Oklahoma Politics, Volume 8 (October, 1999)

Jones Jr., Randall J. “Using Time-Series Models to Explain and Predict State Gubernatorial Election Outcomes: An Application to Oklahoma”, pp. 1-16.

In Oklahoma gubernatorial elections the candidate of the incumbent governor’s party benefits from a healthy state economy, though national economic conditions have little influence.  When the President is popular, Oklahoma voters support the gubernatorial candidate of the party not in the White House, evidencing anti-Washington sentiment.  A regression model incorporating these influences, along with a control for party, successfully predicted the outcome of the 1998 gubernatorial election.

Shinn, Paul “Citizen Participation and Municipal Government in Three Oklahoma Communities”, pp. 17-42.

A study of citizen participation and relations between citizens and their elected officials in three suburban Oklahoma City communities shows that all forms of citizen participation are very low and that elected officials are generally forced to make decisions with very little input.  Modes of decision-making, dealing with conflict, and changing regimes all suggest that Dahl’s model of pluralism, designed to explain the politics of 1950s New Haven, fit these 1990s suburbs nearly as well.  While there are signs of growing communitarianism and civicism in these communities, these activities are supplementing, not supplanting, the plural democratic systems.

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Graham, Michael “Craig V. Boren: Sex Discrimination, 3.2% Beer, and the Clash Between Oklahoma Law and the Equal Protection Clause”, pp. 43-64.

Political events in Oklahoma interact with national trends to produce a Supreme Court decision establishing equal gender rights for states.

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Winger, Richard “Oklahoma Law: Tough on Minor Party and Independent Presidential Candidates”, pp. 65-82.

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Darcy, R., and Erik Motsinger “Oklahoma Ballot Access is Reasonable”, pp. 83-90.

Richard Winger has amassed an amazing amount of electoral facts and these he applies toward an analysis of ballot access.  In this journal he argues Oklahoma election law is tough on minor and independent presidential candidates and is out of line with current practice in the other states.  He has organized an eclectic body of arcane material in support of his contention.  Here, we show that Oklahoma law is not particularly tough on minor and independent presidential candidates.

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