Tulsa’s Race For Mayor Heats Up

By ZACK STOYCOFF World Staff Writer on May 30, 2013

Tulsa’s mayoral race has lost its civil edge in the weeks before a potentially decisive primary election.

Allegations of unethical and even illegal behavior have circulated widely in mailers, social media, news releases, press conferences and advertising from mayoral candidates and supporting groups in recent weeks.

The escalating rhetoric, the three leading candidates agree, is evidence that at least one of them is growing desperate ahead of the June 11 vote, where a majority of votes for one person would win the race without a need for the Nov. 12 general election. The identity of that desperate candidate depends on who is talking.

“It’s just, turn after turn, another Bill Christiansen allegation is coming up,” said Mayor Dewey Bartlett’s campaign manager, Dan Patten, who contends that Bartlett has been the major target of mudslinging from the Christiansen campaign.