2022 Norman Mayoral Election

[king183]

The results are brutal for Mayor Clark. Any incumbent who gets under 40% is in mortal danger. I anticipate Bob’s voters will mostly go for Clark, but a sizable chunk will not vote in the runoff because they were mainly engaged due to their loyalty to Bob. The Unite Norman contingent is obviously still motivated and turning out with their focus solely on the mayor’s race. Clark’s voters will also be motivated to turn out for fear of what Heikilla will bring to the council, but Clark needs to really convince people why she is the best rather than why Heikilla is bad. This one is going to be very close.

[Jersey Boss]

The endorsement of Stitt and UNITE was good for 4th place. I don't believe UNITE won any council race or the school board vacancy.

[king183]

The endorsement of Stitt and UNITE was good for 4th place.

Oh, I may have had it backwards—I thought Heikilla was the UM candidate. Was it Kish? I didn’t follow the UM debacles closely, but I know they had some high school level drama going on. If their candidate was Kish, that’s a Carol Hefner level embarrassing result.

[Jersey Boss]

Oh, I may have had it backwards—I thought Heikilla was the UM candidate. Was it Kish? I didn’t follow the UM debacles closely, but I know they had some high school level drama going on. If their candidate was Kish, that’s a Carol Hefner level embarrassing result.

Yes their candidate was Kish. I found it interesting that Stitt went with Kish while former OKC mayor Mick Cornett contributed $200 to the Clark campaign.

[jedicurt]

most i know who went for Bob, did so because they don't think Clark does enough, but will absolutely vote for her over Heilkilla. and most of the Kish supporters i know, said that if it came to a runoff without Kish, they just won't vote. was told that by a neighbor again this morning. So i think Clark takes the runoff pretty easily. But i do think this means that if she doesn't get a bit more proactive on things, the progressive part of norman is going to start looking for someone else.

[HangryHippo]

most i know who went for Bob, did so because they don't think Clark does enough, but will absolutely vote for her over Heilkilla. and most of the Kish supporters i know, said that if it came to a runoff without Kish, they just won't vote. was told that by a neighbor again this morning. So i think Clark takes the runoff pretty easily. But i do think this means that if she doesn't get a bit more proactive on things, the progressive part of norman is going to start looking for someone else.

I think she needs to start paying some more attention to economic development. Norman should be booming.

[jedicurt]

I think she needs to start paying some more attention to economic development. Norman should be booming.

agree completely

[Video Expert]

The speculation on the potential April outcome seems to vary widely and depends on who you talk to. Clark has a core of support that's relatively strong and loyal, but she has clearly been damaged politically by what happened in the Summer of 2020 regarding the City Council's vote to reduce the NPD budget by $865K....especially with moderates and independents. Anybody who doesn't understand that is just being naïve as there are many of us who did not want national Red/Blue politics brought into our local government. Her mask mandates early on in the Pandemic and her subsequent appearances on some national news outlets also turned some Norman residents off. On the flip side, I believe that this is also why Kish did so poorly as she tied herself to state/national politics as well. The whole "Stitt" endorsement thing was a real head scratcher. Not that it would have made any difference, but you have to wonder if she would have received MORE votes without it.

What remains to be seen is what happens with the Kish and Thompson voters as well as those who will vote in April that didn't vote on Tuesday. Without the oversimplification of the Norman electorate, Heikilla has always been the primary opposition candidate to Clark, even when Kish entered the race at a later point in time. He has many volunteers working on his behalf and has been running what appears to be an effective, high profile campaign here locally. His overperformance and close 2nd to Clark on Tuesday is hard to ignore.

Everyone in this town pretty much knew this race was destined for a run off prior to Tuesday's results. I thought Clark would end up in the low 40's, but she underperformed at 37%. And that's a clear indicator that many came out to vote AGAINST her regardless of which of the other candidates they voted for and most likely will again in April. I think she's still the frontrunner due to having that strong base of support and being the incumbent, but it's going to be closer than people may think.

[Scott5114]

Personally, I supported her because of the mask mandates. I feel like she was the only mayor in the area who put any real effort into keeping their city safe during the pandemic (yes, I know OKC had a mask mandate too, but only having a $9 fine attached to it reeks of doing it only for the sake of appearances). I wanted to reward her for that. But I think the people who are fired up about the NPD budget thing (which I don't really feel like is a big deal) are probably more motivated than the people who feel like I do.

[Video Expert]

Personally, I supported her because of the mask mandates. I feel like she was the only mayor in the area who put any real effort into keeping their city safe during the pandemic (yes, I know OKC had a mask mandate too, but only having a $9 fine attached to it reeks of doing it only for the sake of appearances). I wanted to reward her for that. But I think the people who are fired up about the NPD budget thing (which I don't really feel like is a big deal) are probably more motivated than the people who feel like I do.

Yes...the mask mandate indeed cut both ways and is also definitely one of the reasons she has that solid base I was referring too as there were a sizeable number Norman residents who were also happy she and the CC implemented it in the first place.

[mattjank]

Everyone in this town pretty much knew this race was destined for a run off prior to Tuesday's results. I thought Clark would end up in the low 40's, but she underperformed at 37%. And that's a clear indicator that many came out to vote AGAINST her regardless of which of the other candidates they voted for and most likely will again in April. I think she's still the frontrunner due to having that strong base of support and being the incumbent, but it's going to be closer than people may think.

Agree that the run-off was inevitable, but not sure on the underperformance reasons. Anecdotal I know, but heard from many people who support Clark who voted for Bob thinking that she had been so damaged by the UN campaign to be nearly unelectable.

[FighttheGoodFight]

I believe we also have the water rate increase in the april voting block. Don't know if that will bring more people out or not.

[Scott5114]

UNOFFICIAL results
50 out of 50 precincts reporting

BREEA CLARK: 11,346 (46.61%)
LARRY HEIKKILA: 12,999 (53.39%)

[BG918]

Surprised to see Norman elect a conservative for mayor

[SEMIweather]

Not that surprising. This was an off-cycle runoff and as anyone who’s driven around Norman for the past month or so can attest, one side was clearly more motivated to turn out and vote and it was the side that ultimately ended up prevailing.

[MagzOK]

Citizens of Norman were driven to vote for change with the way the city has been run the last few years.

[jedicurt]

Citizens of Norman were driven to vote for change with the way the city has been run the last few years.

no... extremely low voter turnout allowed for a small minority in Norman to be able to get their way. And i'm not a Clark supporter as mayor.

[king183]

no... extremely low voter turnout allowed for a small minority in Norman to be able to get their way. And i'm not a Clark supporter as mayor.

Forgive me for being blunt, but this is a silly/meaningless line of argument I hear all the time. Almost all municipal elections are low turnout and have been for a very long time, so “a small minority”—however you define that—is almost always who “get(s) their way.” It doesn’t diminish the result.

In fact, this mayoral election was extremely high turnout relative to previous Norman elections. More than 24,000 voted this year, which is nearly double what it was in 2019, a highly contested and close race, and nearing triple what it was in 2015. Larry Heikkela almost got a vote total (13,031) equal to total turnout (13,068) in 2019 when Clark won with 6700 votes.

So, no matter how you want to spin it, this election clearly had a substantially larger portion of the city engaged and voting, with the majority looking for a change.

[jedicurt]

deleted as it will just cause an argument, and that wasn't the intent. But talking about low voter turnout when less than 20% of people of a city are voting is never meaningless.

[Jersey Boss]

Not that surprising. This was an off-cycle runoff and as anyone who’s driven around Norman for the past month or so can attest, one side was clearly more motivated to turn out and vote and it was the side that ultimately ended up prevailing.

I agree with your observation. I don't think Mayor Clark had her heart in another term and was somewhat a reluctant candidate.

The council will still have a progressive voting majority of 5-3 after Heikkela gets sworn in in July.