One big surprise, other observations:

Tuesday’s election results provided at least one major surprise in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, it involved Muskogee native son Drew Edmondson. Edmondson distinguished himself in his native Muskogee serving as district attorney. And even losing to then-Congressman Mike Synar in the second district race did not hurt Edmondson’s image.

Edmondson went on to run successfully for state attorney general four times. During his attorney general tenure, Edmondson became involved in several high profile cases. The landmark suit against tobacco companies by the U.S. attorney general and resulting payment of $2 billion to the state and the suit against Northwest Arkansas poultry companies for generating chicken waste that allegedly has damaged waterways in Northeast Oklahoma come to mind as probably his biggest cases.

Edmondson graduated from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah and obtained his law degree from the University of Tulsa. He had great political lineage with his uncle and father both serving in public office. Edmondson’s dad held the U.S. Congress seat here from the 1950s through the early 1970s. His uncle Howard Edmondson, served as governor of Oklahoma and U.S. Senator from Oklahoma.

Edmondson appeared headed for the governorship himself with statewide polls over this past weekend showing him with a double-digit lead over eventual winner Jari Askins.

To us, two factors may have caused Edmondson’s narrow defeat. One is the above mentioned lawsuit against the poultry industry. The idea of keeping Oklahoma water clean is noble and needed. But Edmondson made enemies with a powerful business sector that has worked to defeat the lawsuit. And no doubt some of this group put up funds to defeat his run for governor.

Also, the poultry industry lawsuit made Edmondson unpopular with many small farmers in our state that use poultry waste on their farms. Looking at the statewide voting results, Edmondson lost Adair and Delaware counties in northeast Oklahoma where the poultry lawsuit is heavily affecting residents. He also barely won Cherokee County.

Another reason for his loss may have been his campaign did not paint a strong picture of who he was or what he would do if elected. His main campaign slogan was a vague, “tough enough to get the job done.” What job? Edmondson, we believe, should have run a more aggressive campaign touting his experience over Askins. It is said many of the Democratic candidates were friends, so the campaign did not get very nasty. But a stronger campaign message may have helped win over the small amount of voters he lost by.

Another campaign observation is the Tea Party did not fare well on state offices.

The Tea Party’s candidate for governor, Randy Brogdon, finished a distant second to Mary Fallin on the Republican side.

We are glad to see new movements like the Tea Party take hold. They will challenge the status quo.

But they may not be the end of the two-party system that some have feared.