Three Republicans, including Mayor G.T. Bynum, two Independents and two Democrats will be on the ballot August 25 in Tulsa mayoral race.

Bynum has said this is the last time he will run for mayor.

Here is information on all of the candidates.

Republican Ken Reddick

Reddick grew up in East Tulsa and attended Garnett Road Church of Christ. Reddick is a certified project manager and small business owner. Before becoming a general contractor, he was a department supervisor for a PSO/AEP contractor.

For the past 10 years, he has worked with the physical plant for The University of Tulsa.

He started Clean Slate Contracting LL and Tulsa Fence & Roofing Company.

Reddick wants to cut taxes, improve education, build community coalitions and make neighborhoods safer. He supports the Tulsa Police Department and Fire Department. He wants to streamline the permitting process.

“I know it’s hard to fund a city through sales tax dollars. But it’s immoral for that city to apply a tax to food and groceries,” Reddick said on his website. “As your next mayor, I will move to repeal the city’s sales tax on food and groceries. As mayor of Tulsa I will find new, more diversified ways to better fund out city. Ways that will not burden our hard working families.”

He wants to improve city relations with churches, businesses and the public.

“Tulsa City Hall should do more to help Tulsa Public Schools achieve their goals of producing elite students,” Reddick wrote.

He said he would create a task force to fight crime in communities.

“As mayor, I will put an end to any discussion of creating an OIM,” Reddick stated. “Mayor Bynum’s oversight committee is meant to undermine our police department and internal affairs. We are blessed to have a police force that excels on a national level and strives to serve our communities.”

Independent Craig Immel

Immel has a master’s degree in real estate from Daniels College of Business, University of Denver. He has a bachelor’s degree in geography from OSU.

He has 15 years’ experience in nonprofit advocacy with the US Green Building Council and others.

He wants Tulsa to attract the best teachers possible for the public schools. He wants more local control and less control from the State Legislature. He wants a ban on fracking within the city limits. Immel wants to increase the minimum wage in Tulsa.

He believes in “community policing” and wants Tulsa to move away from “an overly militarized police force.”

“It’s time to get real about addressing the role that the City of Tulsa played in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, and to do anything and everything possible to ensure that something so terrible can never happen here again,” Immel said. “All voices will be represented, and nothing is off the table.”

Immel said Tulsa is ranked one of the “unhealthiest cities” in America for a variety of reasons. He wants more support for Tulsa “cultural and arts scene.” And he wants more local food production to combat “food deserts.”

And he doesn’t approve of Bynum’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“GT Bynum’s unacceptably slow and passive response to the Covid-19 pandemic is causing unnecessary illness and death, and catastrophic damage to our local economy for years to come,” Immel wrote on his Facebook page.

Republican Mayor G.T. Bynum

Bynum, who has a degree from Villanova, worked as a staffer for former U.S. Senators Don Nickles and Tom Coburn (2000-2006). He later opened a lobbying firm in Tulsa. Bynum was first elected to the City Council in 2008. In 2016, he defeated Mayor Dewey Bartlett, Jr.

Former Mayor Robert J. LaFortune is Bynum’s grandfather and former Mayor Bill LaFortune is his uncle.

When President Trump announced his return to campaigning with a stop in Tulsa, Bynum declined to attend the rally even though Bynum is a Republican.  Bynum did welcome Trump at the Tulsa Airport.

This month, Bynum signed a controversial ordinance that requires Tulsans to wear a mask in public as a result of the coronavirus scare. He recently approved hiring an out-of-state firm for more than $100,000 to study Tulsa’s police department.

Bynum has promoted the search for a mass grave associated with the 1921 Race Riot. So far, no bodies have been uncovered.

Bynum approved renaming a street in Downtown as “Pride Street” as a nod to Tulsa’s homosexual community.

As part of his resume as mayor, Bynum said he had recruited large new employers to Tulsa (including Amazon). He claims to have tripled the size of Tulsa’s Rainy Day Fund and increased the size of the police force. He pushed a gigantic tax increase for what he calls “the largest street improvement program in Tulsa history.”

Democrat Zackri Leon Whitlow

Whitlow thinks junk food is poor nutrition.

He wants Tulsans to have better Internet connections. According to his website, Tulsa lacks rail/subway/canal/river transportation.

He wants to speed up municipal paperwork. He wants to revamp how Tulsans vote with “blockchain-based voting” that he claims is “incorruptible and transparent.”He wants mayors to be limited to one term.  Whitlow was opposed to President Trump holding a rally in Tulsa.

He wrote, “…this rally event is a terrible idea and in my expert opinion, I would refrain from doing large social gatherings in a closed germ-haven type of pressure-cooker environment.  Lastly, I would like to add the idea of re-prioritizing of what is most important to your campaign. How does this type of hazardous event which could kill your voters before they vote help get more votes?”

Independent Paul Tay

A perennial candidate, Tay advocates legalizing recreational use of marijuana. He wants to start a new political party, the Free Weed Party.

“Can we call just get along and smoke some really good weed, already?” he wrote on his Facebook page.

He has a degree in physics and was in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“In deference to Tulsa conservatives such as Sooner Politics, I will vet a white Christian person to serve as one of the three deputy mayors in my administration,” Tay wrote on his Facebook page. “Of course, to round out my team, I will also vet a black ‘liberal/progressive’ of any religion, gender identity or any other protected class. I will attempt to allow all competing voices to engage in the marketplace of ideas within the Mayor’s Office.”

Democrat Gregory C. Robinson II

Robinson, who is black, has been a community organizer for METCares Foundation and was chairman of the Greater Tulsa African American Affairs Commission. He is on the 1921 Mass Graves Committee.

He formerly worked on the mayoral campaign of former Mayor Kathy Taylor and on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

“I am deeply committed to making this city one that I can be proud of, that my family can be proud of, that our little brothers and sisters of all races and ages and backgrounds can be proud of, that our ancestors can be proud of and that those who come after us can be proud of,” Robinson said in an interview with The Black Wall Street Times.

Democrat Ricco Wright

Wright has been accused of sexual assault and has ended his campaign. His name will still be on the ballot.

Republican Ty Walker

Ty Walker is a life-long Tulsan, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, a small business owner and a conservative Christian.

Walker, along with his daughters, owns and operates Wanda J’s Next Generation restaurant in the Historic Greenwood District on Black Wall Street and in another location in the American Airlines facility.

He wants to support small businesses in Tulsa by creating tax incentives, credits and exemptions. Walker wants to cut unnecessary city licenses and business requirements and create grants for small businesses.

Walker wants to expand job opportunities. He wants to reform how municipal government is funded.

Walker wants to expand Tulsa’s bus services with 125 new buses and he wants a bus service between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. And he wants passenger rail service between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

Walker wants Tulsa’s roads to be improved and to have better lighting.

He wants better relations between the police and the community and he wants a smaller role for the police union.

“From partisan politics to police and community relations to economic development, there are several issues that are causing divides in this city,” Walker wrote on his website. “It is time to get a fresh pair of eyes and a diverse group of thoughts at the table to tackle these divisive issues and create common ground that will unify all of Tulsa.”