State Rep. Eric Proctor
State Rep. Eric Proctor said this week he is thinking about running for mayor of Tulsa and will make his decision by the end of the year.
“We have been asked by several folks, especially the last couple of weeks,” said Proctor, 33. “It’s very encouraging to me.”
Proctor, a Democrat, has represented District 77 since 2007. He is a commercial lender at First Oklahoma Bank.
City Councilor G.T. Bynum is the only person to formally announce his candidacy for mayor. Mayor Dewey Bartlett has established a campaign committee and is expected to announce his re-election bid soon. Both are Republicans.
The filing period for municipal elections is April 13-15.
News of Proctor’s potential candidacy comes as two other people who had expressed interest in the race bowed out of contention.
City Councilors Blake Ewing and Phil Lakin said this week they will not seek the city’s highest elected office.
County Commissioner Karen Keith has she has been encouraged to run but has never stated her intention to do so.
A Proctor candidacy would at a minimum complicate the mayor’s race and potentially lengthen it.
Under the city’s nonpartisan election system, if only two candidates run for office, they would face off in the general election, which is Nov. 8.
If more than two candidates enter the race, they would meet in a primary June 28. If one of the candidates receives more than 50 percent of the vote, he or she would become the city’s next mayor.
Otherwise, the top two candidates whose vote counts total more than 50 percent would move on to the general election.
In the rare instance when several candidates are on the primary ballot and no three or more candidates get more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff primary would be held among the candidates whose combined vote total exceeds 50 percent. Next year’s runoff primary is scheduled for Aug. 23.
The latest figures from the Tulsa County Election Board show 193,937 people registered to vote in the city’s municipal elections. The Republican Party has the most registered voters, with 87,574, followed by the Democrats, with 79,206, and independents with 27,157.
