Editor's note: The Tulsa World has featured a day on the campaign trail with each of the leading mayoral candidates. Mayor Dewey Bartlett and former City Councilor Bill Christiansen were featured earlier this week.
View A day on the campaign trail with Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett.
View A day on the campaign trail with Bill Christiansen.
Halfway through a 45-minute lineup of jumping jacks, leg curls and the like, Kathy Taylor leans over to her daughter and mutters between gasps for air on a midtown park's tennis court.
"The sun's about to come up. That means it's almost over," she said.
It's the first campaign event of the day for Tulsa's former mayor - a three-times-a-week 5:30 a.m. workout with about a dozen of her female campaign workers under the supervision of a professional fitness trainer.
By noon, the 57-year-old hasn't stopped running. She's traded her running shoes and sports shorts for heels and a dress and has made four public appearances - not even half of her day's schedule.
"You would think I should be able to keep up with her," Taylor campaign spokeswoman Anna America said, noting that she isn't far off from Taylor's age. "We've got a lot of young people on the campaign, and I think even the very young people are running double-speed to keep up with Kathy."
Taylor, a Democrat who was Tulsa's mayor from 2006 to 2009, announced in January that she would seek the job she left amid a city budget crisis that, as she said at the time, demanded her full attention without the distraction of a re-election campaign.
If enough voters decide to grant her wish in a nonpartisan election Tuesday in which more than 50 percent would win the race outright, she'll get nearly six months' rest before taking office in December.
With a decisive early lead in campaign spending - $1.3 million through May 27 compared to Mayor Dewey Bartlett's $447,711 - and a schedule that extends beyond sunrise and sunset, that's clearly on Taylor's mind.
But anyone who knows Taylor knows that exhausting schedules aren't new with this campaign, America said. Taylor is energetic, she said. She's passionate. It's who she is.
"I'm an extrovert," Taylor said. Campaigning "energizes me."
Staff workout regimens are a carryover from Taylor's mayoral administration, when women in the Mayor's Office exercised with her regularly, she said.
During the campaign, female staff members have agreed to a similar routine. The men, she quipped, "thought that they would be better off working during those hours."
"When you're either the mayor or you're running for mayor, you don't really have a lot of time to exercise, but nobody wants to meet with you at 5:30 in the morning," she said.
On a recent day of campaigning, Taylor followed her workout and a quick shower by attending a Tulsa Regional Chamber forum on downtown development, which featured a speaker who oversaw a large development in downtown Charlotte, N.C.
Taylor doesn't consider it a campaign event. Like many appearances, it's more of a learning event, she said.
Sitting in the front row, she takes notes and prods America to search the Web on her iPad for "synthetic tax increment financing district," a development tool used in Charlotte.
Taylor says she's particularly interested in the best practices of other cities, something that influenced her decisions as mayor. She often takes a moment to post news stories about those successes to her account on the online content-sharing service Pinterest.
"I'm probably the only person with a municipal best practices Pinterest page," she said.
Her day is spent keeping to a rigid schedule of public appearances through 7:30 p.m. - although that, she said, is an unusually early finish.
Political adviser Monroe Nichols, who likes to think of himself as the campaign's chief timekeeper, chauffeurs her in a black GMC Yukon Denali and relays regular updates on how far ahead or behind schedule they are.
He gets testy - in good fun - when Taylor asks for a coffee break.
"I normally don't make such stops," he quips. "I'll consider it."
She spends about 30 minutes calling voters from her campaign headquarters, another 30 minutes visiting a north Tulsa senior center and more than an hour at a midtown house for a series of meet-and-greets she calls "Coffee with Kathy."
The events are held regularly at homes and businesses by whoever invites her to appear, Taylor said. The latest was at the home of India Carter, who invited about 25 women.
Carter, a Republican, said she supports Taylor because "I think she has what it takes to make our city develop and go in the direction it needs to."
Not all who attended shared that view, she said.
Taylor didn't mind. She said she runs her campaign like she ran the city - listening to the people she serves.
"It's not about bringing together supporters," she said. "It's about bringing together Tulsans."
A day with Kathy Taylor
Former Mayor Kathy Taylor's May 15 schedule:
5:30 a.m.: Staff workout at Whiteside Park
6:30 a.m.: Shower at home
7:30 a.m.: Tulsa Regional Chamber forum and Hardesty Arts Center
9:30 a.m.: "Coffee with Kathy" meet and greet
11 a.m.: Neighborhood tour of north Tulsa with City Councilor Jack Henderson
Noon: Carver Senior Center visit
12:30 p.m.: Check-in at north Tulsa campaign satellite office
1 p.m.: Lunch at Sweet Lisa's restaurant
2 p.m.: Meet with the Tulsa World editorial board
3:30 p.m.: Tour of The Galley, a small business
4:30 p.m.: Check-in at main campaign office, call voters
6 p.m.: Mayfest gallery opening
6:30 p.m.: Equality Business Association meeting
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: High-octane and hard-charging
