Three Republican runoff races – one for the State Senate and two for the State House – will be on the August 25 ballot in Tulsa.
The ballot will have:
- Tulsa municipal races, including for mayor and seven city councilors
- Five proposed changes to the Tulsa City Charter
- A Jenks City bond proposal
- A Glenpool City sales tax proposal
- School bonds in the Keystone and Berryhill school districts
- And three legislative runoffs races.
Tulsa County Election Board Secretary Gwen Freeman said anyone who wants an absentee ballot mailed to them should apply for them now. The deadline for applications for absentee ballots to be mailed is August 18. They are available at the Election Board at 555 N. Denver Ave. and online at www.elections.ok.gov.
Absentee ballots must be in the hands of election board officials by 7 p.m. on August 25 to be counted.
Here are profiles of three GOP legislative contests in Tulsa.
State Senate District 35
Republicans Cheryl Baber and Kyden Creekpaum will face each other in the August 25 GOP runoff. The winner will face Democrat Jo Anna Dossett on November 3. That Senate seat is open because Sen. Gary Stanislawski, R-Tulsa, is term limited.
Creekpaum ran TV commercials blasting Cheryl Baber for working as an assistant U.S. attorney under a Democrat president (Barack Obama).
Baber countered by pointing out that Creekpaum has donors who have given thousands of dollars to Democrat candidates, including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Barack Obama. She claims that attorney Paul DeMuro from Creekpaum’s law firm (Frederick Dorwart Lawyers PLLC) sued to try to discourage President Trump’s rally in Tulsa earlier this year. Attorney Fred Dorwart donated $2,700 to Creekpaum’s campaign.
Kyden Creekpaum
Creekpaum grew up in Tulsa. A pianist, he performed with the ORU Symphony, the Missouri State University Symphony and the Tulsa Youth Symphony. He performed in the George W. Bush White House several times and served as a pianist-in-residence for the U.S. ambassador to France.
Creekpaum was valedictorian of his class at Edison High School. He is an Eagle Scout. He has degrees in piano and pollical science from The University of Oklahoma, where he attended on a National Merit Scholarship. He has a law degree from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in public health from John Hopkins. He also has a master’s degree in international business law from Sciences Po in France.
He wants more money for public schools. He wants more money spent on improving state roads and he wants universal access to broadband Internet.
Cheryl Baber
Baber, a Tulsa attorney, grew upon a farm and ranch in Walters, Oklahoma. She studied journalism at Oklahoma City University and later transferred to Midwestern State University. There, she got a Rotary Foundation International Scholarship which helped finance her studies at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs in Geneva, Switzerland. Then she got a law degree from Columbia School of Law in New York.
Baber began her law career in Oklahoma with Crowe & Dunlevy but she left private practice to work as a law clerk. She served five federal judges.
Baber was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Oklahoma. She was an instructor for the Oklahoma State University Special Education Center and a volunteer attorney for Tulsa Lawyers for Children.
Baber was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2016. She has been active in the Tulsa Christian Business & Professional Women’s Club. Her family attends First Baptist Church of Tulsa.
A law-and-order advocate, Baber wants to reduce incarceration through rehabilitation. She wants less liberal indoctrination and progressivism in public schools and consolidation of administrators.
Baber wants regulatory help for small businesses and she is pro-life. She wants to promote the energy industry and she prefers economic growth over tax increases.
State House District 71
Teacher Mike Masters faces attorney Beverly Atteberry in House District 71 The winner will face Rep. Denise Brewer, D-Tulsa. Masters got 49% of the primary vote and Atteberry got 44%.
Mike Masters
Masters is a public school teacher and a licensed real estate agent. He has taught in public schools for 15 years. He is on the board of the Brookside Neighborhood and Business association. His family attends Brookside Baptist Church.
Beverly Atteberry
Atteberry got her law degree from The University of Tulsa and for the past 27 years has practiced law with a focus on wills, probate and criminal law. A conservative Christian, she plans on applying the same fiscal accountability in state government that she does in her business.
State House District 79
Clay Iiams was the top vote getter in District GOP primary and Margie Alfonso came in second. The winner will face Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, one of the most liberal legislators in the state.
Clay Iiams
Iiams was in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is a welder and cigar store employee. He wants to promote parental choice and is opposed to mandatory vaccinations of children.
He wants to promote economic development and better infrastructure.
Margie Alfonso
Alfonso is a lifelong Republican. She has a degree in bacteriology and public health from Michigan State University. She got four letters from President Ronald Reagan for her support for GOP causes and campaigns.
Alfonso was the coordinator for the National Conference on HIV/AIDS, as chosen by the Reagan White House. She served as president of the conservative Tulsa Eagle Forum, as a District Committee Woman for the GOP First District and was a two-time delegate to the Republican National Convention.
Alfonso has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs promoting conservative, pro-America causes.
She wants more transparency in public education and proper funding for police, firefighters and teachers.
She is an advocate for children’s health and safety and she oppose abortion. She is against socialized medicine and she wants an end to state sales tax on groceries. She believes in the gun rights embedded in the Second Amendment and she is against illegal immigration.