Published: November 05, 2008 11:09 pm         

County voters overwhelmingly favor Republican candidates

Staff reports



Only one precinct in Garfield County voted in favor of a Democratic candidate during Tuesday’s election.

Of all the races, Precinct 102 at Calvary Baptist Church, 831 E. Broadway, was the only one that had total votes for one Democratic candidate outpace the Republican candidate.

Jim Roth, the Democratic incumbent who was vying to retain his short-term seat on the Oklahoma Corporation Com-mission, received 293 votes in that precinct to Republican candidate Dana Murphy’s 284. Murphy won all the other precincts.

In all other races, Garfield County precincts favored the Republican candidates over the Democratic candidates.

In the short-term Corpora-tion Commission seat, Roth lost Garfield County to Mur-phy. He also lost the race in the state to Murphy. Roth had been appointed to the seat by Gov. Brad Henry in 2007 after Denise Bode resigned.

Some other interesting numbers did stand out in Garfield County during this general election race. More than 3,900 Garfield County voters cast absentee or in-person absentee ballots before Tuesday’s election.

In the presidential race, Republican candidate John McCain outpaced Democratic candidate Barack Obama three to one in voting totals in the county. In early voting, McCain outpaced Obama two to one in Garfield County.

In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent Sen. Jim Inhofe won most precincts handily over Democrat Andrew Rice and independent Stephen Wallace. Rice didn’t come close to Inhofe in any Garfield County precincts.

The story was the same for incumbent U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas, who carried all precincts easily over Democrat Frankie Robbins. Independent Forrest Michael was a distant third in all precincts except for Precinct 308, Carrier Congre-gational Church, where he tied Robbins at 18 votes each. Lucas carried the precinct with 189 votes.