WASHINGTON — Andrew Rice was only six months into his new life as a Democratic state senator when people started urging him into the ring with Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe.
It was this past summer, and no viable candidates had emerged to challenge Inhofe, of Tulsa, who has been in the Senate since 1994.
Rice, of Oklahoma City, traveled around the state for a few weeks and decided to go for it. He filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission in early August and, by the end of September, had raised more than $300,000.
It is an ambitious quest for Rice, a 34-year-old political neophyte taking on the 73-year-old Inhofe, who has spent most of the last 40 years in politics.
"I feel like this is an anti-incumbent year,” Rice said in a recent interview.
Rice will be running against an incumbent with a long record, who has made some enemies in Washington, particularly in the environmental community.
The League of Conservation Voters, a national environmental group that has targeted its "Dirty Dozen” list of candidates in previous elections, has its sights on Inhofe.
But the group targeted Rep. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee, in the last election cycle and didn't follow through with any money or effort since Boren didn't appear vulnerable.
Whether that group and others, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, ultimately decide Inhofe is vulnerable — and Rice viable — remains to be seen.
"State Senator Rice in Oklahoma is a good candidate,” Sen. Chuck Sch
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