By Carolyn Cole
Published on July 24, 2008

Five Republican candidates are vying to represent Mustang, southwest Oklahoma City and Moore in the state Senate in the District 45 race.

Melinda Daugherty, Jerry Foshee, Marty Gormley, Kyle Loveless and Steve Russell are seeking the post held by Sen. Kathleen Wilcoxson, R-Oklahoma City, who is term limited. Unless one candidate pulls off a landslide victory in the Tuesday primary election, most likely the top two contenders will meet in the Aug. 26 primary runoff. No other candidates filed for this seat.

Melinda Daugherty

Daugherty, 58, of Oklahoma City, describes herself as a mother, former teacher and a businesswoman.

“I stand on traditional family values and Biblical principles unashamedly,” she said. “My life has demonstrated my strong value in faith, family and service.”

If elected, Daugherty said her top priority is to make state government accountable to taxpayers and work for “total transparency” and open accounting of the use of taxes. Then she said leaders can tackle economic development, education and transportation concerns.

“We have got to get honest first,” she said.

Daugherty has also vowed to push for improvements in the state adoption process and to study the Department of Human Services, which she is concerned is placing children back in abusive homes.

“I will protect the sanctity of life from conception,” she said.

Her first order of business would be to request an attorney general’s opinion on the $300 million bond issue approved by lawmakers last spring primarily for road projects. She said she is concerned the resulting tax liability will be a burden to future Oklahoman taxpayers.

“I oppose taxes without the vote of the people,” she said. “It’s time to stand up and do what is right for the state of Oklahoma, for the people.”

Daugherty said she also supports water rights remaining in the hands of land surface owners and stressed the importance of conservation.

“We need to get back to drilling the conservation of water because Texas wants to sell our runoff waters purify it and collect it ... and sell it back to us,” she said. “It’s our own water.”

Jerry Foshee

Foshee, 61, of Oklahoma City, served on the Oklahoma City City Council for 14 years and worked as a teacher before entering law 30 years ago. He is a founding partner of the law firm Foshee and Yaffe.

During his service as city councilman, Foshee called the Metropolitan Area Projects and MAPS for Kids initiatives to revitalized Oklahoma City’s downtown and help schools some the council’s top achievements. Foshee also pushed for splash parks and a summer neighborhood parks program, allowing children to participate in supervised sports or arts and crafts activities, offered free to parents.

Oklahoma City was able to push those projects forward because leaders were willing to listen to one another and the community, he said. If elected, Foshee said he will work with lawmakers of both parties to help his district and Oklahoma.

“If we are going to get things done we have to work together,” he said.

Oklahoma’s state agencies are “top heavy,” Foshee said, adding he would advocate for greater accountability of tax dollars and wants to see government run more like a business. For example, he said the Department of Human services has too few social workers handling between 25 to 100 child neglect and abuse cases each, depending on where they live in the state. He said police officers have told him they have investigated several deaths of children in which youth were returned to neglectful homes.

“We need to take the fat out and give it to those who do the work,” he said.

He has the same concerns about the state Department of Transportation, which Foshee said is a primary reason he chose to seek state office. Two of his law firm’s clients died in a crossover accident on Interstate 44 south of Oklahoma City, after Foshee said he advocated for a barrier on the highway for years.

Foshee said he wants a study of ODOT, including how officials prioritize projects. He said he would also push to allocate fuel taxes for road projects, rather than being filtered through the state general fund.

Foshee said he supports more aid for metropolitan police departments to help officers fight gang and drug problems and funding to help firefighters protect their communities.

“I think I can make a significant impact,” he said.

Marty Gormley

Gormley, 47, of Moore, called English-only legislation his top priority, adding as a teacher he has seen classes where English isn’t taught.

“If we are going to have an Oklahoma that competes with the world, let’s teach them how to command the English language,” he said.

To improve Oklahoma’s education system, Gormley said he wants to ensure a larger percentage of tax dollars reach the classroom and supports the “60/40 plan,” in which 60 percent of all school district funds must be used in the classroom. He also supports a tax credit for parents who send their children to private school or choose to educate their youth at home.

“We want people to have every opportunity to go to school and get a good education and not get locked into the one size fits all,” he said.

If elected, Gormley said he would push for lower taxes as well as additional funding to repair Oklahoma’s roads and bridges.

“We pay a lot of taxes to repair roads and bridges and prevent the accidents we have seen in other parts of the country,” he said.

Gormley said he is also concerned about social issues and supports a ban on gay marriage and abortion.

“We want to have a home that’s not going to be destroyed by the forces of evil, a home that is a good place to live,” he said.

Kyle Loveless

Loveless, 34, of Oklahoma City, manages his family’s shoe store and owns a consulting business.

Cutting administration in government is Loveless’ top priority, if elected. He suggested slashing the number of school districts in Oklahoma from 535 to 100 school systems.

“If we did a population survey and made it to where counties that didn’t have a certain amount of population wouldn’t get a certain amount of administration, we could save nearly $50 million per year in overhead,” he said. “That money could be used to improve schools; that money could be used for teacher pay. That money could be used for science labs.”

Loveless said he believes the selection of textbooks and curriculum should be left to local school board members, and educators need to ask themselves, “Are children learning?” He said parents should also look for ways to help educators, volunteer in schools and stay involved in their children’s education and their lives.

Loveless said he is also concerned about the state’s roads and bridges and advocates for a cut in ODOT administration, which he believes would free up dollars for more repairs. He also supports earmarking funding raised by fuel taxes for road repair.

“The people at the state Capitol are stealing from us,” Loveless said. “They are taking our money for taxes for roads and bridges and using it for something else.”
He said state lawmakers need to push forward with lawsuit reform and protect the state’s water rights.

“I think the state Legislature needs to address it rather than passing the buck,” he said.

Steve Russell

Russell, 45, of Oklahoma City, served 25 years in the Army, including deployments in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq and retired as a lieutenant colonel.

Russell said his top concern is the “assault on our families and traditional values.”
“If the families go, so goes our culture and our state,” he said. “All other problems I believe are ancillary.”

Russell said he supports greater government accountability and making sure more money makes it into Oklahoma classrooms. He is also an advocate of merit pay increases for teachers.

“We need to look at ways to award the teachers who do the very best jobs,” he said.
Education is important to economic development and helping young Oklahoma adults find jobs within the state, Russell said. One of his top concerns is the steadily increasing costs of college tuition and fees.

“It’s families just like yours that will pay the highest price because you fall in an income bracket that you don’t qualify for any other type of aid,” he said. “You have to bear the burden.”

Another economic development issue is lawsuit and workers’ compensation reform.
Russell said he believes people must take responsibility for negligence and those who are injured should be able to seek compensation, but “tort reform means we rein it in.”

“You can go back and look at Mosaic Law,” he said. “An ox was killed, an ox was replaced ... even God himself put a cap on oxe(n) — it wasn’t 500 oxen.”

Oklahoma lawmakers also need to find a way to pay for millions of dollars in road repairs, Russell said, adding weigh stations should be reopened. He said he does not support raising taxes.

“More money taken only leads to more money asked for later ... we need a dedicated funding mechanism within our state government,” he said.

His military service has led Russell to hold a “strict view on illegal aliens.”

“The rights and freedoms I fought for, I don’t want to see those given away,” he said. “I think citizenship must be earned ... I also think if I had to use a driver license to board an airplane, than why not present one when I go vote or do other things.”