Oklahoma State Senate GOP designated leader

State Senate Republicans, as expected, voted Thursday to designate Glenn Coffee of Oklahoma City as the first GOP president pro tem in state history.

Sen. Todd Lamb, R-Edmond, was picked to be majority floor leader.

Republicans seized a 26-22 majority in Tuesday's election, the first time since statehood that Republicans have controlled the 48-member chamber.

Before the election, Democrats and Republicans were tied with 24 members each and operated under a power-sharing agreement the past two years.

Designation by the majority's caucus is tantamount to election. Coffee will be formally installed by the entire 48-member Senate during an organizational meeting in January.

Republicans grabbed control of the Senate when their candidates ousted one incumbent from Tulsa and won the seat Morgan is vacating.

Republican Dan Newberry of Tulsa defeated Sen. Nancy Riley, who switched from Republican to Democrat after she was an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in 2006.

Her switch prevented Republicans from becoming the majority party that year and she was targeted early for defeat by the GOP leadership.

Coffee pledged that Republicans will "work nonstop to enact pro-jobs economic reforms, to make government more accountable to the people, to improve education and to protect the public safety."

"I am honored to be elected by my colleagues to be the first Republican to lead the Senate," he said.

Coffee was elected to the top GOP post for the third time. Before Coffee, Republicans had passed around the No. 1 leadership post every two years.

Lamb is best known as the principal sponsor of a bill to require a woman planning to have an abortion to undergo an ultrasound. The measure required the ultrasound monitor to turned so a woman could view it and required the doctor to describe the dimensions of the fetus.

Gov. Brad Henry's veto of the bill was overridden, but an abortion rights group has won a court order preventing the law from taking effect.