OKC Mayor Race 2014

[Urban Pioneer]

I can assure you that the CoC does not always get what they want. Just read the transit thread. Life is not black and white.

[bradh]

You know who else has "special" mailers? Ed Shadid...the guy can't even hire a proofreader.

[kevinpate]

Drumroll ..........

Just for fun, list your preferred candidate and the top three reasons you think your choice should be the next mayor of OKC.
Bonus warm fuzzies if you do so without simply regurgitating your candidate's mailer, stump speech or talking point bullets.
Triple bonus points if you can write about your candidate without taking shots at some other candidate.

Ready. Set. Pitch.

[soonerguru]

If the collective wisdom here is that Edgar is really nothing but a troll, could maybe I solicit a question why he's allowed to continue posting? I thought ongoing trolling or purposely being combative/not constructive was grounds to get 86'd, warned, whatever. And if that's not an appropriate question to ask here, apologies.

I have no problem with people having a different opinion on things, it can foster good discussion, but when it just becomes argument for argument's sake, that's neither constructive nor even enjoyable, but that's just me.

This site needs the ability to troll rate posters. It would actually improve the quality of discussion -- not by censoring, but by promoting honest conversation. We can have differences of opinion, but when posters simply continue to restate known falsehoods, especially after being called on it multiple times, they are simply driving conversations off topic and littering the board with verbal diarrhea.

One of the best systems out there is DailyKos, a liberal site I visit often. They troll rate people for posting conspiracy theories, or just filibustering like a couple of posters on this board are doing. It's a community policing approach.

[soonerguru]

That speech should be required viewing for anyone who is going to vote in the upcoming election and I would be happy to let Ed put any speech of his choosing next to it for comparison.

Bumping this.

[soonerguru]

just listed to that state of the city speech, and wow does mick come across well. I honestly got goosebumps at the bit about the phoenix.

bump!

[SoonerDave]

Drumroll ..........

Just for fun, list your preferred candidate and the top three reasons you think your choice should be the next mayor of OKC.
Bonus warm fuzzies if you do so without simply regurgitating your candidate's mailer, stump speech or talking point bullets.
Triple bonus points if you can write about your candidate without taking shots at some other candidate.

Ready. Set. Pitch.

I'll give it a shot, Kevin. You can be the judge if I hit the triple bonus point bell.

My candidate is the incumbent, Mick Cornett.

There's an old adage that teaches one should "never follow a legend." And, while the analogy may be a bit extreme, that's what Mick Cornett did during his *first* campaign for mayor - following MAPS author Ron Norick and daring to suggest he could, as a political newcomer, take the reins of a city having only taken the first furtive steps toward an uncertain urban renaissance. Perhaps it was the retrospective outlandishness of Cornett, the kind that allowed him to believe he *could* fill that role and convince a cautious, notoriously conservative voting public of the same that made his candidacy compelling. Acting anything like a naive politician during his first term, Cornett seemed almost a natural for the role, leveraging the public goodwill drawn from that prior TV sports career and combining it with an unexpected flair not for the politically dramatic, but the willingness to simply sustain the momentum his predecessor had established while learning exactly what it meant to be "mayor" in the first place.

Cornett then realized that any urban renaissance that failed to address the long-term problems of Oklahoma City schools would face a tough, uphill battle. He then reached out to create his own MAPS sequel - MAPS for Kids - that created a unique bridge from the city to the public schools, across which a funding path would be plowed that would permit the district to reconstruct long-exhausted buildings and obtain long-needed resource and facility upgrades. It was no panacea - the kinds of problems faced by OKC schools were and are too big and too numerous for any one mayor or one tax proposal to solve - but the effort demonstrated Cornett's willingness to try something - anything - to avoid letting the status quo persist even a day longer than absolutely necessary. Once again, the audacity to try led to the audacity of success.

For Cornett, it could be argued that political audacity was its own reward. Following the devastation that Hurricane wreaked on New Orleans, leaving the NBA's strugglng Hornets without a home, Cornett saw an opportunity - one to take the unoccupied MAPS Arena and offer it to Hornets' owner George Shinn as a temporary home to his team while New Orleans rebuilt. It would, to almost any outsider from any other city aspiring to transform itself from one level to another, be seen as an outrageous effort at cherry picking a city; yet, somehow, Cornett managed to make the compelling case to Shinn, and with absolutely no promise of anything beyond a single season, suddenly, that audacity that led Cornett to run for mayor had turned Oklahoma City from a city known primarily for its disasters and as an anchor tenant in a football-hungry state into one now hosting an NBA franchise - albeit temporarily. And once Oklahoma City had a taste of pro basketball in the form of Chris Paul and the Hornets, they were hooked. And, truth be told, the NBA was hooked on Oklahoma City. And that mutual admiration was born by no one other than that audacious Mick Cornett.

Now, years following that first flirtation with the NBA, Cornett finds himself at the helm of a city now thoroughly obsessed with its own basketballling Thunder, admiring of the ongoing rebuild and re-invigoration of its downtown, and now going forward with a third MAPS iteration. This round is arguably more audacious, arguably more controversial, yet somehow Cornett has managed to marshal broad support for a suite of projects that touch the inner and outer city, projects that have already started, and some yet to come.

There's no suggestion that Cornett is some sort of paragon, yet somehow he has managed to pull the handle on a political slot machine multiple times in his brief political career and perpetually find himself fetching buckets to collect the repeated payouts. He has somehow crafted for himself a role not as some grand politician, but as a citizen leader who wants very much to put a nationally recognized, affable, 21st century face on a city barely anyone outside her limits knew much about prior to the ignominy of April 1995. For a guy whose biggest claim to journalistic fame was nearly spoiling a game-winning homerun by the old Oklahoma City 89ers during the playoffs by running onto the field before the hitter crossed home plate, Cornett has transformed himself into an unobtrusive yet formidable city leader, one with nationwide recognition, and a track record for the audacious. That transformation, that track record, and that affable confidence that simply seems to refuse to take "no" for an answer to a good idea, all belong to Mick Cornett, the man who has brought favor and honor to our city as Mayor, and richly deserves another term in precisely that role.

[zookeeper]

Just two quick comments...

- Mayor Cornett's State of the City was a brilliant speech.
- Mayor Cornett's appearance on PBS after the SOTU was also very, very good. If you haven't seen that, it's at this link and he begins at about the 1:44:45 mark.

I don't agree with Cornett on everything, but he's also hard to pigeonhole, he's a pragmatic man who has much to offer in public service.

Needless to say, in my opinion, Mayor Cornett deserves a landslide re-election.

[jerrywall]

I'll give it a shot, Kevin. You can be the judge if I hit the triple bonus point bell.

My candidate is the incumbent, Mick Cornett.

There's an old adage that teaches one should "never follow a legend." And, while the analogy may be a bit extreme, that's what Mick Cornett did during his *first* campaign for mayor - following MAPS author Ron Norick and daring to suggest he could, as a political newcomer, take the reins of a city having only taken the first furtive steps toward an uncertain urban renaissance. Perhaps it was the retrospective outlandishness of Cornett, the kind that allowed him to believe he *could* fill that role and convince a cautious, notoriously conservative voting public of the same that made his candidacy compelling. Acting anything like a naive politician during his first term, Cornett seemed almost a natural for the role, leveraging the public goodwill drawn from that prior TV sports career and combining it with an unexpected flair not for the politically dramatic, but the willingness to simply sustain the momentum his predecessor had established while learning exactly what it meant to be "mayor" in the first place.

Cornett then realized that any urban renaissance that failed to address the long-term problems of Oklahoma City schools would face a tough, uphill battle. He then reached out to create his own MAPS sequel - MAPS for Kids - that created a unique bridge from the city to the public schools, across which a funding path would be plowed that would permit the district to reconstruct long-exhausted buildings and obtain long-needed resource and facility upgrades. It was no panacea - the kinds of problems faced by OKC schools were and are too big and too numerous for any one mayor or one tax proposal to solve - but the effort demonstrated Cornett's willingness to try something - anything - to avoid letting the status quo persist even a day longer than absolutely necessary. Once again, the audacity to try led to the audacity of success.

For Cornett, it could be argued that political audacity was its own reward. Following the devastation that Hurricane wreaked on New Orleans, leaving the NBA's strugglng Hornets without a home, Cornett saw an opportunity - one to take the unoccupied MAPS Arena and offer it to Hornets' owner George Shinn as a temporary home to his team while New Orleans rebuilt. It would, to almost any outsider from any other city aspiring to transform itself from one level to another, be seen as an outrageous effort at cherry picking a city; yet, somehow, Cornett managed to make the compelling case to Shinn, and with absolutely no promise of anything beyond a single season, suddenly, that audacity that led Cornett to run for mayor had turned Oklahoma City from a city known primarily for its disasters and as an anchor tenant in a football-hungry state into one now hosting an NBA franchise - albeit temporarily. And once Oklahoma City had a taste of pro basketball in the form of Chris Paul and the Hornets, they were hooked. And, truth be told, the NBA was hooked on Oklahoma City. And that mutual admiration was born by no one other than that audacious Mick Cornett.

Now, years following that first flirtation with the NBA, Cornett finds himself at the helm of a city now thoroughly obsessed with its own basketballling Thunder, admiring of the ongoing rebuild and re-invigoration of its downtown, and now going forward with a third MAPS iteration. This round is arguably more audacious, arguably more controversial, yet somehow Cornett has managed to marshal broad support for a suite of projects that touch the inner and outer city, projects that have already started, and some yet to come.

There's no suggestion that Cornett is some sort of paragon, yet somehow he has managed to pull the handle on a political slot machine multiple times in his brief political career and perpetually find himself fetching buckets to collect the repeated payouts. He has somehow crafted for himself a role not as some grand politician, but as a citizen leader who wants very much to put a nationally recognized, affable, 21st century face on a city barely anyone outside her limits knew much about prior to the ignominy of April 1995. For a guy whose biggest claim to journalistic fame was nearly spoiling a game-winning homerun by the old Oklahoma City 89ers during the playoffs by running onto the field before the hitter crossed home plate, Cornett has transformed himself into an unobtrusive yet formidable city leader, one with nationwide recognition, and a track record for the audacious. That transformation, that track record, and that affable confidence that simply seems to refuse to take "no" for an answer to a good idea, all belong to Mick Cornett, the man who has brought favor and honor to our city as Mayor, and richly deserves another term in precisely that role.

Not sure if it could be said better. In fact, I would love permission to repost this to my facebook friends who might be on the edge...

[SoonerDave]

Not sure if it could be said better. In fact, I would love permission to repost this to my facebook friends who might be on the edge...

Go for it! Flattered you think its worthy to be reposted!

[catch22]

Great post Dave. But just to clarify, I believe Maps for kids was a Kirk Humphreys accomplishment.

[SoonerDave]

Great post Dave. But just to clarify, I believe Maps for kids was a Kirk Humphreys accomplishment.

Well, that's embarrassing. You are absolutely correct. Thanks for the compliments nonetheless.

I would gladly edit my original post to reflect the correct data, but I believe the time the "Edit Post" label is available has passed.

I believe it is fair to say that Cornett enthusiastically leveraged the success of Maps 4 Kids as he moved forward with Maps 3. And, for the sake of completeness, Cornett directly followed Humphreys as Mayor, not Norick, as it would seem my original post implied. I was predisposed to the MAPS notions and simply linked Norick to the original and Cornett to Maps 3 without mentioning Humphreys. Apologies for the oversight.

[zookeeper]

As I said a couple of posts back, Mayor Cornett's State of the City and his appearance on PBS were both awesome. I do have one question and it's bothered me a bit. Why does Mick allow the media to introduce him as the "Republican Mayor of Oklahoma City?" Even during the PBS interview, he's on the screen as "Mick Cornett (R) Oklahoma City." His allowing that flies in the face of our non-partisan elections and holding office as non-partisan mayors, councilman, etc. It would be real easy to say (before the interview even begins), "By the way, I'm a registered Republican, but I'm not a "Republican Mayor," I was elected in a non-partisan election and serve in a non-partisan capacity."

I love Mick. I really think Mick is an incredible public servant. But this rubs me wrong and seems wrong for him to not make it clear - or even correct them if they insist on doing it anyway.

No flames. I LOVE MICK! But, he's not serving as the "Republican Mayor" of Oklahoma City. He's serving as a non-partisan mayor, who happens to be a Republican. It sounds like splitting hairs, but we hold these non-partisan elections for a reason.

[soonerguru]

As I said a couple of posts back, Mayor Cornett's State of the City and his appearance on PBS were both awesome. I do have one question and it's bothered me a bit. Why does Mick allow the media to introduce him as the "Republican Mayor of Oklahoma City?" Even during the PBS interview, he's on the screen as "Mick Cornett (R) Oklahoma City." His allowing that flies in the face of our non-partisan elections and holding office as non-partisan mayors, councilman, etc. It would be real easy to say (before the interview even begins), "By the way, I'm a registered Republican, but I'm not a "Republican Mayor," I was elected in a non-partisan election and serve in a non-partisan capacity."

I love Mick. I really think Mick is an incredible public servant. But this rubs me wrong and seems wrong for him to not make it clear - or even correct them if they insist on doing it anyway.

No flames. I LOVE MICK! But, he's not serving as the "Republican Mayor" of Oklahoma City. He's serving as a non-partisan mayor, who happens to be a Republican. It sounds like splitting hairs, but we hold these non-partisan elections for a reason.

For the record, I completely agree with you. I've always felt the same about this. When he went on Bill Maher and allowed himself to be characterized as a "conservative Republican," I laughed. Yes, he's a Republican, and he's "conservative" compared to, say, Harry Reid, but he's really not that conservative and his politics are far more expansive than what we've come to expect from the Republican Party.

He really transcends party labels, but to answer your question, I think he allows himself to be introduced this way to get elected. There are frankly a lot of reactionary Republicans in OK right now, the equivalent of the bygone Yellow Dog Democrats. They are the Red Dog Republicans. They don't give a flip about anything but party ID, and vote straight ticket. You could literally put Charles Manson on the ballot and he would achieve at least 40% of the vote from people voting a straight ticket if he had an R in parentheses next to his name.

It is what it is. For the record, Mick is a very moderate guy and works very well with Democrats and Republicans and is actually pretty progressive. So vote your conscience but I for one don't care -- he's a very good mayor and a Boren-like politician in my opinion. I think he's smarter than Norick and certainly smarter than Humphries (a true gay-hating conservative). I actually think Cornett is the best mayor OKC has seen in my lifetime. He definitely transcends his party affiliation.

[zookeeper]

For the record, I completely agree with you. I've always felt the same about this. When he went on Bill Maher and allowed himself to be characterized as a "conservative Republican," I laughed. Yes, he's a Republican, and he's "conservative" compared to, say, Harry Reid, but he's really not that conservative and his politics are far more expansive than what we've come to expect from the Republican Party.

He really transcends party labels, but to answer your question, I think he allows himself to be introduced this way to get elected. There are frankly a lot of reactionary Republicans in OK right now, the equivalent of the bygone Yellow Dog Democrats. They are the Red Dog Republicans. They don't give a flip about anything but party ID, and vote straight ticket. You could literally put Charles Manson on the ballot and he would achieve at least 40% of the vote from people voting a straight ticket if he had an R in parentheses next to his name.

It is what it is. For the record, Mick is a very moderate guy and works very well with Democrats and Republicans and is actually pretty progressive. So vote your conscience but I for one don't care -- he's a very good mayor and a Boren-like politician in my opinion. I think he's smarter than Norick and certainly smarter than Humphries (a true gay-hating conservative). I actually think Cornett is the best mayor OKC has seen in my lifetime. He definitely transcends his party affiliation.

SG, I hope you know I agree with every word you said. Mick is the best public servant in the state as far as I'm concerned. It wouldn't sway my vote in any way, but like you (You wrote, "For the record, I completely agree with you."), I just think he should put that to a stop and make some effort to be intellectually honest with the media and preserve our time-honored non-partisanship in elected municipal positions.

[mkjeeves]

Yep. That R in Oklahoma is pretty important, just like the D can be the kiss of death around here. I was talking to a stanch republican two days ago who told me they had a problem with this election, saying there's no way they are going to vote for Mick but the can't bear the thought of voting for Ed only because he's a democrat and they just couldn't imagine ever voting for a dem.

Of course, I told them Ed isn't a democrat.

[betts]

As a Democrat, I'm glad we don't have to claim him. Of course most Republicans would find the Green Party even more frightening. Although he has found a way to go so far left that he's managed to come around to the far right. Clever, if people aren't paying attention. And that's his favorite kind of voter: the ones who aren't paying attention.

[Laramie]

Let's do what's in the best interest of Oklahoma City and keep the momentum going.

Once you start unraveling the MAPS agenda moving forward; what's next? Everyone is not going to get everything they want on a MAPS referendum. There will always be something offered on the MAPS' a la carte which will be beneficial for each citizen.

Vote for the candidate which has a proven record throughout Oklahoma City's progressive years beginning in the 90s decade.

"Oklahoma City looks oh-so pretty... ...as I get my kicks on Route 66." --Nat King Cole.

[mkjeeves]

You're making way too much sense, Ed! Stop that!

[betts]

Watch what he does, not what he says. Ed can sound good until you check his facts and catch him in a lie/s. What has he accomplished in his tenure despite all his fancy talk? Where is his coalition? When has he even shown himself capable of consistency or compromise? Even Greiner has jumped ship. Ed talks about all the appointments he's going to make if he's elected mayor but where's his majority to approve them? His political IQ is 2 standard deviations below the mean.

[betts]

Cornett?s resume makes him tough to beat | Capital City

One of the great ironies of the 2014 mayoral election may be that Shadid has built a campaign largely focused on a new generation of Oklahoma City resident that has really blossomed under Cornett’s watch. The highly-coveted 20-something creative class has flocked to Oklahoma City in recent years and Cornett says that achievement came only after a commitment to a holistic approach to urban development, instead of focusing on one or two major projects.

“What we are trying to do is build the quality of life that will attract the highly educated 20-somethings from all over the country,” Cornett said. “My generation largely left Oklahoma City because we didn’t have the jobs and quality of life in the 1990s and 80’s.

“You can’t really afford to prioritize what you are looking for. You’ve got to have the arts, the sports, the pedestrian-friendly urban environment and a fine quality of life in the suburbs, too.”

[Tier2City]

Cornett?s resume makes him tough to beat | Capital City

Is this guy that did the Nate Silver "homage" (sounds better than knockoff) website? Couldn't seem to find my way back to that site....

[bradh]

Even Greiner has jumped ship.

huh? do tell, I live in his ward, and have reached out to him 6 months ago to not back Shadid

[betts]

By saying that Greiner jumped ship, I was referring to the fact that he gave an interview to the Oklahoman in which he stated that he supports a new convention center for Oklahoma City. He voted against Shadid's chicken proposal and he voted to accept the CC hotel consultant's report. He's not blindly following Shadid. Pete White is the only person who has voted with Shadid on those two votes.

[Plutonic Panda]

No, you are a Troll ! In a little over a month, it'll be over for you and el Shadid, The Doctor, the adult in the room and the Good Doctor.

Don't get too cocky now. I agree Cornett will likely win, but never be too sure of yourself.