Oklahoma primary 2018: Notes on statewide offices

I'll be writing about each office in a separate entry, but here are a couple of preliminary notes.

Three of the candidates on the statewide ballot are current or recent members of legislative leadership: Former State Senate President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman, House Majority Floor Leader Glen Mulready, and former House Appropriations and Budget Committee Chairman Leslie Osborn. The failure of our Republican governor and Republican legislative "leaders" to use their supermajority mandate over the last eight years to reform state government led us to this year's education funding crisis, and we would be foolish to entrust them with higher office. Osborn and Mulready both supported the largest tax increase in Oklahoma history this year. Bingman was the most powerful man in the Oklahoma Senate for the first six years of Gov. Fallin's administration.

This election also features two blasts from the past: Mike Hunter and Linda Murphy were among the handful of Republican statewide nominees who lost narrowly in 1994, an otherwise banner year for the GOP both in Oklahoma and nationwide. Hunter lost the open Attorney General's race by 48%-52% to Drew Edmondson. Murphy lost the State Superintendent's race to incumbent Sandy Garrett by 9,239 votes, just 1% of the votes cast. (Republican Bob Keasler also narrowly lost the open State Treasurer's race to Democrat Robert Butkin; State Auditor Clifton Scott, running for his fourth term, was the only statewide Democrat to win by a comfortable margin.)