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By Wayne Trotter
Dana
Murphy thinks she has the background, experience and know-how to serve
effectively on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and she wants you to
think that too.
That's why she's been touring the state in quest
of one of the two seats on the regulatory body that will be on the Nov.
4 general election ballot. Murphy is seeking the "short term" - the two
years left after former Commissioner Denise Bode, also a Republican,
resigned. That seat is currently being filled by Democrat Jim Roth, who
was appointed by Gov. Brad Henry and who is also seeking the "short
term."
Her first challenge will come Tuesday when she faces Rob
Johnson of Kingfisher for the GOP nomination. Murphy was in
Pottawatomie County last week seeking votes and visiting with people in
Shawnee and Tecumseh.
"I listen," she said during a visit to The
Countywide and Sun office. "I think it's important to try to listen
more than you actually speak. That's really a challenge for people
running for office. You've got to listen."
Only minutes before,
she had been across Broadway at Tecumseh City Hall where she had been
talking and listening to a number of people, including Mayor John
Collier.
She believes one of her big advantages in the campaign
and in the service she'd like to provide to the people of Oklahoma is
experience. A graduate of Oklahoma State University with a degree in
geology and Oklahoma City University with a law degree, Murphy served
six years as an administrative judge at the commission. She was named
co-employee of the year for 1997 and won the commission's public
service award in 2001.
In
the interview, she noted that lots of people think the commission's
major role is regulating utilities. But, she said, the job of the
three-person body goes a long way beyond that.
"It's so much
more," she said. "I have a little simple acronym that I use. TOPP -
top. Transportation, oil and gas, public storage tanks, public
utilities.
"If you look at transportation, it's the safety of
over 4,100 railroad crossings, 41,000 miles of pipeline, 6,200 for hire
and private motor carriers, 120,000 active oil and gas wells, 3,000 oil
and gas operators, 61,000 gasoline pumps, almost 9,000 storage tanks,
700 public utilities including electricity, natural gas, water and
cotton gins.
"When you look at it from that perspective, it regulates about 75 to 80 percent of the commerce of Oklahoma."
She
suggested that despite the fact that the Corporation Commission has
been part of state government since statehood in 1907, it hasn't done
much of a job of communicating its functions to the people it serves.
"I wouldn't give them a high grade on that," she said.
Murphy
said there's been a disconnect between what the commission does and
what people believe it does. As commissioner, she believes, she can
help cure that. One step, she said, would be to improve the flow of
information by making the website better but there are other ways as
well.
"You have to take it local," she observed. "You have to go
into the communities, talk to the people, learn about their concerns.
This is a long-term project. This isn't something you can't do
overnight."
Murphy lives in Edmond now and her Kingfisher-based
GOP opponent has made a point of noting that the commission as
constituted consists of all Oklahoma County residents. She counters by
pointing out that her roots are in rural Oklahoma. She grew up in the
Woodward area and has ties all over the state.
"I've lived and
grown up in rural Oklahoma and the issues out there are different," she
said. "When the electricity goes off at my mom's house, what happens?
No water, because she has to have water pumped by electricity. When our
electricity goes out typically in an urban area, it's very different.
My mom only has a rural area where she can get cell phone service. If
she didn't have a landline, she would be isolated. Our farm and ranch
is located 30 miles northwest of Woodward in a rural area."
The
rest of her background also qualifies her for the job she's seeking,
she says. In addition to her six years as administrative judge at the
commission, she was a practicing geologist for 10 years before she
obtained her law degree. After leaving the commission, she returned to
private law practice with title and regulatory issues and oil and gas
litigation, giving her a deeper background in commission activities.
She
is a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association, the American Association
of Petroleum Geologists and the Oklahoma City Geological Society. She
also is a member of Energy Advocates and in March of last year was
recognized as an outstanding woman in energy. She has served as a
trustee and is now care chaplain for the Church of the Servant United
Methodist congregation in OKC. She is also a part-time personal fitness
trainer.
The original article can be found here.
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