SD37 Voters To Select GOP Nominee

By Randy Krehbiel/Tulsa World ~ Oklahoma Republicans have been frothing at the mouth to oust state Sen. Nancy Riley.

On Tuesday, GOP voters in her district will decide which Republican candidate will carry their banner.

Elected in 2000 as a Republican from Senate District 37, which includes west Tulsa, Sand Springs, Jenks, Bixby and west and south Tulsa County, Riley switched to the Democratic Party in 2006.

That kept Republicans from a majority in the Senate the last two years and made Riley Public Enemy No. 1 as far as the state's top Republicans are concerned.

Most of the attention — and money — for the GOP primary has gone to Dan Newberry, a Tulsa mortgage broker. But Jan Megee, an aide to Tulsa's City Council for the past decade and a longtime public employee, is also in the race.

Read the entire story at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectID=12&articleID=20080725_16_A18_hOnewi371821.

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Riley Comments Draw GOP Rebuke

The executive director of the Oklahoma Republican Senatorial Committee, Randy Swanson, said today that Senator Nancy Riley of Tulsa has a soulmate in U. S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Swanson said Democrat Riley's recent remark in a newspaper interview that high gasoline prices are good for Oklahoma shows she's out of touch with voters.

"If Senator Riley is happy with the fact that higher energy prices are sustaining the state budget, we have no problem with that," Swanson said. "But Republicans believe there are better ways to grow an economy other than consumer pain at the gas pump.

"We suggest Republican principles of responsible budgeting, reduced spending and a free-market economy.

"This stunning pronouncement by Nancy Riley is indicative of her compatibility on other issues that are important to her new political mentor. Both Nancys stand with big time trial attorneys when it comes to lawsuit reform, more government intrusion into your family’s personal life, and more government spending," he continued.

"We in Oklahoma can’t do anything about Nancy Pelosi, but we can send Nancy Riley back to her private life, and out of the business of supporting higher costs for Oklahoma families. We can’t afford the Riley-Pelosi Premium here in Oklahoma."

Riley, elected as a Republican, switched parties following her poor showing in the 2006 GOP primary for lieutenant governor.

Republicans Dan Newberry and Jan Megee are candidates for the GOP nomination in Riley's District 37.

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