LAWTON – Twelve candidates are vying for three City Council seats on the ballot this year: Mayor, Ward 1 and Ward 2.
The nonpartisan primary municipal election is scheduled for Aug. 27. A general election, if required, will be held on Nov. 5.
The winners will serve a three-year term, which will begin on Jan. 13, 2025. The City Charter limits Lawton city councilors to a maximum of three terms. The mayor is paid $15,000 per year, and each of the eight council members receives $5,000 per year, the charter provides.
• In Ward 1, incumbent Mary Ann Hankins, who has served two terms on the council, filed for one last term. She 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 is opposed by Larry Walls, an Army retiree who was employed in the corrections field and who previously ran for the Ward 1 seat in 2015.
• In Ward 2, five candidates filed to replace Councilman Kelly Harris, who is stepping down after one term. The contenders are R.L. Smith, Justin Harrill, David Reeves, Shelli Fox, and Jervis Jackson.
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.
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.
Harrill is an electrician and a cement truck driver. “I’m gonna do my best for the city and would appreciate your vote if you live in ward 2,” he posted on Facebook on June 17.
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.
“I hope to promote greater civic engagement among the local electorate, increased transparency in the dayto- day operation of our municipal government, and a higher standard of due diligence in longterm city planning,” Reeves said.
Jackson 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.
• In his bid for a third and final term, Mayor Stan Booker, a commercial real estate investor/ manager, drew four challengers: Cindy Lee Edgar, Ronald Ballew, Jacobi Crowley, and Matina Michelle Davis, who refers to herself on Facebook as Matina Davis-Abney.
Crowley 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 posted on the social media platform Facebook that he is retired from the U.S. Air Force and from Civil Service.
Lawton residents “are already paying too much in taxes and fees,” Ballew contends. If 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.” Also, “Define where unbudgeted money is coming from. How is this going to be paid for?”
Lawton’s city budget for Fiscal Year 2024-25 is approximately $373 million.
Edgar 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.”
“If you guys are tired of seeing things not being done for the citizen that don’t get that right to have their opinions heard, then it’s time to get the old out and bring somebody new in,” Edgar wrote. “I will work very hard if I’m voted in to get those changes that need to be done.”
“Enough is enough! This corrupt government is harming our citizens,” Davis-Abney posted on Facebook. “The lack of diversity, the blatant misappropriation of funds, and the silencing of dissent are all hallmarks of a failing system… It’s time to put the people first, not the special interests.”
Davis 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.