Governor's candidate drops out of race

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Former state Health and Human Services Secretary Jerry Regier dropped out of the race for governor Thursday because he may not be qualified to run under a state residency law.

Thursday, April 25th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Former state Health and Human Services Secretary Jerry Regier dropped out of the race for governor Thursday because he may not be qualified to run under a state residency law.

Regier announced two weeks ago that he had discovered a provision in the Oklahoma Constitution that required gubernatorial candidates to have been a ``qualified elector'' of the state for 10 years.

Regier said he interpreted qualified elector to mean resident. Although he is a fourth generation Oklahoman and grew up in Clinton, Regier returned to the state just seven years ago after serving in the Reagan and Bush administrations.

``I think it's very unclear what residency is,'' said Regier, 56. ``I've come back. I just didn't come back 10 years ago.''