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Oklahomans for Anthony > News Releases >

Anthony Rolls to Record Sixth Commission Term

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oklahomans for Anthony - November 6, 2018

Carrying all 77 of the state's counties, Bob Anthony easily outdistanced two opponents to win a sixth consecutive term on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, unofficial returns show Anthony received 700,643 votes to 400,185 for Democrat nominee Ashley Nicole McCray and 66,204 votes for Independent Jackie Short.

Winning his first term, Anthony became the first Republican elected to the Commission in 60 years, and only the second since statehood. When initially reelected in 1994, Anthony became the first Republican incumbent in Oklahoma history to win reelection to a statewide office. In 2000, he received more votes than any candidate for state office in Oklahoma history. Anthony is the longest-serving Corporation Commissioner in Oklahoma history and the longest currently-serving utility commissioner in the United States.

In 2010 voters placed a two-term (12-year) limit on election to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. However, the limit was prospective only, and Anthony’s prior service, including the term he was serving at the time of the vote, did not count toward the limit. Tuesday’s election presages a sixth consecutive six-year term for Anthony on the Commission, more than any Democrat or Republican who has ever served on the three member panel.

During Anthony’s first five terms, he worked with the F.B.I. to root out corruption at the Commission, adopting and enforcing the toughest ethics code in state government and embedding regular performance, financial and operational agency audits. He also used regulatory reforms to incentivize the roll-out of new technologies, including high-speed Internet and enhanced 911. These improvements facilitated distance learning in schools and libraries across the state, telemedicine in rural hospitals, faster responses to emergency calls, and gave local businesses in more than 100 Oklahoma towns and cities the ability to connect to markets worldwide.

Perhaps most significantly, Anthony was principally responsible for ordering the largest utility refunds and rate reductions in state history, helping keep Oklahoma’s utility rates among the lowest in the nation.

“I have always considered public service to be a sacred trust, and my record shows I take my constitutional duties seriously,” Anthony said. “I am proud and honored to have the trust of the citizens of this state, and look forward to serving Oklahoma with fairness, honesty and integrity for one more term.”

Beyond the OCC, Anthony has also represented Oklahoma nationally and internationally though leadership roles in such regulatory advisory bodies as the National Petroleum Council, on which he is one of only five state regulators, and the Board of Directors of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners to which he was recently reappointed.

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Released by Oklahomans for Anthony.

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