The sixth seat

 

Democratic Party activist Susan McCann (Your Views, Feb. 10) took issue with my analysis in ScissorTales last week that President Barack Obama’s “Hope and Change” message falls flat in Oklahoma. Of course the evidence for this is overwhelming: Obama didn’t win in even the most heavily-Democratic counties in a state in which Democrats held a significant registration advantage over Republicans. I have little reason to believe Obama will do any better the second time around. But the rope of hope is always available for the grasping. McCann said it’s only a matter of time before “progressives” will outnumber conservatives in Oklahoma City. We heard something similar in 2010 from supporters of 5th Congressional District Democratic nominee Billy Coyle, who said a Democrat could indeed win the central Oklahoma seat that hasn’t been held by a Democrat since 1974. That seat was open in 2010, and Coyle was an excellent nominee. But he got less than 35 percent of the vote  —  and Obama wasn’t on the same ballot. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before a Democrat will represent Oklahoma City in Congress. It would help if the state would grow enough to restore the sixth congressional seat it lost after the 2000 Census. Were that to happen, redistricting could center the district more in the urban core and less in the fringes. As things now stand, though, Republicans would be in charge of the redistricting. Still, Democrats should hope that the state GOP’s pro-growth policies will lead to a population change that will result in adding a sixth seat. Right now the Republicans are headed by a governor who took 57.5 percent of the vote in the county that McCann says is steadily marching toward a “progressive” majority. The governor’s predecessor, moderate Democrat Brad Henry (a frequent target of scorn from “progressive” Dems) won the county with 63 percent. Yet the moderate Democrat nominated for governor in 2010 got 42.5 percent. Is this really a matter of time? Or is it a matter of values?

 

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