Blumert reelected as District 1 commissioner; Davidson elected in District 3
Voters in Districts 1 and 3 of Oklahoma County cast their votes for county commissioners during Tuesday's general election.
In District 1, voters reelected incumbent Carrie Blumert to a second term. District 3 voters elected Myles Davidson to fill the seat of former commissioner Kevin Calvey, who ran unsuccessfully for Oklahoma County district attorney.
Both Blumert, 35, and Davidson, 47, won their races by double-digit margins. Blumert defeated Willard Linzy, while Davidson beat Cathy Cummings, former mayor and city councilwoman of The Village.
Who are the elected commissioners?
Blumert was originally elected to serve District 1 in 2018. Before joining the board of county commissioners, she worked in roles for the Oklahoma City-County Health Department, Girl Scouts Western Oklahoma and Early Foundations School.
Davidson is the current chief deputy commissioner for District 3 and has worked for the county for 14 years.
More:Oklahoma County received over $154 million in ARPA funding. What has it spent so far?
Ahead of the election, candidates shared their concerns and plans for the county with The Oklahoman.
What is the biggest problem facing Oklahoma County?
Blumert: If we are going to change the way we treat people and change our criminal justice system, the new jail is a piece of it. I would still love to see our community change the cash bond system and not put as many people in jail and give people better access to treatment outside of jail. Affordable housing has come up a lot, and housing for vulnerable populations. Another thing that continues to come up is mental health.
Davidson: The county jail and finding ways to bridge financial gaps. I think the issue is the same with people’s home finances as it is with the government. It’s never having enough finances to do what you need to get done. Oklahoma County is $70 million behind in infrastructure funding for roads and bridges to get to what we’ll call ground zero.
More:Oklahoma County asks for funds for sidewalk, street and drainage projects
What will your priority be, if elected?
Blumert: I would like to make some updates and changes to our Social Services department and maybe modernize that department a little bit. There are a lot of roads in my district I would like to work on. I frequently get emails and calls from constituents who live in the Spencer area — Spencer and surrounding Spencer. We have a lot of work to do. We're doing the best we can, but many of them are actually Oklahoma City roads, so we need to have a partnership with Oklahoma City. I want to address a lot of the roads in northeast Oklahoma City. Then there's other school projects that I want to work on. Millwood is still doing some building of new sports facilities. OKCPS (Oklahoma City Public Schools) I think could still use some assistance, so those are other things that I'm looking forward to working on.
Davidson: The opportunity to spend a couple of million dollars rehabbing the former social services building to be able to contract with one of these Daily Living Centers and be able to service eastern Oklahoma County for kids that are developmentally disabled or veterans, or respite care or any of this transitional stuff that we need that we don’t have out there. I think we have the ability and should look at building satellite crisis intervention centers that leave the mental health type individuals out of the jail. Increasing the diversionary programs for a lot of that stuff will also help keep the (jail) population lower.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma County election results for commissioners and associate judge
