Hammons Wins Reelection, Incumbent Councilors Defeated

John Tyler Hammons has done it again, this time without a runoff. The young Muskogee mayor has won his bid for reelection, with a large enough margin of victory to skip a runoff.

Hammons was first elected in 2008, after winning the runoff race. This time, he didn't need it. He received 51.4% of the vote, or 2531 votes. Runner-up was Bob Coburn, with 29.4% (1447 votes), followed by Chris James with 17.8% (877 votes) and Teresa Garris with 1.4% (67 votes).

Not only will he be returning as mayor, but Hammons will be joined by two newly-elected city councilors. Councilman David Ragsdale lost the Ward III race to Randy Howard, 46.2% (2160) to 53.8% (2516), respectively. Councilman Jim Ritchey also lost, in Ward IV. Kenny Payne received 64% (3078), to Ritchey's 19.2% (923) and Cedric Johnson's 16.9% (812). In the school bond election, 70% (3031) of voters voted 'yes', and 30% (1300) voted 'no'.

Hammons has had a difficult time with the city council these past two years. With two new councilors, things may change for the better.

Congratulations to Mayor John Tyler Hammons, and councilors-elect Randy Howard and Kenny Payne!

Muskogee Election Results

Voting continues for the Muskogee municipal and school bond races - polls close at 7:00pm. If you have not voted, get to your polling place and vote!

I will be joining Bob Coburn at his mayoral campaign watch party, at the Indian Capitol Technology Center, and therefore will not be blogging the results.

However, I will use my Twitter account to update with election results as they come in. Keep an eye there for the results after 7:00pm.

Bob Coburn Files for Mayor

In a completely unexpected turn of events, Muskogee businessman Bob Coburn filed today for the Muskogee mayoral race. Bob is a cousin of U.S. Senator Tom Coburn. I had the opportunity to interview Bob this afternoon.

According to Coburn, people have been suggesting that he run for quite some time, although it wasn't until just recently that he started taking them seriously. In the past week to ten days, he began to pray about it, and felt that God was leading him to run. Circumstances and people in the past week kept confirming that. Yesterday, he decided to run for mayor.

When asked about his vision for Muskogee, he said that he would like to bring more cohesiveness to the city council through strong leadership. His goal is to work on a list of priorities as a council, and work toward common goals. Coburn said that he will begin to publicly flesh these thoughts out over the coming weeks.

Coburn has vast business experience, having spent about 10 years in manufacturing management with Coburn Optical, and has been involved in retail sales for about 15 years with Coburn Tuxedo's. He also operates four mini-storage facilities in the area, and has extensive commercial and residential properties across the city. He feels that this wide variety of business management is vital to leading the city of Muskogee, and that government should be run more like businesses have to (i.e. efficient, minimal waste, etc).

Bob and his wife of 38 years, Gwen, have attended First Baptist Church of Muskogee for over 25 years, where he is a deacon, Sunday School teacher, and leader in the Men's ministry. He has two children: daughter Jami [Coburn] Divelbiss and her husband Wayne (children Charlie and Carter), and a son, Joey and his wife Mindy [Parks] Coburn (children Kate and Rhett).

Also filing today was Teresa Carol Garris, also for mayor. Currently, only councilor David Ragsdale has drawn an opponent - councilors David Jones, James Gulley and Jim Ritchey have not.

The prospect of a Coburn candidacy excites me, as he is a respected member of the community, and someone with a great deal of business experience, which I feel is needed (and lacking) at City Hall. Stay tuned to this blog for the latest on the 2010 Muskogee mayoral race.

Muskogee Mayoral Race Update

Quite a bit has happened since my last post on the Muskogee mayoral race. The last I posted of, sitting Councilman Jim Ritchey announced for mayor on August 20th, and Mayor John Tyler Hammons announced for reelection on November 30th.

The past two days have added new developments.

Chris James, a local travel agent, announced his candidacy for mayor at an event on Tuesday attended by about 150 people, according to reports by the Muskogee Phoenix. James was introduced by former mayor Wren Stratton, who immediately preceeded Mayor Hammons.

On Wednesday, Jim Ritchey withdrew from the race, and threw his support to Chris James. Ritchey will instead run for a second term on the city council. James appears to be uniting the anti-Hammons segment, as well as some of the more "establishment" crowd in Muskogee.

James has a reputation for being somewhat... immature (he has quite a few pictures on his Facebook page many would consider obscene), while Hammons is perceived by some to only be looking for his political future, as he has stated in the past that he wants to run for Governor and President. It remains to be seen as to which of the candidates will be able to garner the support necessary to win this race, and whether or not more candidates will jump in. Filing for the April 6th election begins next week.