By Mike W. Ray
Southwest Ledger
“We are going to have three more years of progress!” an animated Stan Booker said at his watch party Aug. 27 while celebrating his re-election to a third and final term as Mayor of Lawton. “We are transforming this city.”
Booker, a commercial real estate investor/manager, trounced four challengers. He received 3,842 votes, or 62.34% of the 6,163 ballots counted in that contest; that included 65% of the 617 early-voting ballots and almost 70% of the 375 absentee ballots.
Booker’s re-election campaign was managed by Lawton florist Mike Scott, a Lawton High School and Cameron University graduate.
Another incumbent, Ward 1 Councilor Mary Ann Hankins, also coasted to victory in her bid for a third and final term. She received 416 votes (62.65%) of the 664 ballots cast in that race. Her opponent, Larry Walls, received 248 votes (37.35%).
Hankins was engaged in social work for two decades, helped people who had a substance abuse get back into the workforce, and has been active in community development in Lawton. She graduated from Phillips University at Enid with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, with an emphasis in psychology and political science. She moved to Lawton in 1998 and is the mother of three children.
“I’m excited, honored and humbled about getting to serve another term,” she told supporters at her watch party.
Walls retired from the U.S. Army after 20 years of active service. He then entered the law enforcement and corrections field, working for the Lawton Correctional Facility and the Comanche County Detention Center until he retired in May of this year. Walls previously ran for the Ward 1 seat in 2015.
A runoff will be held in Ward 2, where five candidates competed to replace Councilman Kelly Harris, who is stepping down after one three-year term. They were R.L. Smith, Justin Harrill, David Reeves, Shelli Fox, and Jervis Jackson Jr.
Of the 714 ballots counted in that race, Smith received 289 of them (40.48%) and Fox received 135 (18.91%). They will square off in the Nov. 5 statewide general election.
Smith, a Realtor, is a veteran who served in the U.S. military for five years and came to Lawton in 1977. After serving as a military policeman, Smith was employed with the Lawton Police Department in 1984-2005. He coordinated Neighborhood Watch programs, Shop with a Cop, and participated in community engagement events.
Fox is a retired Lawton Police Department dispatcher and was among four contenders who lost to Harris in the Ward 2 City Council race three years ago.
Jackson, who received 109 votes (15.27%), said he works with the Housing Authority as director of the Section 8 program and is executive director of the Veterans Resource Center, whose mission is to eliminate homelessness among military veterans in southwest Oklahoma. “And in my spare time I’m a pastor,” he said.
Harrill, an electrician and a cement truck driver, received 95 votes (13.31% of the total).
Reeves described himself as a freelance project manager and outreach consultant who specializes in marketing automation, B2B marketing, social media messaging, content generation, and risk analysis. He received 86 votes (12.04%).
“Serving the Lawton-Fort Sill community as part of a fantastic team has been a tremendous honor and an invaluable opportunity for personal growth,” Councilman Harris told the Southwest Ledger.
“I am incredibly proud of the progress we have made together, particularly with the successful passage of the Capital Improvement Plan, which contains many of the key objectives that I set out to achieve when I took office.
“Now that these initiatives are well on their way, I feel it is time for new leadership to have the opportunity to bring fresh ideas and perspectives to the table. I look forward to returning my focus to my business and volunteer efforts, where I will continue to serve our community in different ways.
“Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this journey. I am confident that Ward 2 will continue to thrive under the leadership of those who follow,” Harris concluded.
Mayor Booker drew four challengers: Cindy Lee Edgar, Ronald Ballew, Jacobi Crowley, and Matina Michelle Davis, who refers to herself on Facebook as Matina Davis-Abney and in at least one court document as Matina Davis Prudhomme.
Crowley was favored over the other three candidates; he received 1,685 votes (27.34% of the total cast in that race). He manages the Boys & Girls Club of Lawton for The Salvation Army.
He lost to John Michael Montgomery in the 2018 general election race for the District 32 state Senate seat, and Crowley’s candidacy for the Ward 6 City Council seat last year was disallowed by the Comanche County Election Board on the grounds that he had not lived in the ward for six months, as required by the City Charter.
Ballew, who received 388 votes (6.30%), posted on the social media platform Facebook that he is retired from the U.S. Air Force and from Civil Service. Had he been elected, Ballew said he would ask the City Council to vote on the following proposition: Do not spend more than $1 million on any item or project “without a vote of the people.” Lawton’s city budget for Fiscal Year 2024-25 is approximately $373 million.
Ms. Edgar received 128 votes (2.08% of the total cast). She wrote on Facebook that she has lived in Lawton for six years, has an associate business degree “and a successful small business performing weddings for our community and surrounding areas.” She also claims to be a “paganism high priestess.”
Ms. Davis received 120 votes (1.95%). She was convicted May 8 by a Comanche County District Court jury on a misdemeanor charge of falsely reporting a crime. She also was named in a misdemeanor charge of slander filed in Comanche County District Court, and a hearing in that case is set for Sept. 4.