Former state Rep. Ron Peters survived a strong challenge from political newcomer Brandon Perkins and two others Tuesday to win the Republican nomination for County Commission District 3.
Peters will face Democrat John Bomar in the Aug. 13 special election to fill the seat being vacated by Fred Perry. Peters, 68, figures to be a heavy favorite in a district of about 70 percent Republican registration.
“I don’t think a Democrat would have much of a chance,” Peters said Tuesday night.
Peters received almost 35 percent of the 17,820 votes cast in the election, to 32 percent for Perkins, 21 percent for former state Rep. John Wright and 12 percent for businessman Don Crall.
Because the primary was for a special election to complete an unexpired term, there will be no runoff.
“I thought it would be close the whole time, and it was,” Peters said.
Asked if he thought Perkins would wind up being his closest competitor, Peters said, “Not initially, but as the race went on Brandon was polling better and better.”
Peters said he might have been helped by Tulsa’s highly publicized mayoral election. As a state representative for 12 years, Peters represented midtown Tulsa and figured to do best in the city.
Wright, the early favorite to challenge Peters, represented Broken Arrow, which did not have anything else on the ballot Tuesday.
Neither did Bixby, which is where Crall lives.
“I’ll be interested to see how the voting turned out in (Broken Arrow and Bixby),” Peters said.
Perkins said he was generally pleased with his campaign’s performance — so much so that he may well challenge Peters again next year for a full term.
“For a political novice, I think our campaign did a pretty stand-up job,” Perkins said. “We were late to announce, and we went up against 24 years of political experience (Peters and Wright combined).”
Perkins, 43, said he believes “Tulsa is ripe for a positive future and fresh young ideas.”
“I’m looking at challenging Mr. Peters in a year and half,” he said.
