TULSA — In the August municipal elections, Tulsa voters will choose city councilors in all nine districts, as well as voting for mayor and city auditor.

Three of those council seats are open, after the incumbents chose not to seek re-election, for various reasons.

[Hear the KRMG In Depth Report with Alicia Andrews HERE]

One of those open seats is in Council District 5, comprising much of midtown Tulsa, and it has drawn two candidates: Karen Gilbert, currently Executive Director of Tulsa Crime Stoppers and a former councilor in the district, and Alicia Andrews, Chair of the State Democratic Party who - while a first-time candidate - is certainly not new to the Oklahoma political scene.

She tells KRMG she decided to run for several reasons, not least of which was her dissatisfaction with the incumbent’s job performance.

“I’d like for District 5 to be represented again,” she told KRMG Friday. “We haven’t been represented in a while. And I think tjat the people of District 5 deserve a choice. We need to have the opportunity to vote, and participate in the process, and have somebody talk about what’s happening in the middle of Tulsa.”

And the idea of sparking conversation, and participation in the political process, came up often as she discussed her reasons for running.

“If we leave seats unchallenged, and we let folks win just by putting their name on the ballot box, voters in District 5 get out of the habit of voting,” Andrews said. “We have a mayoral election, we have county commissioner, we have county clerk, and the president, right? We have a lot of votes coming up, and I want to make sure that folks remember to participate in the process. And if I can go out there and sell a better Tulsa, and if that’s what I have to do to get people to vote, then it’s a ‘twofer.’ I get people to vote, and I get to represent my district.”

She says she also wants to make Tulsa a city in which people, once here, never want to leave.

Andrews didn’t spend much time talking about her opponent, former District 5 Councilor Karen Gilbert, preferring to focus on her goals for the district and for the city.

“I don’t feel like I’m running against her,” Andrews explained. “I feel like I’m running... for people to vote for me to represent District 5.”

The Tulsa municipal elections will be held August 27th, with runoffs on November 5th if necessary.