By Constitution Staff

In the non-presidential election years, the governor's office, a host of secondary statewide offices, and one seat on the Corporation Commission are up for election. Several incumbents were automatically reelected in 2014 when no other candidates filed for those offices. The June 24 Primary Election and the August 26 Runoff Primary Election settled some races, and selected the party nominees in others. The November 4 General Election decided the remaining contests.

State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones, Attorney General Scott Pruitt, and Treasurer Ken Miller all avoided any competition in either the Republican Primary or the General Election, and were reelected to the posts they first won in the Republican sweep of 2010.

Insurance Commissioner John Doak, 51, won 77% of the vote in the Republican Primary. And, since no Democrats nor Independents filed for the office, Doak was reelected to a second term.

Since no Democrats and no Independents filed for the open Corporation Commission seat, the post was filled in the Republican Primary. Todd Hiett, a rancher from Kellyville, won the contest with 52% of the vote over state Senator Cliff Branan who received 48%. Hiett, 46, previously served in the legislature and became the first Republican House Speaker in Oklahoma since 1921.

The races for the other state offices were settled in the November General Election.

Governor

History was made in 2010 when Oklahoma elected its first woman governor. In 2014, Governor Mary Fallin , 59, won nomination to a second term with over 75% of the vote against two little known primary challengers in the June Primary. In 1990, Fallin was elected to the Oklahoma House, and four years later became the first Republican in state history to be elected lieutenant governor. She also was the first woman. After serving two terms as Lt. Governor, Fallin ran and was elected to the open Fifth District seat in Congress. She gave up the seat to run for Governor in 2010.

Joe Dorman, 43, of Rush Springs was the only Democrat to file for the state's top executive post. Dorman began working for the State of Oklahoma as a mail clerk and later as a staff member for the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Since 2003 he has served as the State Representative from Rush Springs. His cumulative average score on the Oklahoma Conservative Index was 39%.

In addition to Fallin and Dorman, there were two Independents on the November ballot. Kimberly Willis, 51, of Oklahoma City was formerly registered as a Republican. Richard Prawdzienski, 66, of Edmond is a real estate investor and has been active in the Libertarian Party. He previously ran for the Legislature, and for Lt. Governor in 2010. He had to file as an Independent since the Libertarian Party no longer has ballot status in Oklahoma.

Gov. Fallin was elected to a second term with nearly 56% of the vote. Dorman received 41%, while Willis and Prawdzienski received 2% and 1% respectively.

Lieutenant Governor

There were two candidates for lieutenant governor on the November ballot. Incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb, 42, was challenged by Democrat Cathy Cummings, 52, of Oklahoma City.

Lamb is an attorney who was born and raised in Enid. Prior to his election to the Oklahoma Senate in 2004, he worked for former Gov. Frank Keating and former U.S. Sen. Don Nickles. He has also been a U.S. Secret Service agent. Lamb served as Senate Majority Floor Leader and was the primary Senate author of much of the Pro-life legislation.

Cummings owns Vito's Ristorante in Oklahoma City. She said she decided to run because there needs to be more women elected to public office in order to provide a woman's perspective. Concerning abortion, Cummings said as a Catholic mother she is personally pro-life. However, Cummings said she defends a woman's right to choose whether or not to have a child.

Cummings believes the state should raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.50 an hour. She and her husband participated in an "experiment" in which they lived on the minimum wage for a month. They moved into a small apartment and lived on a minimum wage budget for 30 days. They documented their effort in a 20 minute Youtube video.

Lamb was reelected with an impressive 68.5% of the vote, while Cummings received 31.5%. Since Gov. Fallin cannot run for a third term due to term-limits, it is expected that Lamb will be a prime contender for the top job in 2018.

Labor Commissioner

State Labor Commissioner Mark Costello, 58, ran for a second term. Costello is President and CEO of Oklahoma City-based USA Digital Communications which he founded in 1998. He campaigned in the 2010 election as a businessman who would bring a no-nonsense, private sector approach to government spending, advocated passage of a total reform of the workers' compensation system, and a push back against the overreach of the federal government.

In his first year in office, Costello's streamlining generated a total savings of $415,383 for the State Labor Department. His agency streamlining resulted in the closing of the bricks and mortar Tulsa office, while increasing licensing locations statewide from 1 to 37 without extra cost by using Career Techs. In addition, he reduced the number of employees from 85 to 65.

Costello founded an organization in 2010 to advocate the complete reform of the lawyer based Workers' Compensation Court system. As Commissioner, Costello traveled to both Texas and Arkansas to review their respective systems to identify which best serves the injured worker and their employer. In 2013, the Oklahoma legislature passed legislation completely replacing the court system with an administrative system as advocated by Costello.

Costello was challenged for reelection by Democrat Mike Workman, 63, of Tulsa. Following a short career as a public school teacher from 1974 to 1976, in 1978 Workman founded Workman & Company, a political consulting company working to elect Democrats to office. He is known as a local community activist and helped organize Occupy Tulsa in the fall of 2011 as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Costello was elected to a second term with nearly 63% of the vote while Workman received just over 37%.

Superintendent of Public Instruction

The race for Superintendent of Public Instruction attracted a large field of candidates from both parties. Incumbent Republican Janet Barresi, who was elected in the Republican tidal wave of 2010, was defeated in the June Primary. Barresi's strong support for the set of educational standards known as Common Core, which the Republican-dominated Legislature voted to repeal, was largely responsible for her defeat. Even after Gov. Fallin, an early Common Core supporter, reluctantly signed the repeal legislation, Barresi did not back down.

Joy Hofmeister, 49, of Tulsa was the winner of the Republican Primary with 58% of the vote. Hofmeister, was a member of the state school board and stepped down to make the race. Hofmeister has been a teacher, beginning her career in Fort Worth, while her husband attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She has spent the past 14 years operating Kumon Math and Reading Centers, which works through parent partnerships to ensure higher academic achievement for children. Leading a staff of 40, she serves 750 students from public, private, charter, and home schools. She is earning her Master's Degree in Education Administration from OU.

There were four Democrats running for Superintendent of Public Instruction and since none was able to garner more than 50 percent of the vote in the Democrat Primary, the top two vote-getters continued the battle for the nomination in the August 26 Runoff Primary. Dr. John Cox, 50, of Hulbert finished first in the June Primary with 41% and Dr. Freda Deskin, 65, of Edmond took second place with 38%. Cox won the Democrat nomination in August Runoff Primary, garnering 63% of the vote.

Dr. Cox is a career educator, in his 20th year as a school superintendent and his 28th year in the field of education. He also serves as an adjunct professor of education at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. He serves as president of the Organization of Rural Elementary Schools (with 102 member schools) and as vice-hair of the Oklahoma Schools Assurance Group (with 488 member schools). In addition, Cox co-chairs the Vision Committee sponsored by the Oklahoma State School Boards Association and the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration.

While Democrats thought they had a shot at taking a statewide office with Superintendent's race, Hofmeister vanquished those hopes receiving nearly 56% of the vote over Cox's 44%.

Judicial Retention Ballot

There were three state Supreme Court justices, one judge from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, and five judges from the Court of Civil Appeals on the retention ballot on November 4. Oklahomans voted in 1967 to amend the state Constitution to change the manner in which Oklahoma Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals judges were chosen. Prior to 1967, appellate judges were elected in partisan statewide elections. In 1987, a statute was added that provided retention ballots for judges of the Court of Civil Appeals. The current method provides for a retention ballot on which voters indicate "yes" or "no" on whether an appellate judge should be retained in office.

Judges on these courts are appointed by the governor from a list of three names of qualified individuals prepared by the Judicial Nominating Commission. Appellate judicial terms are for six years. In cases where they replace a judge who died in office or resigned, they are placed on the retention ballot at the next general election for the remainder of the unexpired term. At the end of their terms, appellate judges must declare their candidacy if they wish to remain in the office. If the judge does not file for retention, or is not retained by voters, the governor appoints a new judge. Thus far, no judge has lost a retention election.

This year, Supreme Court Justices John F. Reif, Tom Colbert, and Joseph M. Watt were up for a retention vote. Governor Brad Henry appointed Justices Reif and Colbert, and Governor David Walters appointed Justice Watt.

Governor Henry Bellmon appointed Justice Gary Lumpkin to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

The five Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals justices on the ballot were Jerry L. Goodman, Jane P. Wiseman, Deborah B. Barnes, Keith Rapp, and Brian Jack Goree. Judge Goodman was appointed by Governor David Walters. Governor Brad Henry appointed Justices Wiseman and Barnes. Governor Mary Fallin appointed Goree. Judge Rapp was elected as a judge to the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals in 1984 before the judges were appointed.

If any of the judges were not retained, a replacement would have been appointed by Gov. Fallin. But, all were retained with Yes votes ranging from 59% to 63%.