OKLAHOMA CITY - Democrat Andrew Rice says people are beginning to take notice of his Senate campaign as he hammers at Republican incumbent Sen. Jim Inhofe's record, which he says is light on accomplishments and heavy on partisan politics.

Rice, in an interview with The Associated Press, promised to be bipartisan and pragmatic in seeking solutions to such problems as the country's dependence on foreign oil and the lack of health care coverage for many Americans.

He labels Inhofe, who is seeking a third full term in the Senate, as an "extreme" partisan.

"He's up there to have political fights and does not really seem interested in getting things done for his state," the 35-year-old Rice said. "It's his own fault when I beat him."

Rice, a first-term state senator, said he considered himself to be independent-minded, "pretty conservative" on issues such as gun control and illegal immigration and progressive and moderate on others.

"I try to be a public servant and not so beholden to the competitive, partisan aspect of the two-party system," he said.

He accused Inhofe of coming late to the position of using wind, compressed natural gas and other energy alternatives to oil to solve the country's energy crisis.

Rice said the 73-year-old senator joined President Bush and Dick Cheney in a misguided policy of focusing solely on Iraq in the war on terror, while largely ignoring Afghanistan until recently.

He said Inhofe is "pretty much isolated politically" with his stand that global warming is a hoax and is at odds with John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

Rice said McCain is running commercials warning of extremists on both sides - those whose plans to combat global warming are too rash and those "who do not want to even acknowledge it is a problem. I don't know anyone else except Jim Inhofe who really fits that bill."

For himself, Rice said he was proposing converting state vehicles so they could use compressed natural gas a year ago, before T. Boone Pickens announced his energy plan, which calls for more use of wind power to free up natural gas now used to generate electricity.

He said it was a no-brainer to expand wind energy in Oklahoma, saying that could bring 15,000 jobs to the state.

On health care, Rice said he would use an approach suggested to him by a member of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, in which insurance companies will have a role in expanding coverage to the uninsured.

Rice said high-cost treatments for the uninsured, such as emergency room care, are costing $45 billion a year.

"We're bankrupting the country by ignoring this," he said.