As reported at Batesline Democrat Jeannie McDaniel prevailed in the recount in State House District 78 in East Tulsa. The recount found that she beat Schaffer by 24 votes instead of the initial 34-vote margin.This was a race between a longtime city activist (McDaniel) vs a relatively unknown young businessman (Schaffer). A relative in the district supplied me with all of the mailers from both candidates and it's interesting to see what happened in this race. McDaniel never went negative on Schaffer - her mailers stuck to pragmatic issues such as education and budgets. Schaffer's mailers also were about his qualifications - until the last two weeks of the campaign when he turned negative. Schaffer tried the same social issue tactic that worked for so many Repubs - focusing on gay marriage, abortion, etc.
One of the worst mailers from Schaffer (below) reprinted portions of a Tulsa World article that reported that McDaniel said the anti-gay marriage ammendment wasn't necessary because Oklahoma law already made gay marriage illegal. Schaffer, regretably, took this straight-forward and factual statement and tried to spin it to make McDaniel seem to be supporting gay marriage. Well, let's call it what it was, it was a blatent attempt to mislead the voters. Schaffer also pulled out the tiresome label of "liberal" and tried to stick it on the pragmatic McDaniel. And, sadly, the last minute misrepresentation against his opponent almost worked. I'm glad it didn't. It's good to see a candidate that stays positive and focused on pragmatic issues win.
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