OKLAHOMA CITY – A professional musician who was raised in southwest Oklahoma and ousted a five-term county official recently declared his candidacy for state treasurer.
David Hooten, County Clerk for Oklahoma County, wants to replace Randy McDaniel, a former state legislator who announced June 1 that he will not seek re-election as State Treasurer after his single term expires on Jan. 29, 2023.
“I’m from a military family that believes in public service,” said Hooten, 58. “I have been blessed with my career and I’m financially stable,” and politics provides him an avenue for “service to the community.”
Hooten filed as a Democrat for the state House District 87 seat in Oklahoma City in 2004. However, his name was stricken from the ballot when another candidate successfully challenged his qualifications to run for public office.
In 2014 Hooten filed for the state Senate District 40 seat, this time as a Republican, but finished fourth among six candidates. “My dad was a Democrat and I was raised a Democrat,” Hooten told Southwest Ledger. “But after I started looking at it more intently, I switched to Republican. The Democratic Party was different 30 years ago.”
Hooten supported and wrote campaign jingles for state Republican candidates, including former Gov. Frank Keating and Terry Neese, and supported Donald Trump for President.
Hooten filed for Oklahoma County Clerk in 2016. He placed second in the Republican primary, forcing a runoff with incumbent Claudia Caudill, and won the GOP nomination with 65% of the vote. In the general election Hooten received 63.5% of the vote, trouncing a Libertarian candidate.
Within a month after taking office Hooten fired 11 employees in the county clerk’s office. Five of them filed wrongful termination lawsuits, claiming they were discharged because they had been volunteers in Caudill’s campaign.
The Oklahoma County Commissioners voted in late 2018 to pay $175,000 to one of those former county employees to settle her discrimination claim against Hooten. Subsequently a federal jury rejected claims that Hooten fired the employees for political reasons.
“Some of them didn’t have a job to perform in the office, and some didn’t even show up for work,” he told the Ledger. “I wasn’t going to keep ‘ghost employees’ on the public payroll.”
He was re-elected to a second four-year term last year.
CANDIDATE’S QUALIFICATIONS
Hooten contends he is qualified to serve as the state treasurer for many reasons.
He said he effectively functions as the comptroller for Oklahoma County, managing its accounting, budgeting, payroll, accounts payable, inventory and financial reporting systems. He serves as the recorder of deeds and all other land records for the state’s most populous county, and is the official recordkeeper for its governing bodies.
The County Clerk’s Office in Oklahoma County maintains Oklahoma’s Uniform Commercial Code filing system, which Hooten describes as “the linchpin to successful commercial lending in our state.” UCC filings are made by creditors to declare the interest of the creditor in the personal property and/or fixtures of a debtor used as collateral for a secured transaction (such as a loan). Most UCC filings in Oklahoma are filed with the Oklahoma County Clerk’s Office, which serves as a centralized and exclusive filing location for the State of Oklahoma.
Hooten launched a user-friendly website that enables citizens to print at their home or office official copies of real estate and UCC records. He said he has updated county land records and the UCC filing management system with a modern, user-friendly one that has saved time and effort for both customers and his office staff.
Hooten said he established a system to automatically notify property owners when legal filings (deeds, mortgages, liens, etc.) are made in their name. “The system helps citizens discover potentially fraudulent filings as soon as possible,” he said.
Also, as a member of the Oklahoma County Retirement Board, Hooten oversees administration of the county’s retirement systems and votes on their related investment policies.
“I have proven I can do the job at a high level,” he said.
PERSONAL LIFE
On a personal level, Hooten received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education from the North Texas State University and a master’s degree in trumpet performance from the University of Oklahoma.
He is a Grammy- and Emmy-nominated trumpet player. In addition to recording, his schedule includes appearances worldwide as a guest trumpet soloist in recitals and with symphony orchestras. He has performed for several U.S. presidents, for the queen of England and for the pope.
Hooten was reared in Duncan, where his family ran a local restaurant that they later relocated to Oklahoma City. Eventually he took over the business but closed it after 15 years. “I had a family and was on the road a lot, performing concerts,” he explained. He still markets a meat sauce worldwide.
In 2007-13 Hooten served as executive director of the Child Abuse Response and Evaluation (CARE) Center, a nonprofit organization that assists abused children.
He and his wife of 19 years, Whitney, have three children and live in Nichols Hills.