Oklahoma State Chamber-Associated Catalyst Oklahoma 501C4 Sends Text Message To “Thank” “Conservative” Greg McCortney With Leadership Race To Be Voted 2.12.24

Jenni White – 2.10.24

(Addendum – Per Julia Sublett, 2.12.24, “Charles Sublett does not work for Catalyst and [sic] not supporting any candidates”.)

Today I received a text message:

In case you can’t read the fine print circled in red:

I hope ANYONE who might have gotten this text had the first question that popped into their mind be simply, “Why?”.

That was mine. Why would a group called “Catalyst Oklahoma” want to send me a text to call Senator McCortney and tell him how much he means to me – even though he’s not even my Senator. I guess because I’ve been told he’s “conservative”, I should be honor-bound as a conservative to call him and thank him for all the “conservative” things he’s done for me?

For those who aren’t familiar with the “inside baseball” happening at the capitol right now, there is a 3-way race for leadership of the Senate this year. Current Pro-Temp, termed-out Senator Greg Treat, will be replaced by either Senators David Bullard, Casey Murdock, or Greg McCortney. Interesting timing on the text message rallying support around this particular, “conservative” in the Senate I would say. 

McCortney earned a D from the Oklahoma 2A for 2022 . On the other hand, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce gave McCortney a 100% that same year. Which brings me to the next point.

During the 2022 elections, I wrote several articles about the use of “dark money” in Oklahoma elections. One article, dealt with Catalyst Oklahoma donations to Kristen Thompson, challenger to seated senator at the time, Jake Merrick. Thompson won that election.

So who/what is Catalyst Oklahoma? According to information I collected in 2022, Catalyst Oklahoma is a 501C4 (dark money) organization which included ties to both Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs (through OCPA board member [according to the OCPA website as of 12.12.24] and President of Catalyst Oklahoma, Charles Sublett) and the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce (through Chamber board member Allen Wright and Director of Catalyst Oklahoma).

Quick points of interest:

• though information from the Cause IQ website indicates Catalyst Oklahoma is a “subordinate organization under OCPA” in 2022, it no longer says that
• Catalyst Oklahoma has no 990 (which are to be public documents) tax form available on the IRS website (use the EIN#46-4126174) after 2020 – why?
• Cause IQ has information indicating that Catalyst Oklahoma made a 50K donation to the State Chamber in 2022, but there is no linked 990 so I’m uncertain from where that information came
• Cause IQ lists Catalyst Oklahoma 2022 revenues at $773,120
• Cause IQ lists Catalyst Oklahoma 2022 expenses at $704,193
• their website is still listed as okunited.org, but it no longer has information that opposes closed primaries as it did in 2022 (check out the popup from the wayback machine when you navigate to the site)

Also of interest is the fact that Catalyst Oklahoma spent a total of $40,000 against Dusty Deevers – conservative Republican – in the District 32 (2023) special election for state senate (Oklahoma Ethics Guardian System Independent Expenditures search 2.10.24).

For conservatives, Catalyst Oklahoma suddenly sending out loving texts about Greg McCortney, should send you a message. If you get that message, please contact YOUR SENATOR and ask them to vote NO for McCortney as Pro-Temp on Monday. 

While ROPE does not support candidates as a group, I can say that I’ve known David Bullard for several years and have found him to be (excepting a vote for our state’s educational voucher bill) very conservative, if you’re interested in an alternative.

PS: This little text messaging stunt is just another reason why we need to get

DARK MONEY OUT OF OKLAHOMA ASAP!