Oklahoma elections: Incumbents Johnson, Sullivan win races

Assessor Leonard Sullivan won re-election Tuesday while District 1 Commissioner Willa Johnson easily won her Democratic primary.

By Bryan Dean | Published: July 28, 2010 Comment on this article

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Incumbent county officers Willa Johnson and Leonard Sullivan won their primaries Tuesday in convincing fashion.

With all precincts reporting, Johnson had 57.4 percent of the vote over two opponents. Assessor Leonard Sullivan won 71.2 percent of the vote over opponent Jim Judd in the Republican primary.

There is no Democrat running for the position, which means Sullivan was re-elected Tuesday.

Johnson faced the uneasy task of besting another former commissioner in a Democratic primary. Shirley Darrell, who held the District 1 seat for 16 years before being defeated in 1998, managed 22.7 percent of the vote. A third candidate, political newcomer Ronald Henry, had 19.9 percent of the vote.

Johnson will face Republican Sam Crosby in November's general election.

Both Sullivan and Johnson said they saw the results as an indicator that county voters are happy with their work and the relative peace between county officials, who have often quarreled in the past.

"The people are tired of warfare," Johnson said. "They don't mind conflict as long as it's in a gentle nature."