Tuesday's
primary election in Oklahoma garnered little nation-wide attention. And why should it have? Well, I'll give you one reason below.
Let's see... Gov. Brad Henry (D) destroyed his hapless primary opponent with over 85% of the vote. Yeah, sure, we figured on that one. Congressman Ernest Istook (R-OK 5) is now officially the GOP's sacrificial lamb for the gubernatorial race. Ok, big deal. To the casual observer, about the only interesting thing was that the "immigration candidates" in the GOP primary for the 5th congressional district (OKC metro area), State Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode and Minuteman Civil Defense Corps/Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) endorsed candidate State Rep. Kevin Calvey came in a pathetic third and fourth place, respectively. Hum...so, what else??
I stumbled upon another little bit of buried news that I found much more enlightening than all the former stuff and thought I would share that with the dKos community.
First openly gay candidate elected in Oklahoma:
OKLAHOMA CITY For the first time in state history, an openly gay candidate is poised to become a member of the Oklahoma Legislature.
Democrat Al McAffrey won a three-candidate primary race tonight with 51 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff in the House District 88 seat in the heart of Oklahoma City. No Republicans filed for the seat.
McAffrey, a longtime Oklahoma City funeral director and a Navy veteran, said he didn't hide his sexual orientation, but didn't make it the focus of his campaign.
The District 88 seat was held by longtime state Representative Debbie Blackburn, who's being forced out of office because of term limits.
McAffrey fended off two other challengers and won over 50% of the vote to avoid a run-off. This right on the heals of a similar story out of Alabama just last week. As is proven day by day, those on the side of tolerance, inclusiveness and acceptance are on the right side of history.