Aroma in Oklahoma

In nearly all of the political gridiron shows in Oklahoma, there is a catchy tune that proclaims: "There's always an aroma in the State of Oklahoma." Last week half a million Oklahomans went to the polls in a Democratic primary and, sure enough, there was an aroma.

Fletcher Riley, a candidate for governor, was stopped by California police on the way to visit his estranged wife and relieved of a revolver and a rifle. Charley Huff, running for secretary of state, limited his plea for votes to the boast that he was "the best damn cowboy singer in the world." In Sequoyah County, E. W. Floyd, a brother of the late Charles (Pretty Boy) Floyd, won the Democratic nomination for county sheriff. And Homer Cox, just declared sane after his mother asked an examination by a sanity board, lost his race for secretary of state. Sighed one voter: "Cox was the only one of the thousands of candidates for state offices who had a certificate showing him to be sane."

When the votes were counted, U.S. Senator Robert Kerr, seeking re-election to his second term. was ahead of former Governor Roy Turner, but not far enough ahead to escape a runoff. Facing each other in a runoff for governor will be William O. Coe, Oklahoma City attorney, and Raymond Gary of Madill, president pro tem of the Oklahoma senate's last session. Willie Roberta Murray ran seventh in the field of 16 to succeed her husband, Governor Johnston Murray (in Oklahoma a governor may not succeed himself).

In most respects it was a typical Oklahoma primary, but there was a new feature: this was the first time that troops have been used. Murray ordered the National Guard out after getting reports that votes were being bought in five counties. The Daily Oklahoman dismissed as a futile gesture "a cordon of bayonet-bearing troops around every voting precinct in five counties." But Murray was not impressed. If he hears of more vote-buying, he said, he will order the troops out for the runoff on July 27.

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