House races are gearing up in Norman and it looks to be a barn burner in one seat, a snooze in another, and a rematch in a seat that has seen rematch after rematch.

In House District 44, Representative Bill Nations is retiring after serving 12 years and being term limited.  The rumored Democrats in the race consist of David Perry, former Cleveland County Democrat Party Chair; Isaiah McCaslin, a former OU student and member of the Army Reserve; Emily Virgin, an OU law student; and Tom Kovach, current Ward 2 City Councilman. Admittedly, we don’t know very much about these candidates, but we can say this: the Democrat field in this heavy Democrat district is very weak.  McCaslin and Virgin will have credibility problems, as students don’t fare well in the district, despite it being the home of OU. Bill Perry has popularity problems in his own party.  If we had to guess at this moment, Tom Kovach is probably the front-runner.  He’s a hard campaigner and is known around Norman for his time on council.  Anything can change, though.

On the Republican side, we’ve heard of several potential candidates, including Sharon Parker, a local activist and employee of Norman Regional Hospital, and Melissa McLawhorn Houston, who ran in 2000 against Bill Nations and lost by approximately 130 votes.  The GOP side is looking for a good candidate that can pull off a win in this district.  The fact that Houston almost defeated an incumbent in 2000 and is still very well known in the political community bodes well for her if she decides to run.  Parker also ran long ago, but lost.  She has been active with the Tea Parties, but is known to be somewhat liberal on important issues, most notably abortion.  That won’t play well with Republican primary voters, but could help in a general election.

In House District 45, it looks like we will have yet another rematch between Representative Wallace Collins and Norman businessman Aaron Stiles, though Stiles’s entry into the race is unconfirmed.  Stiles lost to Collins by about 900 votes in 2008 when the Obama wave swept the central and east portions of the city.  This year will be much easier for Stiles as Republicans will be motivated to turn out and Collins remains unpopular.  There have been rumors of other candidates jumping in on the GOP side, but unless they are well-known and have a built-in support base, it will be difficult for them to claim the nomination.  The wildcard in this race is a Collins retirement.  Collins is getting older, thus making it more difficult for him to walk the district and knock doors.  In 2008, he relied heavily on his wife to do much of the walking and knocking.

District 45 is known as the perennial rematch battleground.  In 2000, Collins lost his seat to Thad Balkman and then in 2002 lost a rematch with Balkman.  In 2004, Balkman trounced Estelle Cash only to lose his seat by the slimmest of margins in a third race against Collins in 2006, a loss only attributable to the national Democratic wave that year.  Though Balkman (the former owner of this blog) is done with elective politics for now, his name continually resurfaces as a contender for higher office, as he still remains one of the more popular figures within GOP circles.

In House District 46, Representative Scott Martin will sail to re-election in Norman’s only snooze of a race.  Talk around town is that his previous opponent, Miranda Norman, will jump in the race again, but this is unconfirmed.  Norman was easily beaten by Martin in 2008.  Many wondered why she even ran, due to her lack of campaign experience and her limited knowledge of issues facing the state.  It would be wise for Democrats to write this race off, as Martin is very popular in the district and is one of the GOP’s rising stars.  Don’t be surprised if we see Martin on a statewide ballot sometime in the near future.