Published: July 07, 2008 08:28 pm            

Reasons for running vary

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Some congressional candidates in Oklahoma are running out of habit. Some say they are on a mission from God. Others just want to make a statement.

Almost two dozen candidates are running in Oklahoma for the U.S. Senate and five congressional posts.

Most of them have one thing in common: scant chance of winning against well-financed and entrenched incumbents.

“To beat an incumbent you either have to have an angry electorate or lots of money, or both,” said Keith Gaddie, University of Oklahoma political professor.

For some candidates, “running for office is a hobby,” while “others really think that lightning is going to strike,” Gaddie said.

Sen. James Inhofe, with millions of dollars in his war chest, is heavily favored to win the July 29 Republican primary against one perennial candidate and two newcomers.

Inhofe is seeking his third full term in the Senate. He already has mounted a massive television campaign depicting him as a stubborn advocate for Oklahoma’s interests.

On the Democratic side, state Sen. Andrew Rice of Oklahoma City is the favorite over Jim Rogers of Midwest City, another perennial candidate.

Rice said the war in Iraq was poorly conceived and executed and has detracted from the war on terror. It’s a personal issue for Rice, whose brother was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Rogers has run two times previously for the Senate, with his campaigns consisting mostly of standing beside a road and holding up a sign to get the attention of passing motorists.

Inhofe’s other primary opponents are two newcomers — Dennis Lopez of Thackerville and Ted Ryals of Oklahoma City — and Evelyn L. Rogers, a perennial candidate from Tulsa.

Independent Stephen P. Wallace of Tulsa also is running for the Senate.

Lopez, when he filed in June, declared that God had “laid it on my life” to run for the post. The 48-year-old part-time Baptist preacher said he was running to “put God first in our nation,” and if Inhofe shared that goal, “then we run together.”

Republican Senate candidate Evelyn Rogers, a librarian at Oral Roberts University, is making her fifth straight run for federal office.

Her mother, Tennie Rogers, previously ran three times for president, simultaneously running for Congress one year. In 1992, Tennie Rogers got on ballots in nine states, the most of any woman who ever ran for president.

In the 5th District, Mary Fallin is running for a second term and did not draw a primary opponent.

Two Democratic candidates are running, math teacher Bert Smith and newcomer Stephen L. Perry. Smith lost in two previous campaigns for the post.

        

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