"We cannot wait for the courts to destroy our traditional family or allow predators to enter women's restrooms," he said. "I know that the erosion of our family values are the foremost concerns on your minds."

Q and A

Fielding questions from an audience filled mostly with campaign supporters and party officials, the candidates addressed issues such as gay marriage, tort reform, taxation and Oklahoma's new immigration law.

"Our education money needs to get to the classroom in order to meet the needs of our children," Daugherty said. "We also need to repeal the business franchise tax and eliminate government regulation. We do have too much government regulation and taxes and we need to do away with it."

"All this taxation is another barrier for business in Oklahoma," she said. "We need to cut taxes in order to do business in Oklahoma."

Echoing Daugherty, Loveless said lawmakers should work to "improve the business climate" in the state.

"First, we need meaningful lawsuit reform," he said. "Think of it as affordable health care. In Texas, insurance rates went down by 35 percent after they passed tort reform. We have a fork in the road. We can continue to build on the policies of the past by letting trial lawyers run things down at the Capitol, or we can go in a different direction."

Loveless said he would, if elected, push the state to reform its transportation system.

"For the last 100 years, Oklahoma has been stealing Peter to pay Paul. We've been taking your tax dollars that the state government have been promising, 'oh that's going to roads and bridges,' and taking it and giving it to bridges to nowhere, giving it to art museums, giving it to research. I'll be the senator who will stop the diversion of those funds, and that will allow us to lower gas prices."

Foshee, responding to Loveless' calls for tort reform, said the issue was being "blown out of proportion."

"I'm a lawyer and I'm proud of my profession," he said. "I don't believe you can just throw out words. The New England Journal of Medicine says the malpractice issue is overblown. The Wall Street Journal said mismanagement and accounting problems are the reasons for malpractice premium increases."

Citing a poll of Oklahoma judges, Foshee said 58 percent of state judges "didn't believe there is a litigation crisis."

"The judges said that 5 percent of the cases were frivolous. And 95 percent of state judges said they believed juries were capable of making fair and equitable decisions."

The Constitution, Foshee said, entitles Americans to a trial by jury. "It's an issue that's blown way out of proportion."