Lawton Constitution - Senate Candidate Taking on Inhofe

News Article

Lawton Constitution - Senate Candidate Taking on Inhofe

Andrew Rice and Jim Inhofe both have Aug. 29 primaries, but Rice is already taking aim straight at Inhofe in his quest to become the state's new U.S. senator.

Rice, who was elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 2006, will face fellow Democrat Jim Rogers of Midwest City in the primary election. Inhofe has three Republican challengers but is considered a heavy favorite. Rice, a 35-year-old from Oklahoma City, was in Lawton Tuesday in the midst of his first concentrated campaign swing, on that included stops in Altus and Hobart.

"A big challenge for me, other than running against an incumbent, is name identification," said Rice, who is trying to raise his profile on the campaign trail.

Inhofe also is a Republican "in a state that votes Republican more reliably in presidential years," Rice said, but his polling has found the climate the most neutral in that respect since 1980, with 80 percent of Oklahomans responding that the country is on the wrong track. "The wind won't be at my back, but it's not in my face," Rice said.

He said he follows a "centrist, pragmatic approach" unlike Inhofe's partisan stance line. A government has been instituted in Iraq, he said, and "I don't believe in indefinitely being there to prop them up."

Rice said his tendencies were reinforced in the state Senate, which is split between Democrats and Republicans, putting a premium on bipartisanship.
With gasoline prices hovering around $4 a gallon, high energy prices are a common topic of discussion on the campaign trail. Rice said he would be willing to consider expanding areas to energy drilling, but "it's not going to bring down $4 gasoline overnight." He said there should be more emphasis on natural gas as a motor fuel and wind energy, both of which are abundant in Oklahoma.

Rice also wants to expand health insurance coverage, arguing that Americans spend plenty on healt care, but not efficiently. He's interested in Congress supporting state mandates for health insurance, as was done in Massachusetts. He would favor a federal-state partnership, with states free to offer different programs.

Rice, whose brother David was killed in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, also is a critic of te war in Iraq. "It always seemed like a very rash, risky thing to do, a very experimental thing to do," he said.

The war has unintentionally created more instability in the region, he said. While "the military's done it's job in Iraq," he would like to see a phased withdrawal, without a public time line. A government has been instituted in Iraq, he said and "I don't believe in indefinitely being there to prop them up."

The United States must be smart in how it uses its power and influence, he said, and it should bolster anti-extremist elements.

Source