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the District 15 AttorneysOffice, said he was unableto point to any one thingthat might have con-tributed to his loss. Mooresaid he ran a long, hardcampaign and has ab-solutely no regrets about

how I handled my cam-paign.

Its been a privilege toserve the people of Musko-gee County for the lasteight years, and I am hon-ored to have had the privi-lege to serve as district at-torney,Moore said.I wantto assure the people ofMuskogee County it will bebusiness as usual and therewill be absolutely no slacktime between tonight and

Dec. 31.Loge credited his win

partly to voter turnout,which turned out to beabout 28 percent of thecountys nearly 23,200 reg-istered Democrats. Becauseof the states closed pri-mary system, Republicansand voters who identifythemselves as independ-ents were shut out of theprocess.

As it turned out, about 9percent of the countys37,010 registered voters or 15 percent of its regis-tered Democrats elected

Loge as the countys nextdistrict attorney. Loge stillwas proud about his cam-paigns ability to motivatevoters and get them to thepolls to vote.

Loge said he will take afew days off and begin as-sembling his prosecutorialteam during the comingweeks. Moore pledged hiscooperation for a smoothtransition, and Loge saidhe will be ready to take thehelp in January.

Reach D.E. Smoot at(918) 684-2901 or dsmoot@muskogeephoenix.com.

Payne, who described theoutcome of the runoff elec-tion as tight, beat Keifer953-882, earning 51.9 per-cent of the ballots cast. Hesaid he is proud of Musko-gee County voters and thenumerous supporters whocampaigned on his behalf.

I cannot even expresshow appreciative I am forthe people who helped meget me across the finish line its humbling, Paynesaid. I am looking forwardto getting started; there area lot of things I want to seehappen,and Im ready to getrolling.

Payne said one of hismain priorities will be creat-ing a partnership with thecity of Muskogee and otherDistrict 3 municipalities.Those partnerships, Paynesaid, are essential to mov-ing the county forward.

I absolutely have somespecific things I think wecan get done right away maybe not immediately,butquickly, Payne said. A guyneeds a good mix of gogetem and patience, and Iam going to try and have

both.Keifer, a semi-retired au-to service director and con-sultant, said he wishesPayne well. Keifer said heran a good race.

I think we ran a goodrace with him,and if I knewmore about politics wemight have done better,Keifer said about his cam-paign and the outcome. Isure met a lot of nice people,and I have a lot more friendsthan I did I am notashamed of that.

In the District 1 runoff,Plunkett said he was takingtime Tuesday night to relaxand prepare for the two-month trek toward the gen-eral election.Plunkett cred-ited his runoff victory to hiscampaign message of doing

things differently.There are different ex-

pectations, and I think thepublic liked that, said Plun-kett, a local contractor andchief of the Keefeton Volun-teer Fire Department.AndI have had a lot of support-ers in every precinct thatbent over backwards to goout and work for me.

Burgess,who has workedhis way up through theranks as a District 1 employ-ee for 25 years to becomeWallaces second in com-mand, said he has no plansof slowing down despite hisloss in the runoff.

I have really workedhard on some campaigns,but until you put your nameon that ballot and under-stand the duties and respon-sibilities you assume, you re-ally dont know the impactthat has on you during acampaign,Burgess said,ac-knowledging his supportersand God for getting himwhere he is today. We stillhave a lot of work to do andlot of things going on thatwe need to get done,and weare going to do it.

Plunkett will square offagainst Doke,a local bankerand businessman, in thegeneral election, which isscheduled Nov.4.

Reach D.E.Smoot at (918)684-2901 or dsmoot@muskogeephoenix.com.

to take pride and ownershipin their job as county work-ers.

Work productivity will in-crease ten-fold, Hall said.

Productivity and hardwork paid off for Hall whosaid,knocking on doors anda lot of miles helped himwin the election.

We worked really hard,Hall said.Weve done every-thing like we were supposedto do.

In the McIntosh CountyDistrict 1 race, Bill Phillips

and Wesley Don Vandiverwere seeking the seat beingvacated by Bobby James,who chose not to seek an-other term.

Phillips, aChecotah na-tive,won with56.3 percentof the voteover Vandiv-ers 43.7 per-cent.Phillips,58, said thevictory wasnt

completely expected.I was worried and kind of

surprised, Phillips said.Itsbeen long and drawn out.

Phillips said he owes hisvictory to good peopleknowing what they wantand what they deserve.

Following up on the proj-ects started by James is the

plan of action for the newMcIntosh County commis-sioner.

Ive got to take care of allof the things he put togeth-er,because they are good forthe county and district,Phillips said.

Phillips has been District1s road foreman for eightyears and has worked forMcIntosh County for 16 1/2years. He said it was histime spent working for thecounty that gave him theedge over younger candidate

Vandiver.Ive got the age and expe-

rience, Phillips said.I wantthe best for everybody inDistrict One.

Reach E.I. Hillin at (918)684-2926 or ehillin@muskogeephoenix.com.

Muskogee Phoenix Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014 Section A, Page 4

Elections

HOT OF F

HOT OF FHOT OFF

THE PRESS

THE PRESSTHE PRESS!A Preview of what you will find

in the classifieds, appearing

for the first time today.

To place your classified ad call

918-684-2803/2805

Special photo by Mandy Lundy

Larry Moore hugs his family as attendees at his watch party applaud him after he conceded the race for Musko-gee County District Attorney to his opponent, Orvil Loge.

Unofficial resultsCherokee County

Commissioner District 3

With 7 of 7 precincts re-porting

Clif Hall, 753, 55.2 per-cent; N. Dean Martin, 561,44.8 percent.

McIntosh CountyCommissioner District 1

With 3 of 3 precincts re-porting

Bill Phillips, 566, 56.3percent; Wesley Don Van-diver, 440, 43.7 percent.

Source: Oklahoma State

Election Board

Phillips

McIntoshContinued from Page 1A Unofficial results

Muskogee CountyCommissioner District 1Democrats

With 11 of 11 precinctsreporting

Speck Plunkett, 1,519,54.7 percent; BobBurgess, 1,260, 45.3 per-cent.

Muskogee CountyCommissioner District 3Democrats

With 10 of 10 precinctsreporting

Kenny Payne, 953, 51.9percent; Willie Keifer, 882,48.1 percent.

Source: Oklahoma State

Election Board

CountyContinued from Page 1A

DAContinued from Page 1A

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Republican former stateSen.Steve Russell and De-mocratic state Sen. AlMcAffrey won their partysnominations Tuesday forcentral Oklahomas open5th Congressional Districtseat.

Russell defeated Corpo-ration Commission mem-ber Patrice Douglas for theGOP nomination and willmeet McAffrey, who defeat-ed retired professor TomGuild in the Democraticrunoff,and three independ-ent candidates in the Nov. 4general election.

Its just very, very hum-bling, Russell said Tues-day night. Its been an in-credible grass-roots cam-paign. Its been a truecampaign of the people.

Russell, a retired Armylieutenant colonel and Iraqiwar veteran who served inthe state Senate from 2008to 2012, was one of six Re-publicans who sought thepartys nomination in theJune 24 primary election.McAffrey was among threeDemocratic candidates inthe 5th District primaryrace.No candidate receivedmore than 50 percent of thevote, forcing the runoff.

McAffrey and Russell arecampaigning for the seatbeing vacated by Republi-can Rep. James Lankford,the Republican nominee foran open U.S. Senate seatvacated by Republican Sen.Tom Coburn, who is retir-ing.

Russell won the GOPnomination, although heraised less than half of thecampaign contributionsraised by his opponent.

Federal Election Com-mission reports indicatethat Douglas raised

$927,739 for her campaignand had $181,167 in cashon hand as of Aug. 6. Rus-sell raised $367,423 andhad $46,132 on hand, ac-cording to the FEC.

I think it shows that thepeople still own the vote,Russell said. Its incredi-ble to watch. You have tohave some tools that youcan use.But its not neces-sarily the tools that makethe race.

Voter Michael Davis,whois in banking in OklahomaCity,said he voted for Rus-sell because of the candi-dates military background.

I like his military serv-ice, and I value that overpolitical careers, saidDavis, 43.

During the runoff cam-paign, Douglas accusedRussell of missing 770votes during his four-yearSenate term. Davis said hedidnt know how to answerthat,but added:Both cam-paigns have kind of donesome things that are a lit-tle marginal, so somewhatdiscount that, he said.

McAffrey was first elect-ed as a state representa-tive in 2006 and was thefirst openly gay person everelected to the OklahomaLegislature. Guild ran un-successfully for the 5th Dis-trict seat in 2010 and 2012.

McAffrey did not imme-diately return a telephonecall from The AssociatedPress seeking comment.

Bridgid Cook, 45, saidshe voted for McAffrey inthe Democratic runoff.

He is a neighbor, Cooksaid. I know several of hisfamily members and trustthem. Cook said she hasmet McAffrey several timesand appreciates the workhe does.

Russell, McAffreywin 5th District

party runoffs