Tulsa City Councilor G.T. Bynum filed paperwork today formalizing his campaign for mayor after a weekend announcement on social media he would run for the office next year.
"The city's ready to be unified and to focus on big goals that will make us more nationally competitive, and the best place to do that from is in the mayor's office," Bynum said in an interview Monday.
Whether he’ll be running against Mayor Dewey Bartlett is unclear. Bartlett hasn’t yet decided if he’ll seek re-election and said he’ll do so when it’s appropriate.
"Right now, my job is to make sure we have a good, strong, safe, financially secure future," Bartlett said.
Friends of G.T. Bynum 2016 is the official name of Bynum's campaign organization. Former Mayor Robert LaFortune, Bynum's grandfather, is the chairman. The councilor's steering committee includes influential people such as Oklahoma Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger, former City Councilors John Eagleton and Joe Williams, and state Rep. Jeannie McDaniel.
Bynum sets his sights on the mayor’s office after seven years on the city council. He has been working for the last couple years on a funding proposal for a series of dams to put water in the Arkansas River.
Bynum said water in the river won’t be central to his mayoral campaign, though.
"I visited with the mayor about this. We're both in agreement that we don't want this to be a distraction," Bynum said. "I have no intention of making it an issue in the campaign."
Bynum has not filed as a candidate and does not have to do so until April. He said he'll run a nonpartisan campaign.
"My campaign isn't going to be about Republicans and Democrats or north Tulsa versus south Tulsa," Bynum said. "It is going to be about unifying all groups, all people, to focus on big issues."
No one else has announced interest in running for the Tulsa mayor’s office so far.
