Oklahoma Politics

A Canadian County rancher and business owner says he will challenge 10-term U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas for the Republican nomination in Oklahoma's 3rd Congressional District.

Robert Hubbard told The Associated Press on Monday: "We need to make some changes."

The 69-year-old Republican will formally announce his candidacy Monday afternoon at the Oklahoma History Center.

Oklahoma legislators will begin budget briefings with various state agencies amid projections they will have about $170 million less to spend on state programs this year.

Members of House and Senate budget subcommittees will begin hearing presentations on Tuesday at the state Capitol.

State Sen. Kim David chairs the subcommittee that oversees funding for health and human services. She and her counterpart on the House subcommittee will meet with officials from nearly a dozen state agencies over the next two days.

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) announced Thursday evening he will leave behind his Senate seat at the end of this Congress. That will leave two years remaining in his term.

The end of the current session is January 2015.

An email from Coburn's office said the decision to leave was not because of his health. He is a cancer survivor and was recently diagnosed with cancer again.

R.J. Harris has dropped out as a Democratic candidate forOklahoma governor.

Harris made the announcement on his website Wednesday and says he's endorsing Democratic state Rep. Joe Dorman in the race. Harris, who's previously run for office as a Republican and an independent candidate, says he's supporting Dorman because Dorman is "socially tolerant and fiscally conservative."

Republican Gov. Mary Fallin is running for her second term in office. She faces a GOP primary challenge from former state Sen. Randy Brogdon, who filed paperwork last month to run for governor.

Former Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry has become a shareholder and been elected director of a CFS2, a Tulsa-based debt collection company.

The company announced in a press release Thursday that Henry's role will be in the strategic and capital planning process.

Henry said in a statement the company focuses on "nontraditional ways to help consumers overcome financial difficulties."

The company was founded in 2010 by Bill Bartmann, who previously founded the debt-collection company Commercial Financial Services.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission will ask lawmakers to consider a number of changes to its statutes during the upcoming legislative session, commission members were told Tuesday.

Among those changes, John Miley, OESC general counsel, told the commissioners will be an amendment that allows victims of domestic violence who have been forced to leave their jobs and apply for unemployment benefits to provide evidence, particularly testimony, rather than documentation in appeals before hearing officers.

A group has unveiled designs for a 7-foot-tall statue of Satan that it wants at the Oklahoma state Capitol.

The New York-based Satanic Temple released an artist's rendering of the monument Monday. A spokesman says the group has formally submitted its application to a panel that oversees the Capitol grounds.

Three political scientists who study the politics of southern states in the U.S. say shifts in population from rural areas to urban centers could help Democrats win more elections.

Scott Buchanan of the Citadel Symposium on Southern Politics says there is evidence the move is already taking place in Florida and Virginia.

Buchanan also says the coast of South Carolina is seeing an influx of immigration from other states, changing the politics of the area.

The Democrats lost the south, in part, because they failed to develop their party, according to the University of Georgia’s Charles S. Bullock III. He says they took their dominance for granted and did not develop candidates in the face of a rising GOP presence.

A conservative Republican state senator who rode a tea party wave four years ago that nearly landed him in a primary runoff with Gov. Mary Fallin will face some added challenges in 2014, including dampened tea party enthusiasm and a popular incumbent governor.