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September 2, 2012

County democrats quiet in GOP country

Mike Smith The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — Robin Robertson of Duncan has been a lifelong Democrat, and on Nov. 6 she’ll be proudly casting her vote for President Obama.

But Robertson, 83, says there just aren’t a lot of Democrats in Duncan who share her enthusiasm when it comes to the presidential race.

“There’s no pep in the pep club,” she said.

Shelly Coker, a Democrat who lives in Empire, agrees.

There are Democrats in the area who will vote for Obama, but being outspoken about it? That’s another story.

“They don’t want to make anybody mad by saying they want to vote for Obama,” said Coker, 45. “They don’t want to make their friends or neighbors or anybody mad by saying they will vote Democratic.”

Labor Day marks the traditional start of the fall campaign, and this year it falls in between the Republican and Democratic national conventions.

Republicans finished their convention on Thursday night, with Mitt Romney formally accepting the GOP nomination in Tampa, Fla.

Democrats begin their three-day convention in Charlotte, N.C. on Tuesday, with Obama scheduled to speak Thursday night.

The presidential race is expected to come down to results in a dozen or so swing states, and Oklahoma is not among them. It is one of the most Republican states in the nation at the state and national levels, including the presidential level.

In the 2008 presidential race, Republican John McCain won Oklahoma’s seven electoral votes with 66 percent of the vote – the biggest margin of any state he won.

In Oklahoma’s Democratic presidential primary this year, Obama won only 57 percent of the vote.

He got only 38 percent of the vote among Democratic voters in Stephens County, though it was still enough to win. He actually lost in 15 counties.

Richard Johnson, chairman of the political science department at Oklahoma City University, said Democrats feel a little trampled on in Oklahoma when it comes to this year’s presidential race.

Republicans are enthusiastic about it, he said. He thinks that is not so much a case of being pro-Romney as being anti-Obama. Part of that sentiment in Stephens County could be tied to Obama’s lack of support for the Keystone XL pipeline, he said.

“If you look at that part of the state, energy is a big part of the local economy,” Johnson said. “The pipe line costs him some votes. There are at least some policy-based reasons. Halliburton is a big chunk of the economy.”

Coker said some opposition to Obama in this area has bordered on hostility. She lives out in the country, and said she’s had some Obama signs posted near the road taken down by people. She now has them posted by her house, off the roadway.

She said there are folks who support Obama, she just wishes they would be more outspoken about it.

“On Election Day, our yard ditch will be lined with signs for all my Democratic candidates, but why put them up now if they’re just going to get ripped down?” she said. “But I’m a happy person, I keep my enthusiasm. If you can just sway one person to look at what he’s actually done.”

Meanwhile, election results in Stephens County for the Republican runoff in state Senate District 43 became official on Friday. Peggy Winton, secretary of the Stephens County Election Board, said they were unchanged from election night, with Corey Brooks getting 852 votes in the county to 564 votes for Peggy Davenport.

Brooks won the overall district vote and faces Democrat Mike Fullerton on Nov. 6.

The deadline for registering to vote in the Nov. 6 election is Oct. 12.

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