McAlester News-Capital - Rice Looks for Traction in Tough Race Against Inhofe

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McAlester News-Capital - Rice Looks for Traction in Tough Race Against Inhofe

By James Beaty Senior Editor

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Rice says he's been traveling across the state, trying to talk to Oklahomans and tell them what happened on Wall Street can hit here too.

While Oklahoma's economy has suffered to a lesser degree — partly because of the natural gas and oil industry presence — than many other states during the current financial crisis, Rice said that too could change.

"Natural gas prices are going down and if they do, marginal wells could close," he said .

Other people are losing their savings when they're on the verge of retiring, he said.

The Wall Street crisis will be felt here if credit starts to dry up, he said.

Referring to the upcoming Nov. 4 General Election, Rice said "It's really about are you happy with the way things are going?"

Rice, 35, in the current District 46 state senator whose district covers much of Oklahoma City.

He's facing incumbent U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, who won election to the U.S. Senate seat in 1994, and Independent Stephen Wallace in the Nov. 4 General Election.

With election day rapidly approaching, Rice is a man in a hurry. He stopped in McAlester on Wednesday night and Thursday, and said he planned to be back in the area from 3 until 5 p.m. on Saturday to attend the Robbers Cave Fall Festival near Wilburton.

Inhofe voted against the current Wall Street bail-out and Rice says he would have voted against it too.

"A lot of Oklahomans are upset that it's blank check bailout," he said.

If he had been in the Senate, Rice said he would have had advocated more measures to impact and protect Main Street, as opposed to Wall Street.

"I would have created a fire wall in Main Street," he said.

The Democratic candidate wants to link Inhofe to the polices of Republican President George W. Bush.

"It really comes down to people making a decision as to how they are now compared to eight years ago," Rice said, referring to the time span covered by the Bush administration.

Rice said people in Pittsburg County, including those working at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, should cast their votes for him for a simple reason.

He believes the Democrats will have a substantial majority in the U.S. Senate following the November election.

"I'm going to be in the majority," Rice said. "I'm very much committed to all of our installations." He said every member of the state's Congressional delegation has fought for Oklahoma's military installations, and he would do the same.

Referring to Inhofe and the Republican party he said, "I don't see someone with a very unpopular minority party having much of a role in that."

Rice thinks diversity in the economy is one of the biggest challenges facing rural Oklahoma.

"Tulsa and Oklahoma City have a diverse array of jobs," said Rice.

In rural Oklahoma, because of the lack of investment by government, there's only certain types of work available, he said.

Rice says he's now concentrating on rural Oklahoma after focusing much of time on urban areas earlier in the campaign.

"I wanted to build up a lot of support in the larger population areas around Oklahoma City and Tulsa," he said.

He said his plans would include more tax breaks for small businesses and start-up businesses. He also wants to eliminate tax breaks for companies that send their jobs overseas.

"Instead of putting a call center in India, why not put it in Pittsburg County?"

Rice acknowledges he's been hammered by what he considers negative ads from Sen. Inhofe

One ad accused him of being too soft on criminals.

Rice said the state already had a law ordering violent offenders to serve at c least 85 percent of their sentences. He said the measure he had opposed in the state Senate would have required the mandatory 85 percent time for someone convicted of "stealing a shirt."

"They don't want to fund corrections and they don't want to hire more prison guards," he said, but some state legislators still want to add years of mandatory time for a number of offenses, he said.

Rice contends that the ads have had less of an effect than expected.

"We did a poll in August where we were nine points down," Rice said.

He said he's dropped only two more points behind Inhofe since the ads went into rotation.

"We were 11 points down at the end of September," Rice said.

The candidate said he wants to give people a chance to switch to an alternative from the current representation in the U.S. Senate.

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