2021 School & Municipal General Election: BatesLine ballot card

Post-election update: My municipal picks did better than my school board picks. Mask mandates and issues related to the CCP Bat Virus (COVID-19) response had salience with the voters, who turfed out pro-mask candidates in Oklahoma City, Broken Arrow, Jenks, and elsewhere. The outsiders beat the insiders in BA, despite attack mailers and deceptive "Vote Republican!" signs backing Thurmond and Kelly; their victorious opponents are also Republicans.

TPS board member Jennettie Marshall won re-election by 25 votes. Out of 18,152 eligible voters, only 1,027 bothered to vote. In Union seat 1, Joey Reyes won by 24 votes; only 434 of 8,213 eligible voters voted. 35,176 eligible voters in the Owasso Public School district, only 1,766 voters turned out.

Polls will be open today, Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. The Oklahoma State Election Board's online voter tool will let you know where to vote (and if you have a reason to go to the polls) and will show you a sample of the ballot you'll see.

I don't get to vote, which will be the case for large numbers of Oklahomans, perhaps the vast majority. Here's the complete list of elections today across Oklahoma.

Below are my thoughts on some of the races in the Oklahoma school board and municipal general election on April 6, 2021, along with links to candidate websites, social media profiles, and candidate forums for elections and bond issues on Tuesday's ballot in Tulsa County.

I was asked whether it should be reckoned as significant if a candidate is a friend of mine on social media. Short answer: No, don't read anything into that. I got on social media back when it was a fairly new thing and when I was a columnist for an alt-weekly and a frequent guest on the top local talk radio show, and I was more liberal in accepting friend requests than I am today.

How do I evaluate city council and school board candidates? A person's party registration can be a useful clue, but in many of these non-partisan races both candidates are of the same party. I look for some indication of political courage, a willingness to take a public stand and explain a position on a controversial issue. A commitment to accountability and transparency is crucial. A school board full of cheerleaders for the superintendent is superfluous. A city council that rubber-stamps the city manager's recommendations is not doing its job.

Candidates are very careful nowadays to scrub social media of anything controversial -- or even anything interesting. Campaign websites have turned into the online equivalent of the photo that came with the picture frame -- pleasantly generic. Nevertheless, you may yet find clues to a candidate's character and philosophy.

Tulsa School Board, Office No. 3: Jennettie P. Marshall

• Jennettie P. Marshall (D), 62, incumbent. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
• David J. Harris (D), 46. (Registered to vote as David Jeremy Harris.) Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.

Pastor Jennettie Marshall was the lone, brave school board member who voted against extending controversial and unsuccessful Superintendent Deborah Gist's contract last year; the rest of the board pushed through the extension before new school board members might jeopardize the extension. David Harris's campaign contribution report 20210329-David_Harris-Tulsa_School_Board-Campaign_Contributions.pdf is full of Midtown Money Belt types like former Mayor Kathy Taylor, Sharon King Davis, Gary Watts, Burt Holmes, George Krumme, Stacy Schusterman, Educare Director and former school board member Cynthia Decker, and defeated school board member Ruth Ann Fate. All the money is against her, but I'm rooting for Jennettie Marshall.

On February 2, 2021, Tulsa Classroom Teachers' Association held a forum for
candidates for Office 2, which was decided in February, and Office 3, on this Tuesday's ballot.

Union School Board Office No. 1: Kasey Magness

• Joey Reyes (D), 43. (Registered as Joey Gabriel Reyes.) Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook page.
• Kasey Magness (R), 35. (Registered as Kasey Beth Magness.) Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.

This is an open seat, currently held by Jeff Bennett. Magness is a Union graduate and home-health nurse who has also served as a Trauma ER nurse. She is an officer in her school's PTA and the district-wide PTA and served on the district committee to plan re-entry following the CCP Bat Virus pandemic. In response to the League of Women Voters questionnaire, Reyes uses the term "Latinx," a silly word invented by people who are offended by the fact that there are two sexes, male and female. While 98% of Latino and Latina people reject this ridiculous, unpronounceable term, its use is a reliable marker for the sort of progressive who is eager to signal his or her virtue by adopting the latest politically correct jargon, not someone a reasonable voter would want in charge of the education of children.

Owasso School Board Office No. 1: Rick Lang

• Rick Lang (I), 42. (Registered as Richard Joseph Lang.) Campaign Twitter account. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook page.
• Stephanie Ruttman (D), 42. (Registered as Stephanie Kenkaye Ruttman.) Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.

Incumbent school board member Pat Vanatta is not running for re-election. Lang is the outsider candidate, running to bring accountability to the school board; Ruttman appears to be running for Student Council, judging from the vapidity of her Facebook posts. More information on this race from Owasso Chapter of Parent Voice Oklahoma, Compilation of Owasso School Board Candidates, and Owasso Rams Hand in Hand.

Berryhill School Board Office No. 1: Allisha Phillips Craig

• Allisha Phillips Craig (D), 40. (Registered as Allisha Marie Craig.) Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook page.
• Jack Lollis (R), 63. (Registered as Jack D. Lollis.) Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.

Last year, Craig ran unsuccessfully for the Office 5 seat against an incumbent. At the time, I wrote that Craig, a public school teacher with Epic, with children in the Berryhill system, would bring a critical eye to "the way things have always been done," and experience in remote instruction that may be crucial in the coming years. Her campaign Facebook posts offer constructive ideas about specific problems that the district faces. The incumbent, Jack Lollis, has been a board member for 45 years. Lollis has posted a supportive statement from current, outgoing superintendent Mike Campbell which walks right up to the line of an endorsement. It may not be illegal, but it is surely unethical for a public employee to issue a near-endorsement of one of the people who controls his employment. It suggests a too-cozy relationship between the administration and the board, another good reason to defeat the incumbent and elect an outsider.

Tulsa Technology Center, Board Member, Office No. 6:

• Paul J. Kroutter, Jr. (R), 67. (Registered as Paul Joseph Kroutter, Jr.) Held the seat from 2004-2014. Archived board member page. Personal Facebook profile. Faculty page at University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. LinkedIn profile.
• Sharon A. Whelpley (R), 76. (Registered as Sharon Ann Whelpley.) Incumbent, first elected 2014. Campaign website. Board member page. Personal Facebook profile.

It puzzles me that there should be so little noise about a rematch between the incumbent board member and the previous incumbent, in a board district where 70,000 voters live across eastern Tulsa County and western Wagoner County, for a seat on a board that controls hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate and annual budget (good luck finding the budget or CAFR; here's the most recent audit, from 2018). Perhaps Whelpley (the current incumbent) and Kroutter (the former incumbent) each have their small platoons of voters that they will quietly turn out via phone, without arousing the interest of the rest of the electorate. The term of office is 7 years, which is ridiculous.

City of Broken Arrow

Despite being the fourth largest city in Oklahoma, Broken Arrow still is running on the "statutory charter," a default form of municipal government defined in state statutes. Accordingly, Broken Arrow has five city councilors, all elected at-large (so all BA registered voters can vote for all seats on the ballot), the council hires a city manager to run city government, and the mayor is not an executive position, but rather chairman of the council and figurehead, chosen by the city council, rather than directly by the voters.

Know Your Candidate BA conducted 20-30 minute interviews with all of the BA council candidates.

City of Broken Arrow: Council Ward 1: Debra Wimpee

• Debra Wimpee (R), 48. Incumbent councilor. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile. Profile page on BA Buzz.
• Cathy Smythe (D), 66. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
• Jonathan Kelly (R), 31. (Registered to vote as Jonathon Michael Kelly.) Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.

Incumbent Debra Wimpee was a leader in the effort to keep the city from mandating masks on Broken Arrow residents and visitors. She created the website BA Buzz to promote the city and its businesses. Cathy Smythe, a relative newcomer to the city (2012), is running specifically because she supports imposing a mask mandate. A mysterious PAC is sending out attack mailers against Wimpee, presumably to help Kelly, who seems to be attempting to run to Wimpee's right. Wimpee has the endorsement of Congressman Kevin Hern. (I consider it a point in a candidate's favor if she's under attack by a mysterious PAC.)

City of Broken Arrow: Council Ward 2: Lisa Ford

• Craig Thurmond (R), 67. Incumbent. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
• Lisa Ford (R), 59. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.

Thurmond has been on the city council for 19 years and has served for 8 of those years as mayor. Ford is retired from 20 years as an employee of the Broken Arrow Police Department, who organized a auxiliary organization to provide volunteer support the BAPD. She has also served on the Union school board. Ford, like Wimpee, was also targeted by an attack mailer from a mysterious PAC.

City of Jenks

Jenks has an at-large seat and a ward seat up for election. Incumbent councilor Dawn Dyke, who voted for a citywide mask mandate and to extend it for another 100 days, and Planning Commissioner David Randolph, who led a petition effort in favor of the mask mandate, are running as a ticket, as are Republican challengers Rodney Cline and Kevin Short, who opposed any mask mandate for the city.

City of Jenks: Council Ward 4: Rodney Cline

• Dawn Dyke (R), 49. Incumbent. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
• Rodney Cline (R), 47. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.

City of Jenks: Council member At-Large: Kevin Short

• Krista Monk (D), 35. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
• David Randolph (D), 39. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
• Kevin Short (R), 49. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.

City of Bixby

No council races on the ballot, but Bixby citizens will vote on four general obligation bond issue propositions:

1. $8,500,000 for public safety buildings and equipment
2. $16,300,000 for streets and bridges
3. $1,700,000 for park, cultural, and recreational facilities
4. $2,000,000 for stormwater drainage

AT THE FAR END OF THE TURNPIKE: Oklahoma City, Edmond, and Norman have city and school district races on the ballot, and there's a special State Senate election.

The group Unite Norman, which emerged to oppose radical anti-police sentiment on the City Council, has endorsed Kelly Lynn ; incumbent Alison Petrone considers Oklahoma a backwards state.

Oklahoma City Ward 3, the southwestern part of the city, has an open seat, with a race between Barbara Young, who has been endorsed by the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association, and Jessica Martinez-Brooks.

Also in the Edmond area, there is a special general election between Republican Jake Merrick and Democrat Molly Ooten to fill the State Senate District 22 seat vacated by U. S. Rep. Stephanie Bice. Merrick, interviewed here, has the backing of my conservative friends in central Oklahoma.

My friend Jenni White, who led the successful fight against Common Core at the State Capitol, is Mayor of Luther and is up for re-election as a town trustee. There are four candidates for three seats; each voter gets to pick three of the four. (She is also running to be Chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party this Saturday and has my full support.)

TIP JAR: If you appreciate the many hours of research that went into this guide and into the rest of my election coverage, and if you'd like to help keep this site online, you can contribute to BatesLine's upkeep via PayPal. In addition to keeping me caffeinated, donated funds pay for web hosting, subscriptions, and paid databases I use for research. Many thanks to those generous readers who have already contributed.