Eight of the men and the two women seeking local public office met Thursday evening during a two-hour forum sponsored by the Norman Chamber of Commerce and The Transcript.

And for most of the evening the event was a smooth, reasoned discussion of issues and ideas.

Most of the evening.

But when the candidates for House District 45 were allowed to ask a question of each other, the atmosphere grew tense.

With just 11 days remaining before the state's general election, most of the county's legislative delegation and their opponents -- along with the two candidates for Cleveland County sheriff -- attended the event.

Sheriff candidates Rick Adkins, a Democrat, and Joe Lester, a Republican, opened the evening with 30-minute question and answer forum.

After Adkins and Lester spoke, state Reps. Bill Nations, D-Norman; Wallace Collins, D-Norman; and Scott Martin, R-Norman; along with political hopefuls Tod Barrett and Aaron Stiles, both Republicans, and Miranda Norman, and Diane Drum, Democrats, each spoke.

Incumbent Republican Senator Jonathan Nichols, R-Norman; and Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, did not attend.

Cleveland County sheriff

In the open race for sheriff, both Adkins and Lester said they would work to improve the operation of the sheriff's office.

"I want to provide more efficient coverage of Cleveland County," Adkins said. "I want to move more deputies in the field by reorganizing the office. By getting more deputies on the street we can provide more crime prevention."

Lester agreed.

"My first priority would be to evaluate each and every employee, see what that employee currently does, see who they are mentoring and who is mentoring them," Lester said. "I will evaluate them and their job function and then, at that time, make my decision on the structure of the sheriff's office."

Asked about county commissioners' proposed sales tax, Lester said he would "be against an ad valorem tax."

"I think passing a sales tax would be more fair to the citizens," he said.

Should the tax not pass, Lester said the sheriff's office could continue to outsource prisoners to other jails and take advantage of ankle bracelets.

Adkins said his ideas were similar to Lester's.

"I don't want my property taxes to go up either," he said. "I believe sales tax is the best way of funding the jail."

Asked by Lester how many people he had supervised in his career, Adkins said he currently supervises "three to four people" at the Purcell Police Department.

Asked by Adkins why he had retired twice and then decided to run for sheriff, Lester said he wasn't seeking the job for the money but, instead, because of his love for the county and desire to have the most qualified sheriff elected.



State Legislature

With control of both the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the Oklahoma State Senate a major issue statewide, the incumbents and their challengers pushed their ability and effectiveness Thursday evening.

"This isn't so much an ideological battle but one about effectiveness," said Tod Barrett, the Republican challenger for House District 44. "I'm a progressive Republican."

Rep. Nations, Barrett said, wouldn't be very effective in his final two years in office because of the current Republican majority.

Nations countered saying, "Tod, there's no guarantee that the House will stay in Republican control."

The evening's harshest exchanges came in the House District 45 race.

State Rep. Wallace Collins said the voters should consider his record on education and transportation. "All these things that I've mentioned have helped bring economic development to Norman," he said.

Collins' challenger, Aaron Stiles, said he would make ethics his main priority.

"We need to elect leaders that are both ethically and morally responsible with our tax dollars."

Stiles questioned Collins on his effectiveness.

"You've been representing our district in the past two years. And you've failed to pass a bill in the past two years. I'd like for you to tell the constituents of House District 45 why the next two years are gonna be any different?"

Collins said the claim "was certainly not correct."

"I'm very proud to say that I got a bill passed to place external automated defibrillators in every public school in this state," he said. "It's true that the bill didn't pass with my name on it, but in an effort to show that I can work across the aisle, I placed that bill as an amendment on another member's bill. It passed. It was Senate Bill 923 and it was signed by the governor. It is not true that I was not able to get a bill passed."

Turning to Stiles, Collins asked his Republican challenger why he "campaigned for smaller government yet requested that the government pay for your education. You campaigned on military service yet when your military unit was called up you asked for conscientious objector status saying you didn't know you might have to take another person's life. Then this past summer you were accused of threatening to shoot a neighbor and his young daughter. How can you explain these apparent contradictions?"

"Man that's a mouthful," Stiles said. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Are you sure you have the same Aaron Stiles? I've never been charged or investigated for any criminal activity. That's a lie. I was never granted conscientious objector status, I've received two honorable discharges. For someone who has never served his country to start attacking military veterans is despicable. You ought to be ashamed."

While her opponent did not attend, Diane Drum, the Democratic challenger for Senate District 15, chastised Republican State Sen. Jonathan Nichols for his absence.

"I'd like to say that I'm disappointed. We've had five formal public forums such as this and he has not appeared at a single one," she said. "And it's for that reason that I think I'll be a much better representative for the people of Norman because I will always be available."

Given the opportunity to question the absent Rep. Terrill, Democrat Troy Green declined.

"I just don't feel like I should attack someone or question someone if I can't look them in the eye," he said. "But thank you for the opportunity."

Sounding more like friends that political candidates, Democrat Miranda Norman asked her opponent, state Rep. Scott Martin, what he would do if he was reelected.

"There's one bill that I will focus on, and that's transportation. We've had a backlog in bridge and transportation funding. We've had a backlog for years now. I'd like to begin to get some of those transportation dollars back to our roads and bridges, primarily to our local roads and bridges," Martin said.

Martin asked his opponent what was the "most humorous thing you've come across" on the campaign trail.

"It's probably not a good idea to campaign during an OU football game," Norman replied. "You may talk to them, you're probably lost their vote."

Thursday's forum will be replayed on Norman TV Channel 20. Additionally, the Norman Chamber of Commerce will feature candidate surveys on its Web site at www.normanchamber.org.

The election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 4.

M. Scott Carter 366-3545 scarter@normantranscript.com