After falling just a few votes short of avoiding a runoff election and winning the GOP primary outright, Oklahoma County District 3 Commissioner Kevin Calvey will face Oklahoma County Assistant District Attorney Gayland Gieger in an Aug. 23 runoff election for Oklahoma County district attorney.
On Tuesday, Calvey received 26,975 votes (49.97 percent) to Gieger’s 12,548 votes (23.25 percent) in the primary election. Had Calvey convinced 16 voters to choose him over his opponents — or had he drawn 31 other county residents to the polls to vote for him — the runoff election could have been avoided.
The winner of the Aug. 23 bout will face Democratic attorney Vicki Behenna in the Nov. 8 general election. Behenna received 28,478 votes (64.45 percent) in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election, topping attorney Mark Myles, who received 15,708 votes (35.55 percent).
The two other candidates in the GOP primary election — Jacqui Ford and Robert Gray — received 7,802 votes (14.45 percent) and 6,655 votes (12.33 percent), respectively.
Prior to being elected to the Oklahoma County Board of Commissioners in Nov. 2018, Calvey served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1998 to 2004 and again from 2014 to 2018. He also served in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of captain and being awarded the Bronze Star for his work prosecuting terrorists in Iraq from January 2007 to January 2008.
If elected Oklahoma County DA, Calvey has said he would dismiss the manslaughter charges against five police officers who shot and killed 15-year-old Stavian Rodriguez at the conclusion of an attempted armed robbery.
Gieger has worked as a prosecutor in the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s office since 1999. During that time, he has served 13 years as the lead prosecutor for the child abuse and sex crimes unit. Incumbent Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater did not seek reelection this year.
Calvey and Gieger fired broadsides at each other during a June 15 Oklahoma County district attorney debate co-hosted by NonDoc and News 9. Both men traded accusations about their records and other points of contention.
Behenna currently works in a private practice with an emphasis on “white collar defense, government relations and health care.” She served more than 25 years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma, where she worked to prosecute Timothy McVeigh in 1997 following the bombing of the Murrah federal building. She is also the executive director of the Oklahoma Innocence Project.
All results posted by the Oklahoma State Election Board online are unofficial until they are certified by the board.
David Hammer wins Pottawatomie County DA race
Pottawatomie County residents swiftly ousted their incumbent District Attorney Allan Grubb on Tuesday. Voters elected David Hammer to be their new top prosecutor, as he finished with 6,854 votes (58.16 percent). Tonya Roland came in second with 2,543 votes (21.58 percent), and Grubb received 2,387 votes (20.26 percent).
Hammer served as an assistant district attorney in Pottawatomie County from 2016 to 2018 before returning to his private practice, the Hammer Law Firm. Hammer said he resigned from his position in the Pottawatomie County District Attorney’s Office upon Grubb’s election in 2018. He worked in law enforcement and as a business owner prior to attending law school in 2010.
During interviews with NonDoc, both Hammer and Roland cast doubt on county residents’ collective trust in Grubb, whom they both previously worked with in the Pottawatomie County District Attorney’s Office.
Grubb — who was first elected in 2018 — had championed criminal justice reforms, but he came under investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the State Auditor & Inspector’s Office early this year owing to alleged financial issues and questions about his use of deferred prosecution agreements, which allow prosecutors to make financial agreements with defendants so that they can avoid facing criminal charges.
(Correction: This article was updated at 11:15 a.m. to correct reference to Kevin Calvey’s legislative service.)
