Two OU students have announced their plans to run for positions on the Norman City Council in the upcoming February election.
Traci Baker, a political science freshman and openly transgender woman, is running for Norman Ward 7 with a platform focused on "maximizing freedom and quality of life for all Norman residents," according to her campaign page on Facebook.
Victor Reyes, public relations senior, is running for Norman Ward 1, and he spoke about his platform during an earlier interview with The Daily.
Baker’s campaign will focus on deregulating zoning, lowering sales taxes in Norman and removing the city government from the lives of individuals as much as possible, she said.
Baker plans to eliminate residential and business zoning restrictions and lower the Norman city sales tax from its current rate of 4 percent to 3.5 percent.
“I am running because I see that the city is moving in a certain direction, and I would like to provide an option on the ballot to move it towards a more freedom-oriented direction,” Baker said.
Baker is the Libertarian Caucus chair for Oklahoma, the secretary of the National Outright Libertarians Organization and was Gary Johnson’s state volunteer coordinator for Oklahoma, she said.
Baker decided to run a couple months before this semester started, after seeing that Stephen Holman would be up for re-election as the ward 7 representative. Holman is running to be elected for his third term, and his current term will end in July 2017.
Holman was charged with acquiring proceeds from drug activity and possession of drug paraphernalia on Dec. 2015.
“I saw that he was facing some charges and I wasn’t sure if he was going to run again. But it was then that I decided I was going to run,” Baker said.
