Voters’ choice
Candidates seeking the seat on Oklahoma’s Corporation Commission in November’s general election present voters with interesting choices.
Candidates seeking the seat on Oklahoma’s Corporation Commission in November’s general election present voters with interesting choices.
Incumbent Commissioner Bob Anthony, Democratic candidate Ashley Nicole McCray and Independent candidate Jackie Short bring their own histories and goals to the race.
Anthony, who has held the seat since 1989 and is running for a final term, is proud of his track record in battling corruption and making sure consumers get a fair shake in matters dealing with the utilities that serve them.
McCray, an activist concerned with social justice and environmental issues, stepped onto a statewide stage in February when she and others unfurled a banner declaring Oklahoma a state of despair at the end of Gov. Mary Fallin’s annual State of the State speech to Oklahoma’s Legislature and other top public officials.
Short, an attorney, has spent a career representing Oklahomans who were impacted by environmental issues and oil and gas companies to help them comply with associated regulations and rules. She is part of a group of five independent candidates seeking statewide office who have pledged to work together to make Oklahoma’s government more open and accessible to its residents.
Anthony’s legacy
Whether he wins reelection or not, Anthony will leave behind a remarkable legacy as a member of the three-member commission.
He made a name for himself with Oklahomans early on after winning election to the job as the lone commissioner who opposed a controversial 1989 case before the agency that involved Southwestern Bell Telephone, today known as AT&T.
Anthony found himself on the losing side of a 2-to-1 vote to approve the deal. The FBI, with Anthony’s help, later charged another commissioner and an attorney who worked on behalf of the phone company of bribery, leading to criminal trials and convictions.
The federal agency lauded Anthony for his help, but numerous attempts made since to convince the commission (with Anthony’s support) to reopen the case haven’t been successful.
On his website, Anthony also states the commission, with his help, has:
• Created jobs by keeping utility rates competitive, boosting utility reliability standards, reducing business’ regulatory burdens, deregulating interstate trucking, improving railroad and pipeline safety and helping to roll out high-speed internet and enhanced 911.
• Improved the commission’s operations by seeking regular performance, financial and operational audits and by enforcing tough ethics rules he updated while serving as administrator of the agency on a temporary basis in 2016.
Anthony is on the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ board of directors and is a member of the National Petroleum Council. He also is a past president of the Mid-America Regulatory Conference, a member and past president of the Economic Club of Oklahoma, and for eight years was a delegate to the worldwide General Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Anthony said he’s been asking voters this year to stick with him.
“I am asking voters to be concerned about candidates’ qualifications, and to consider their ethics, honesty and fairness,” Anthony said.
A call for change
McCray, an enrolled member of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, regularly has challenged the status quo the past five years to express concerns about social justice and environmental issues.
McCray has earned a bachelor’s in psychology, a master’s in history and a master’s in the history of science, technology and medicine. As a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, McCray was involved with various educational seminars and events addressing social justice issues for Native Americans, including reproductive rights.
Her work there prompted OU’s History of Science department to hire a professor specializing in race and difference, information published about her in a brochure for the university’s Take Root conference in 2016 states.
She also played roles in successfully convincing the University of Oklahoma’s student government association and the city of Norman to observe an Indigenous Peoples Day and worked with the city and its elected leaders to help it adopt resolutions that move it toward filling the government’s electrical power requirements entirely using renewable energy by 2035.
Also on the environmental front, McCray founded #NoPlainsPipeline, a group opposed to the building of the Plains All American Diamond Pipeline (the pipeline was built and started operating in December).
McCray participated in the Protect Our Public Lands Act Caravan to the Democratic National Convention in 2016, where she keynoted its climate summit and led a Clean Energy Revolution march, her campaign website states.
McCray didn’t respond to an interview request for this story.
But previously, she had said most people she had visited with while campaigning for the seat aren’t satisfied with the agency or the oversight it provides on pipelines, hydraulic fracturing, saltwater disposal wells or renewable energy issues.
Openness desired
Short is an Oklahoma City attorney specializing in environmental law who says she recently became an Independent after getting disgusted first with the Democrats and then Republicans.
She said she plans to spend the month leading up to the election asking voters to embrace change.
“We are united that we want an open government with open records and meetings, where everything is transparent,” Short said.“It seems that in the past, it has been hard to get information. I know that when I have done Freedom of Information Act requests, I feel like they have been stymied.”
Short earned a law degree from the University of Oklahoma after earning liberal arts undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at other state schools.
Having grown up on a farm in western Oklahoma, she said she understands the value of clean lands and waters to Oklahomans.
“During the first half of my career, I pretty much represented landowners who had various environmental issues” involving contaminated water, soil and air, Short said.
Then, she began working with oil and gas companies to help them comply with environmental rules, regulations and law.
“So, I know the issues on both sides” when it comes to environmental concerns, Short said, adding she believes she could help bring adversaries together in a way that protects residents while allowing oil and gas companies to profitably operate.
“In the grand scheme of things, there’s a middle ground, a place they can meet that is good for the citizens and good for the companies,” Short said.
Short said she isn’t taking money from any companies regulated by the commission during this campaign, saying, “I want to make truly independent decisions, based on the facts presented to me.”
The Corporation Commission staff and its three elected commissioners regulate public utilities, oil and gas drilling, production and related environmental protections, safety aspects of rail and pipeline systems and the environmental integrity of petroleum storage tank systems.
The commissioners also enforce operating authority and insurance requirements involving the intrastate transport of most commodities via trucks and involving passenger carriers, enforce regulations for underground injection of water, chemicals and certain oil and gas waste fluids and oversee remediation of soil and groundwater pollution caused by leaking petroleum storage tanks.
The general election is Nov. 6.