Tulsa, Oklahoma, uses partisan city elections. On April 1, an Independent candidate, David Patrick, was elected to the City Council from district 3. He defeated the incumbent Democrat, Roscoe Turner, by a 55%-45% margin.
Independent candidate ballot access in Oklahoma (for all office except president) is very easy. No petition is needed; the independent merely pays the filing fee and is placed on the general election. However, it is very rare for independent candidates to win elections in Oklahoma. The state uses a “straight-ticket” device, which always hurts independent candidates. David Patrick had run for the city council in the past as a Democrat, but this time he felt he was more likely to win a general election, than a Democratic primary, and his strategy worked. No Republican was in the race. Thanks to Jim Linger for the news.
This was the 7th time that the two candidates had run against each other for the same city council seat, all previous times in the Democratic Primary.
In the previous 12 years, Patrick had represented the district for 5 years, while Turner had represented the district for 7 years.
Turner had first been elected in a special election when Patrick had resigned to run for the state legislature. 3 years later, Patrick made a comeback to defeat Turner, and served two years before Turner beat Patrick. In 2006, Patrick had apparently won the Democratic primary by 3 votes, but that result was overturned, in part due to cross-over voting in the party primary, and Turner prevailed in the re-vote. So this time Patrick decided to run as an independent in order to gain the support of independent and Republican voters in a heavily Democratic district.
You should not presume that State law applies to all elections, especially in a city like Tulsa where the election is conducted according the city charter (until 1990, Tulsa did not have a city council, but rather a city commission where the heads of the various city departments were elected citywide). According to the city charter, and the city web site, independent city council candidates must have a petition with 300 signatures.
The straight ticket hardly matters in an election in which there was only one office on the ballot, along with two charter amendments to change the date of the election and to conform to State law in another area. And this may be another difference between State law and the city charter -the sample ballots did not show a straight ticket. The mayor is elected to a four term, and was not on the ballot this year. In 4 of the 9 council districts, the incumbent was unopposed, and only the charter amendments were on the ballot.
Yep, Jim R. is right. For Tulsa City Council, Democrats and Republicans can pay the filing fee or submit a petition of 300 signatures from their council district. Independents cannot pay a filing fee, but MUST submit a petition of 300 signatures. A slight difference, but still a difference against independents.