by James Coburn

EDMOND — Corporation Commissioner Dana Murphy said she has kept the three promises she made to voters when she was elected in 2008.

"I promised I would bring more openness and transparency to the commission. I promised I would take the commission out to communities," Murphy said. "And I promised to get to work and bring greater working relationships among myself, the commission and other elected officials."

Murphy will face Tod Yeager of Del City in the July 27 statewide primary. Yeager is a business partner with Oklahoma City based Aerial Oklahoma Inc. No Democrats or Independent candidates are running for corporation commissioner. The winner of the primary election will be elected automatically to the post.

Edmond voters played a significant role in electing their home-town Republican to the Corporation Commission in 2008. Murphy defeated incumbent Jim Roth, D-Oklahoma City, who was appointed to the post by Gov. Brad Henry.

Murphy said she has made her office more transparent by adding more rate cases to the Corporation Commission Web site at www.occ.state.ok.us.

"As far as taking the commission into the communities, I've traveled over 20,000 miles and attended or spoken at over 400 events across the state on my own dime," she said. "Not state dollars and not my campaign dollars."

Murphy has also arranged meetings with two agency heads or elected officials every month since she was elected to office, she said. And Murphy helped to organize and coordinate town hall meetings across Oklahoma on the subject of horizontal drilling.

"I think it's about continuing to promote drilling and development in Oklahoma while at the same time looking out for the rights of mineral owners and others," Murphy continued.

She also donated $2,300 of her salary back to the state of Oklahoma to offset the state's budget shortfall. The commission made an 8 percent reduction of the agency's workforce. Eight furlough days were given to 440 employees through the fiscal year with $400,000 in agency cuts.

Continuing to modernize the commission with electronic filing is her vision of the future.

"There's a lot of complicated energy, utility, energy issues on the horizon," Murphy said. "And we need to make sure that we've got independent, qualified leadership there and I think I'm that person."

The article can be found here.