A general lack of surprises
“A model of voter predictability,” says Jeff Shaw of the last twenty years of the Tulsa City Council, noting that five of nine districts seem to be bound to one of the two major parties. Not that anyone should be taken aback by this:
Some people don’t like predictability or uniformity when it conflicts with their radical views for governance, but predictability or uniformity is the way most people like it — in Tulsa, and across the nation.
Things do change, but not particularly quickly. In Oklahoma City, we have nominally non-partisan elections for Council and Mayor, though this is not to say that partisan politics never play a role. (Pretty much everyone knows Mayor Cornett is a Republican; I have no idea as to Sam Bowman’s registration, and I’ve lived in Ward 2 for six years.) The old order of things — northside wards vs. southside wards — is not entirely defunct, but as populations shift, so do priorities, and we have lots of shifts, what with 621 square miles and 550,000 people divided up among only eight wards, and Census-mandated redistricting coming soon.
