2016 Tulsa Mayoral Race

[Conan71]

GT Bynum has finally announced one of Tulsa's worst-kept secrets that he is running for mayor.

I had also seen recently that George Kaiser was hosting or co-hosting Bartlet's (sic) first major fund-raiser last Thursday which would tend to indicate that Kathy Taylor will not run this time around.

I believe GT could be a really good mayor, but from the article in the Tulsa World, it sounds as if he doesn't differ much with Dewey on the issues, it's just time for someone else to be mayor.

Obviously, we need a better visionary than the current mayor in terms of development and understanding what sort of amenities attract young professionals.

Who would be other good candidates?

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/elections/tulsa-s-race-for-mayor-is-on/article_a382d08d-a724-5801-9864-7646ebfab493.html

The race to be Tulsa's next mayor is starting.

Tulsa City Councilor G.T. Bynum said he is running for mayor in 2016 and plans to file committee paperwork with the city clerk on Monday so he can start fundraising.

"I have no interest in just being mayor," Bynum said. "I would only want to run for it if I think we can accomplish some big things. The dynamics are in place to really unify the city and push toward a couple of big goals."

Bynum's announcement is the first major declaration for mayor in the coming election.

Mayor Dewey Bartlett said Friday that he has not officially announced his intention to run for re-election. However, Bartlett said he had a successful fundraiser Thursday night to benefit his campaign.

"I obviously haven't officially announced," Bartlett said. "I just kind of wanted to gauge what the public's perception of me is if I threw a little get-together. It was very positive. We had a number of people from all over the city."

What to expect

Tulsa's election laws have changed to a nonpartisan system that necessitated filing deadlines for office in April, followed by a June primary election, then a possible August runoff and a November general election.

In 2009, when he was elected to his first term, Bartlett announced his campaign in June, a month before filing was due and three months before a

September primary, after then-Mayor Kathy Taylor announced she would not seek re-election.

Bartlett, 68, and Bynum, 38, met Friday to discuss their intentions, both officials confirmed.

"He said, 'You will have been there for seven years,' and that he thinks it's time for someone else to be mayor," Bartlett said. "There's a lot of people that would certainly like to be mayor. It will be interesting."

Both Bartlett and Bynum said they don't foresee Vision renewal efforts being politicized or jeopardized in the mayoral campaign process.

Both have been the leaders in efforts to "put water in the river" — a major portion of the Vision discussion.

Another substantial portion, funding for public safety, is a major effort on Bartlett's part that Bynum has shared common ground and goals on.

"I've been very consistent the last several years on my view for Vision," Bartlett said. "I think clearly that Vision renewal has to have a serious component of support for public safety."

Bynum recently said he supports some portion of Vision going to public safety, in line with Bartlett's position.
The platforms

Bynum said the platform of his campaign has two immediate goals: to make the city have an active role in improving education and to take steps to make Tulsa more competitive nationally.

"If you look at our overall economic development as a region, we've been doing pretty good for the last 20 to 30 years," Bynum said. "Jobs have been coming here. Companies have been coming here. But the problem has been that the employees too often go and live in the suburbs instead of the city."
Bynum said Bartlett and the city have fallen behind in retaining young professionals and attracting young professionals nationally.

"I don't think the city government has done a good enough job in the last six years of being focused on national competitiveness, and I don't think we can afford another four years of that type of approach," he said.

Bynum said he wants to avoid a negative campaign against Bartlett.

"My focus on this is not about a negative campaign against Dewey," Bynum said. "The very first campaign I ever worked on was Dewey's campaign for the City Council in 1990 when he ran for the seat that I have. ... I like him a lot, and I'm not interested in a negative campaign."

On education, Bynum said he hopes to be aggressive in improving education efforts in Tulsa to attract families to reside in the city limits.

"Historically, the city has taken a pass on a leadership role in education," Bynum said.

"That goes from pre-K through college. We provide crossing guards in schools and in an occasional bond issue we will do some work with them, but there is no comprehensive city education strategy in place. That is why we lose so much of our growth, in my opinion, to suburban communities."
Bartlett said his two terms have been successful in partnerships with education groups, which he would continue.

"Our aerospace academy is a perfect example of how our administration has involved a variety of educational groups," Bartlett said. "And that will be replicated. Right now it's aerospace, but the next focus I believe will be in manufacturing."

Bartlett's long goal of meshing Tulsa's aerospace industry with a high school education program was realized earlier this fall with the first class of the Tulsa Tech Aerospace Academy.

"I've always put economic development and job creation at the top of my list," Bartlett said. "Everything we've done in the past we've asked the question, 'Does it create jobs? Does it support economic development? Is it inclusive to the city or exclusive?' "

[Townsend]

I've noticed several local news organizations talking about the Facebook Tulsa Mayoral race going on.

It looks as though there's some calling out going on.

Who's calling the mayoral race for Bynum?

[Conan71]

Blake Ewing tore Bartlet (sic) a new one on the Facebooks, basically saying that Dewey's participation in the Vision Tulsa package was deft at best and that Dewby is taking credit for everyone else's work.

This is going to be a tough one to call.  Dewby can count on his Southern Hills cabal to back him for another term, but Bynum also runs in some of those same groups.  I think amongst younger voters, he will do well.  Amongst Dewby's peers, they will think of him as the "little LaFortune kid" and will want to continue on with this sad legacy of Bartlet (sic).

Honestly, my call on the Vision Tulsa vote was way off, and I thought the dams would be GT's "Waterloo" so I'm the wrong prognosticator when it comes to Tulsa elections, apparently.

Anyone who will pledge to clean out this entire administration (Clay Bird in particular) and come up with a serious lobbying effort to change our tax base from being so sales tax dependent is someone who would earn my vote.  I don't want more of the same under Bynum or anyone for that matter.  We have a backwards-thinking administration who thinks building more retail is our salvation when all it does is further dilute the tax base and increase pressure on already failing infrastructure.

[davideinstein]

Two Republicans with one being more polished (Bynum). Not voting for either unless Bynum put together one hell of a plan before the election.

[Hoss]

Two Republicans with one being more polished (Bynum). Not voting for either unless Bynum put together one hell of a plan before the election.

Didn't they make it now so that Mayoral elections are no longer party based?

[davideinstein]

Didn't they make it now so that Mayoral elections are no longer party based?

They are still registered Republicans. But yes.

[cannon_fodder]

Ewing also pointed out on the Facebook that Bartlett thought Tulsa was getting the Betamax HQ, instead of the BMW headquarters.

[swake]

So Tom Atkinson, who is Bartlett's brother in law, is the co-chair on Bynum's campaign?

This is just great. Atkinson is also running for Congress.

[AquaMan]

Ewing also pointed out on the Facebook that Bartlett thought Tulsa was getting the Betamax HQ, instead of the BMW headquarters.

That there is funny. Gotta be old enough to remember Betamax though.

[davideinstein]

So Tom Atkinson, who is Bartlett's brother in law, is the co-chair on Bynum's campaign?

This is just great. Atkinson is also running for Congress.

Politics need new blood in this city.

[Red Arrow]

That there is funny. Gotta be old enough to remember Betamax though.

Anyone want a bunch of VHS tapes of Channel 11 AM Weather my dad recorded?

I am willing to get rich quick selling them.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Politics need new blood in this city.

Tulsa politics needs new brains and common sense and real vision. Same situation needed since the mid 70's. Same for the state for just as long. Unfortunately it's been SNAFU for the last 40 years.

[AquaMan]

I thought Blake might be the guy to step in since his district is affluent and he has been a leader in downtown growth. Bynum looks the part but sounds like he might be the youngest and smartest of the old guard.

[patric]

I thought Blake might be the guy to step in since his district is affluent and he has been a leader in downtown growth. Bynum looks the part but sounds like he might be the youngest and smartest of the old guard.

Thats kind of the impression I got when his district 9 was gerrymandered to shed the less affluent neighborhoods, but that's Blake's gain.

[carltonplace]

So where are all of the candidates? Why is it a race between two people?