave-ins.
Sonya Harris of the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust says the committee chose the first families to receive buyout money by lottery.
Harris says those living in the most undermined areas of the site will receive help first.
Statewide Losses: Ernest Istook for Governor, Todd Hiett for Lieutenant Governor, Gary Jones for State Auditor and Inspector, James Dunn for Attorney General, Howard Barnett for State Treasurer, Bill Crozier for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Brenda Reneau for Commissioner of Labor, Bill Case for Insurance Commissioner.
The 2006 electoral defeats might come as a shock to those in “Red State Oklahoma” where just two years ago George W. Bush had won all 77 of our Sooner State’s counties (the only state in the nation where every single county had voted to reelect the president). This year, Republicans at the state and federal level could almost do no right.
The question is, why?
Are Oklahoma voters moving to the left? Has Brad Henry’s centrist Democrat vision won over the electorate so much that Oklahoma will be awarding it’s seven electoral votes to Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama or, dare we think it, even Brad Henry himself?
As some of the GOP’s most loyal are now considering a run for state chairman, a number of questions are swirling. Did the Oklahoma Republican Party under Tom Daxon, fracture so divisively that it was unable to compete in this election at the statewide level? Is failure Tom Daxon’s living legacy to Republicans across the state? Considering that it took Mr. Daxon more than two months just to appoint a single staff member to his failed Victory effort, it’s more likely the bloodbath that was the 2006 elections for Republicans in Oklahoma rests more with the party than any significant ideological shift among the electorate.
Consider this: both the state House and state Senate campaign committees vocally split away from the State GOP to fund and operate their own grassroots victory efforts. In turn, the Republicans kept their majority in the state House, losing just one seat statewide. Furthermore, Oklahoma was one of only two states in the nation to make gains in the state Senate in 2006—gains that national party leadership has publicly credited to state Senate leaders and their campaign teams.
Among the more egregious errors and missteps made by the Oklahoma Republican Party this election cycle that no-doubt impacted the viability of statewide Republican candidates by failing to turnout the vote (a core job of every state party) were:
Challenges surrounding “Victory 2006”
Challenges in fundraising
Challenges in staffing
Even in Oklahoma, parties rise and fall like the tide. In 1976, four years before the election of Ronald Reagan as president and eighteen years before he would lead Republicans to power in Congress, Newt Gingrich wrote, “The Republican Party is in real danger of dying. The bunting and the banners around us could well be the flowers at our party’s funeral.”
When sworn in as Speaker of the House nearly twenty years later, Gingrich was quoted in the New York Times, “The fact is, every Republican has much to learn from studying what the Democrats did right.”
It remains to be seen if the GOP faithful hold Daxon accountable. Only a week has passed since the elections, but 2008 is now on the horizon. It is up to the Oklahoma GOP grassroots to determine whether tomorrow is brighter than yesterday.
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) The new mascot for Northeastern State University will be revealed later this morning.
School officials are to announce the new mascot during a news conference on campus.
N-S-U has been the “Redmen” for more than 80 years but is changing because of an N-C-A-A ban on the use of some American Indian mascots during postseason tournaments.
School officials say they got more than 400 suggestions from students, alumni, faculty and staff and are choosing from six finalists.
The choices are ‘Thunderhawks’; ‘Thunderbirds’; ‘Riverhawks’; ‘Riverwolves’; ‘Wolves’; and ‘War Eagles.’
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) A Republican candidate for the state House who apparently lost by two votes is claiming irregularities in the election.
Initial returns show Todd Thomsen of Ada lost to Democrat Darrell Nemecek of Ada by a vote of 47-hundred-96 to 47-hundred-94.
Thomsen has already asked for a recount and now says in a petition filed with the state Election Board that four voters who voted by absentee ballots are not residents of the district.
A hearing on the claim will be Thursday morning in Hughes County
If a minor requires parental consent for ear piercing, doesn’t this make sense also?
By ANGEL RIGGS
World Capitol Bureau
A parental consent form required for minors to get abortions is one of several new abortion laws in Oklahoma.
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Board of Health last week approved a consent form that a parent must sign before a minor can have an abortion.
Physicians are required to keep the signed forms for five years. Read more…
However, it’s unclear how that provision will be enforced or by which agency. It is one of several new abortion rules that took effect Nov. 1.
The new law requires that at least one parent give written consent for a minor’s abortion.
“The intent of the legislation is for parents to be notified that their minor children are seeking an abortion,” said Sen. Don Barrington, R-Lawton, the bill’s Senate author.
Signed by Gov. Brad Henry in May, the legislation contains language from several bills that died earlier in the legislative session.
“I believe that our minor children are the responsibility of their parents until such time as they become adults,” Barrington said. “It should be a decision that the parents should be aware of.”
The National Indian Gaming Commission has commissioned a dubious study claiming that
Oklahoma’s gaming revenue could get a $50 – $75 million dollar boost from proposed federal restrictions on Class Two gambling. Currently Oklahoma receives a little over 9 million dollars from the tribes’ gaming revenues. The study says the extra income would flow to Oklahoma’s public education system. Where have we heard this before?
TULSA, Okla. (AP) Campaign officials for the two labor commissioner candidates say a last minute _ 100-thousand-dollar _ blitz of T-V ads pushed Lloyd Fields to an upset win over Brenda Reneau.
Fields spent nearly 60 percent of his campaign money in the final eight days of the race to buy T-V ads in which he criticized the Republican Reneau for not working in the office.
Reneau has rheumatoid arthritis and says she worked from home when she didn’t feel well and was always available when needed.
She calls the last minute ads “nasty.”
Speaker-elect Cargill, Speaker Pro Temp Blackwell & Caucus Chair Wright Chosen
Following close on the heels of a renewed Republican majority in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, the GOP caucus on Thursday chose its top leadership for the 51st Legislature.
The GOP caucus elected three top leadership positions: Speaker of the House, Speaker Pro Tempore and Majority Caucus Chair. On Tuesday, Oklahoma voters returned a Republican majority to power in the state House for the first time in state history, with one seat still involved in a recount.
“Our leadership team is one that is united and I look forward to working together to advance Oklahoma,” said Speaker-elect Lance Cargill (R-Harrah), who was confirmed as the next Speaker by the GOP caucus Thursday.
In addition to electing Cargill, the GOP caucus Thursday chose Rep. Gus Blackwell (R-Goodwell) as Speaker Pro Tempore and Rep. John Wright (R-Broken Arrow) as Caucus Chairman.
Blackwell, who is starting his third two-year term in the state House, holds a Master’s in business administration from Panhandle State University and a Master’s in Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological University.
“It’s an honor to be able to serve my colleagues in this capacity,” said Blackwell. “We have a great depth of talent in our caucus. I’m looking forward to House Republicans working to accomplish great things for Oklahoma this coming session.”
As Caucus Chairman, Rep. Wright will assist the Speaker with directing weekly meetings of the GOP Caucus. Wright, now entering his fifth term as a lawmaker, holds a bachelor’s of science degree in marketing from Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida.
“I’m honored and grateful to have this opportunity to help lead our caucus,” said Wright.
“The House Republican majority is ready for the upcoming legislative session,” said Cargill. “We will continue to keep our promises to the citizens of Oklahoma to foster enterprise and entrepreneurship, invest tax dollars wisely and hold government accountable”
Cargill said that over the next several weeks he’ll announce additional appointed GOP leadership positions.
Next week on Thursday, November 16 at 1 p.m. the newly-elected members of the entire House will be sworn in at the capitol. In early January, the full House will convene for an organizational day to formally elect House leadership.
ENID, Okla. (AP) Republican Senator Jim Inhofe is trying to put a positive spin on the loss of Republican control of the U-S House and Senate.
Democrats won control of both houses of Congress in this week’s elections but Inhofe believes that will only last for two years.
Inhofe stands to lose his chairmanship of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee because of the change in power.
Meanwhile Democratic Congressman Dan Boren will become a member of the majority party but says he hasn’t decided whether to support Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. Pelosi is currently the House Minority Leader.