Battle lines drawn as Native candidates look to achieve success at ballot box By Sam Lewin With November elections just over a month away, Native American candidates and their supporters are pushing to replicate the success they experienced during the primary elections. Meanwhile a Cherokee currently serving as an assistant district attorney in Sallisaw is running for judge in District 15. John Sawney’s campaign literature bills him as “an experienced prosecutor as well as having experience as a criminal defense and civil attorney.” Sawney is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Law and Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, an Army veteran and a former public school teacher that sponsored several youth groups while teaching including the Indian Heritage Club. The district judge election will appear on the Nov. 7 general election ballot in Sequoyah, Adair, Cherokee, Muskogee and Wagoner counties. The race is non-partisan. Sawney has been married for 16 years and has four daughters. INDN’s List, an Oklahoma-based advocacy group pushing to elect more Native American to public office, is trumpeting a series of wins in the Pacific Northwest as three out of the four candidates they supported advanced past the primary round. The three winners are: Claudia Kauffman, Nez Perce, Don Barlow, Ottawa, and John McCoy, Tulalip. A fourth candidate, Kyle Taylor Lucas, lost. Like Barlow, Lucas is Tulalip. Unlike Barlow, she didn’t run unopposed. Read more... Posted at 9/21/2006 12:07:00 PM