By Constitution Staff

In the only statewide contest on the June 26 ballot, Bob Anthony defeated Brooks Mitchell in the Republican Primary for a seat on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. And since no other candidates filed, Anthony also won election to a fifth term. Anthony received 65 percent of the vote against Mitchell's 35 percent.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission regulates oil and gas drilling, electric and gas utilities, trucking, pipelines, and telecommunications in Oklahoma. There are three Corporation Commission seats with six-year staggered terms. The seat held by Bob Anthony was up for election this year. Dana Murphy was reelected in 2010. Patrice Douglas of Edmond was appointed by Governor Mary Fallin as an interim replacement for Commissioner Jeff Cloud who resigned before the end of his term. Since Cloud's term was not up until 2014, there was an election scheduled this year to fill the remaining two years of his term. But, since Douglas was the only candidate to file, she was automatically elected.

Anthony is the grandson of C. R. Anthony, the founder of one of Oklahoma's greatest department store chains. In 1988, Anthony decided to run for a position on the Commission. He won that race easily, and has been reelected by large margins in subsequent elections in 1994, 2000, and 2006.

While very popular within the Republican Party, Anthony has won amazing support across the electorate. In 2006, in a year in which Republicans were suffering many statewide losses, Bob Anthony was the lone Republican to win a statewide race.

This is not surprising, since Anthony demonstrated his own integrity and high character during the Corporation Commission scandal of the early 90s. When Anthony was first elected in 1988, the Commission was a cesspool of corruption. William "Tator" Anderson, a utilities lobbyist, was apparently bribing corporation commissioners, and he attempted to bribe Anthony.

Anthony consulted a friend from junior high school, Bill Price, who was then a federal attorney. Price asked Anthony to allow the FBI to "wire" him in a sting operation. Anthony's undercover work for the FBI won him a special award from the Bureau and enabled federal prosecutors to send Anderson and a Corporation Commissioner to prison.

At the time of his election, Anthony was the lone Republican on the Commission. Since that time, he has been joined by other Republicans. Six years ago, Anthony defeated Cody Graves, who had previously held one of the three posts on the Commission, having been appointed in 1991 by Democrat Governor David Walters.

When the Oklahoma Legislature voted to raise the pay of the commissioners, Anthony was concerned that the increase for sitting commissioners was unconstitutional. He sought an opinion of the attorney general, who agreed with Anthony. Anthony's own pay was cut by the ruling he had requested, but Graves quit the Commission over the pay cut.

This year, Anthony's only opposition came from Brooks Mitchell who was hired by former Commissioner Jeff Cloud, as an aide. He later took a job at the Commission as director of the Petroleum Storage Tank Division. Finally, Mitchell was appointed director of administration at the Commission.