Ernest Istook - 2006 Gubernatorial Race

2006 Gubernatorial Race

Istook announced he would run for governor of Oklahoma against Democratic incumbent Brad Henry on October 3, 2005. He was immediately the consensus frontrunner for the nomination, as a seven-term incumbent U.S. Representative whose district covered most of the Oklahoma City area, the state's largest media market.

In the July 2006 primary, he received 55% of the vote to become the Republican nominee. Oil businessman Bob Sullivan was second with 31%.

Henry and Istook faced each other in the November general election. After a heated campaign. Henry defeated Istook, gathering 66.5% of the total vote—the biggest landslide in an Oklahoma governor's race in almost half a century. Istook carried three counties; Beaver, Cimarron and Texas, all in Oklahoma's far western panhandle.

Istook's campaign was managed by campaign manager Chip Englander, a political operative from California. National media attention was attracted when it turned out that Jordan Edmund, one of the campaign's workers from California, had been one of the congressional pages who received unwelcome attention in the Mark Foley scandal.