Because I’ve written extensively on Dark Money in Oklahoma elections, it felt like a truly amusing way to pass what little free time we all have left as we try and navigate today’s skyrocketing inflation, making up titles and concepts for the Dark Money mailers sure to inundate our mailboxes right before the June 16th Primary Election.
But first, let’s take a poll:
Maybe some of our political consulting friends will opt in to the poll!
Here’s a clip of the ROPE Report podcast from Wednesday, May 6th, where Michael and I had fun making jokes about this very thing:
So, if you’d like to join in on the fun, make sure to drop YOUR idea for a dark money mailer against Jenni in the comments below! (PS: please make them clean, funny and not gross or mean – we’re just having fun here!)
The Ward 3 City Council race is beginning to blow up as it heads into the stretch for the finish line with voters going to the polls on Tuesday, February 11th.
Two candidates are vying for the Ward 3 seat, the incumbent, Barbara Peck and her challenger, Katrina Avers.
Ward 3 contains the City of Mustang and the Will Rogers International Airport.
Candidate positions aside, when former ROPE Board Member Julia Seay sent me the direct mail piece published at the top of the article, it felt important to look into exactly who was funding both candidates.
The address of the direct mail piece is 6608 N. Western Avenue #1392, Oklahoma City, OK 73116. There is a phone number listed as 405-534-4870, but it is clearly a Google number with a generic “leave a message” voice note. The card says it is “authorized and paid for by The Revitalization Project”.
The address goes to the Nichols Hills Pack-n-Ship. If you’ve read any of my articles on Dark Money in Oklahoma, you’ll know that this is an often-used address in the Dark Money world. It was used to knock out Ronda Peterson in Edmond’s HD39 election. In addition, it was also used for numerous other PACS during the 2022 election cycle.
Consequently, I looked up The Revitalization Project. Here’s what I found:
There is no listed entity for them as an Oklahoma registered PAC in the Guardian System on the Oklahoma Ethics Commission website.
There is no listing for them as a PAC on the FEC website (Federal Election Commission).
Consequently, we know that The Revitalization Project is NOT A PAC, it is a 501C-4 organization that is OPERATING AS A PAC.
The Revitalization Project was begun with a Dayton, Ohio address and in 2010. This is the year the Citizens United court case opened the door for dark money funding of political campaigns. I am going to paste a copy of the Dark Money flow chart I made in 2022 below for reference.
For the first several years, there were no expenditures and post cards were filed as the organization had less than $50k in filings. The organization has changed it’s structure several times over the past decade, but in 2017 and 2018, Demetria Gill was identified as the President, Norma Church was the Secretary and Evan Handy the Treasurer.
Evan Handy is the manager of South Creek Group (SCG), a political consulting group linked with numerous Dark Money PACS/501C-4’s in my 2022 research – as with the Advance Oklahoma and Build and Protect PACs above. In 2020, only Alex Mendez was listed as Director, with no one else associated with the organization and in 2022 the address for The Revitalization Project changed from Dayton, to Springfield, Virginia.
Looking through the organizations 990’s, several names identified with Dark Money PACs in 2022 were listed. In 2020, the C4 received $160k from America’s Values First. In 2021 they received money from the Commonwealth Conservative Fund and in 2022, they donated to Americans United for Values ($100k), Affordable Energy PAC ($155k), A Public Voice ($72k) and $750k to the American Exceptionalism Institute to name a few.
Why in the world, is an organization like this involved in an Oklahoma City Council Race?
Up to now, Barbara Peck has spent a little over $47 thousand dollars.
She’s received money from the Oklahoma Realtor’s PAC ($2500), OMCA PAC (Oklahoma Municipal Contractors $2500) and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber PAC ($4000), Oklahoma Firefighters Association PAC ($5000)
In individual contributions, she’s had $2500 contributed by Terry Zerby (a developer), PB Odom – a developer – $1000 and a bit over $1000 by Xavier Neira – a Norman developer – and 2 donations from Tyler Media for $800. There are other $500 from developers and contractors as well
Then, there’s this rather large donation:
KATRINA AVERS
Dr. Avers has, up to now, spent a bit over $7600.
Her largest donations have been individuals: Dr. Warren G. Low ($3300) and his wife Peggy ($3300). The second highest have been 2, $1000 donations from Randy and Lana Elliott Construction Unlimited.
The rest of her donations have been under $500.
CLOSING
Look, I understand that Peck is the incumbent in an Oklahoma City Ward with a lot of growth and growth potential, but there is an ENORMOUS difference in these two candidates in terms of their fund raising. It is apparent that Peck’s supporters are hoping (nay, expecting) to see quite a bit of work in the Ward.
Is that all that good governance is about? Creating growth and jobs? In this Ward – after the million dollars worth of amphitheater was voted down by residents – I don’t think so.
(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.
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).
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
In the now on-going saga of candidate Ronda Peterson running for a seat in HD39, I received a text message after yesterday’s article publication from Peterson, who sent me a screenshot of a candidate ‘push’ poll she received from a friend dated November 27th.
Here are a couple screenshots Peterson took of the poll.
NOTE: This text says “Ronda Peterson WAS removed…” from her position, but it does NOT SAY from what school system she was fired. This kind of a poll hopes to trap uneducated voters into NOT paying attention to the fact that the name of the school from which Ronda was presumably fired IS NOT LISTED, hoping that readers will tend to believe it’s the school where she is currently employed. As the Ballotpedia definition for push polling points out, this is VERY, VERY bad stuff.
Here’s why:
Yup, not only did someone BELIEVE the lie in the push poll, that person in turn SPREAD THE LIE on her Facebook page (and most probably other places) to influence other people about her candidacy.
Ronda asked Edmond Public Schools Administration to make a public statement – not on her behalf as a candidate – but about her employment status. Though Peterson has been employed with Edmond Public Schools for 22 years, she was refused on grounds that EPS policy prevents them from commenting on an employee’s employment status.
She also tried to expose the lie of the poll by taking a picture of herself on her bus with a paper showing the current date – which she posted to her Facebook page – but that was about all she could do to tamp down the nonsense.
So…is push polling legal? What about the fact that it libeled Peterson?
Yes, push polling is legal, and many people use it in political campaigns to try and ‘push’ their candidate – and not just political consultants. In fact, ANYONE could do a push poll, so where this particular libelous push poll came from is a complete mystery without some kind of lead back to the company from which it was generated. The phone number used for this poll has a DC area code and is probably Google in origin – there’s no way to tell without paying a reverse look-up service and even then the odds aren’t great of actually determining anything. The “State Election Research” title comes up in no internet search I performed, so it’s likely just a phrase used as an appeal to authority – again, to influence unsuspecting voters.
Libel on the other hand is illegal – but only if it can be proved in a court of law. Here’s the problem, more than likely it can’t and the legal process to try and prove it is quite expensive.
So what happens to candidates like Peterson who find themselves stuck at the end of this form of campaigning? Nothing. Bupkis. Nada. Zilch. You get the idea.
This gross practice needs to be exposed so voters who want to know what’s going on with the text messages they get – usually unwanted – on their cell phones, can be assured that their spidey senses are right – it’s a practice to try to trick them, not inform them.
But then, this is why I try to expose Dark Money where and when I can. It gives unfair advantage to whomever uses it for their election, by funneling tens – if not hundreds – of thousands of dollars into local races. This kind of money makes it nearly impossible for people who really want to run to help their community but have little means to mount a 100 thousand dollar political campaign, to run and become elected. The Founders of this country envisioned ‘citizen legislators‘ making decisions for the betterment of their states and their country, not people backed by large amounts of cash coming in from outside the district to seat a candidate whose interests then don’t really lie in the district to which he/she was elected.
Unfortunately, today, a large portion of Oklahomans don’t vote – in fact, in 2020, just over half of eligible voters actually voted Oklahoma’s elections – and of those half who do, few take time to really research candidates or issues. Often, these voters get their information from a push poll, a mailer, or an electronic ad and political consultants know that – it makes their job easy.
Consequently, if interested Oklahomans are going to ever see real change in Oklahoma’s elections, PEOPLE IN OKLAHOMA NOT ONLY HAVE TO VOTE – BUT BE INFORMED VOTERS.
As those of you who have followed my Dark Money posts know, Campaign Management Professionals (CAMP), run by longtime political consultant Fount Holland and his partner Mathew Parker, have worked for numerous campaigns over the years here in Oklahoma. Certainly, Mr. Holland and his colleagues have the right to work for anyone they choose here in Oklahoma, but we also have the right to publish information about candidates and their paid political consultants.
Recently, Miles Rahimi posted an amazing piece of research about Edmond HD39 District candidate Erick Harris. Clearly, the man was not only a DEMOCRAT within the recent past, but was an ACTIVE DEMOCRAT in the recent past. The photo of a smiling Mr. Harris and Nancy Pelosi at the Democratic National Convention in 2012 at the top of Rahimi’s post is a spectacular confirmation of this fact.
Note, Mr. Harris is his own Treasurer and Chairperson. No one else is reportedly involved in his campaign. This is concerning as a named treasurer (other than the candidate) speaks to transparency and should help put voters at ease when donating to the candidate’s account.
In fact, there’s nothing on Harris’ website that claims anything other than it is paid for by Friends of Erick Harris 2024.
So what in the world? This guy is running his own campaign; clearly grassroots, right? Not so fast. Here are a few mailers run in the district.
Uh-oh. What’s that I see for the indicia? Yup, you guessed it, “presort std U.S. postage PAID, CAMP”.
At a campaign event, Michael Grande (Board Member) asked Mr. Harris if CAMP was running his campaign. His comment was something akin to ‘I’m my own man. I’m not beholden to anyone.’ Well, ok. Now that we have your word on that…
But, wait – there’s more.
Because she’s sweet and wouldn’t be a pushover for anyone’s agenda, an attack mailer has surfaced against Ronda Lee Peterson.
First of all, it does crack me up! The tagline LOLOLOL. Who’s US? The DISTRICT? The political consultant class? But look at the return address – what in the world is 1907 PAC?
If you haven’t seen my Dark Money presentation, here you go. That will help you understand the screenshots I’m about to post.
The phone number for the 1907 PAC is associated with the “Free Runner Macc’s Place” a campground in Tecumseh, OK, according to an internet search. I tried the phone number – which tagged as Yukon when I placed it – and there was no specifically listed business named, just a message saying I could leave a message.
I searched the PAC’s address and – LOW AND BEHOLD – it came up at a FedEx in Nichols Hills. Below is a screenshot of the Table I created for my (still in progress) paper to include all the information listed in my video. Does anything seem familiar?
Oh by gosh, by golly; major shock…anything look familiar here? Note, this PAC was created THIS March and, of course, the treasurer is Dustin McIntyre (our favorite PAC treasurer who has no internet profile I can find anywhere).
Note also that Advance Oklahoma PAC is found at the same address.
I don’t think it takes a resurrected Sherlock Holmes to see that the 1907 PAC is associated with CAMP and other organizations that have been identified within the Dark Money ring in Oklahoma. Note the disbursements from the PAC earlier this year.
Now, note the initial AND ONLY deposit to the newly-formed PAC for the year.
It’s another favorite! The American Exceptionalism Institute C-4 DARK MONEY group. You’ll note them in the upper left-hand corner in pink. This C-4 is VERY BUSY running money in and out to different PACS that operate in Oklahoma elections but which NEVER file with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission as PACs, they only file at the federal level with the FEC.
You can look at Open Secrets to find out how much and where American Exceptionalism money goes, but again, CAMP is associated with more than one of the PACs to which they donate.
In closing, there are FOUR things we asked of legislators last session to help STOP the dark money interfering in Oklahoma elections. ROPE asks you to jot down these four and make sure YOUR legislator knows you want legislation run to stop these FOUR things – all exampled in this article.
PACS can be set up with a PO box and a Google telephone number which prevents any transparency at all for the PAC – both at the federal and state level. Many PACS that operate in Oklahoma are used by the same political consultant groups such that a political consultant is paid out of the same PAC where independent expenditures for his clients are made. PACs in Oklahoma should have to have a legitimate street address and phone number where someone can be reached during regular business hours.
I have not been able to locate any internet evidence of life for at least 2 treasurers on PACS operating in Oklahoma at the federal and state level – Dustin McIntyre and John Jude. Treasurers must be residents of Oklahoma with a valid street address and telephone number where he/she can be reached during normal business hours.
PACS can give each other unlimited funds – much of which are provided by 501C4s that don’t have to provide the names of their donors. In the ‘real’ world, this could be confused with money laundering. In addition, federal law prevents foreigners from donating funds to ANY election or candidate in America. When you don’t know who donates the money to a campaign, how do you know it isn’t foreign money? Oklahoma should stop allowing DARK MONEY donations to local Oklahoma campaigns.
PACS operating in Oklahoma must be registered in Oklahoma with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission period. There should be no loophole in the Ethics rules that allow PACS operating in Oklahoma elections to register with the FEC instead of the Ethics Commission. Right now, the rules say that if a PAC is registered with the FEC it doesn’t have to register with the Ethics Commission. That’s bogus as an FEC PAC is supposed to support federal candidates, not state or local candidates, which is what is happening now. This again prevents transparency.
Without going into great detail, between April 2013 and November 2014, Hofmeister, Stephanie Milligan (now Alexander), Steven Crawford (former CCOSA President), Lela Odom (then with the OEA), and Fount Holland (political campaign strategist now of CAMP) apparently coordinated together on Independent Expenditures through a dark money group run by Alexander called “Oklahomans For Public School Excellence” to get Joy Hofmeister elected Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
CCOSA and OEA donated 100,000 each and American Fidelity Bank (characterized in the Affidavit as a 100% supporter of OEA) also donated $100,000 to Oklahomans for Public School Excellence in $50k amounts through both CCOSA and OEA. They – and others – worked with Hofmeister to coordinate the messaging paid for through this account to manipulate Oklahoma voters into voting for Joy Hofmeister as state Superintendent.
No fans of Janet Barresi’s term as Superintendent, ROPE was behind Hofmeister’s initial bid for the position after she had assured us that she would not support Common Core. Of course, this all changed during the fight for new, non-Common Core, state standards where we were kicked to the curb by Hofmeister and her public ed allies so they could usher in shiny new “non-Common Core” Common Core standards, leaving us once again to fight our State Superintendent.
Now, let’s read some of Mrs. Hofmeister’s text messages from the Affidavit knowing this background…
Let’s start here:
1. JOY CHANGES CONTRIBUTIONS ON ETHICS FILINGS TO AVOID SCRUTINY
PAGE 8
2. JOY’S CAMPAIGN CONSPIRED TO THWART IRS RULES
PAGE 9
I have begun studying dark money this election season. I KNOW there is an IRS rule that says 501c4 Social Welfare organizations must not make politics their main activity. The organizations I have researched have done this as COMMON PRACTICE, however, which is why – in my opinion – the 501c4 should be removed as an IRS non-profit designation. It’s quite an easy way for cheaters to cheat the system.
3. JOY ALLOWS HER TEAM TO MISLEAD THE PUBLIC REGARDING OEA’S SUPPORT OF HER CANDIDACY WHILE FOUNT HOLLAND ADMITS THE CAMPAIGN WILL USE DISENGENUOUS “RIGHT WING RHETORIC”
4. JOY COORDINATES WITH FOUNT HOLLAND REGARDING SUPPORT OF OEA IN THE INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE
PAGE 10
5. JOY TELLS INVESTIGATORS SHE HAS “NO SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE” OF AN INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE GROUP
PAGE 27
The character of the person described here is indelibly marred. According to the quoted affidavit, Mrs. Hofmeister plays fast and loose with the truth and cares little about following the campaign laws of this state, so how in the world could we expect her to care about following any of its other laws? It’s simple: we can’t.
We’ve all seen them; the mailers that call a candidate names, but have nothing but a PAC title to identify themselves. Who are these PACs? Who or what supports them? Why is it hard to identify PAC owners? Shouldn’t we be able to ask questions of people slamming the candidates we like with seemingly unlimited money to do so? Many of us are tired of this endless dark money SWAMP and want answers. This video will give you a start at answering some questions you may have about who is influencing Oklahoma’s elections.
After many weeks of study, I was able to put together an initial diagram of Dark Money and how it flows among and between various 501c4 and PAC organizations influencing Oklahoma elections.
Unfortunately, it creates rather a combination of shock, dismay, frustration and confusion to look upon the document itself. Standing at a distance, it looks a bit like a washing machine – interesting because I contend that the whole process amounts to little more than money laundering for political gain.
Definitions For Dark Money Components
501c4: This is an IRS designation applied to organizations which desire to be considered charitable/non-profit, but also want to have the ability to spend money influencing political candidates or campaigns. According to the IRS, an organization can maintain a c4 designation if they spend LESS THAN 49% of their money/time/assets for political activity. Donations are not generally tax deductible.
501c3: This is an IRS designation applied to organizations which desire to be considered charitable/non-profit, but they may not engage in political activity. Donations are tax deductible.
Dark Money: Though 501c4 organizations must reveal the amount of money they spend on political activity, they do not have to reveal the names of their donors – hence the source of the money is ‘dark’ or unrevealed. This article answers many questions about Dark Money if you are interested in more information.
PAC: PAC stands for Political Action Committee. There are actually several different kinds. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has a webpage with definitions here. PAC’s are created to allow an organization or individual to give (mostly) unlimited amounts of money to political candidates or campaigns. 501c4’s can donate to PACs, allowing donors to remain anonymous. Super PACS can only make Independent Expenditures (IEs). This means that there can be no coordination at all between a candidate, his/her campaign and donors to the PAC. People independent of the candidate and campaign, set up the PAC, solicit donations and then spend funds from the PAC on various forms of advertising on behalf of the candidate or campaign WITHOUT THEM KNOWING.
Dark Money Web – Many Political Consultant Companies Involved
Political Consultants are people who have backgrounds in politics and/or law, who help candidates with their elections. They provide – or contract for – services such as, photography, art, writing, polling, consultation and advertising, to include radio, social media, television and direct mail. Candidates normally pay consultants directly from funds they raise for their campaign.
Because I identified so many political consulting groups through the Dark Money Web, I decided to examine Ethics Commission reports for every seated Oklahoma legislator in 2022 and compile a list of all political consultants used by Oklahoma legislators.
If a legislator made a payment to a political consultant, I recorded the name and date I first found record of payment. Many of the following firms are not implicated in the Dark Money web at all, but were included because the intent was to catalogue ALL firms for information.
Here is the compiled list of the most popular political consultants within the House and Senate:
Amber Integrated – The Amber integrated team includes members of former “The Right Strategy Group“, and FKG Consulting groups – all of whom have long resumes in politics or government relations (aka lobbying). Partner Tammie Kilpatrick is designated as a lobbyist for at least 14 different organizations, including Cherokee Nation Businesses LLC, according to Oklahoma Ethics reports.
Ascend Action – Run by long-time Republican political strategist Holly Gerard, the Ascend Action website states, “we exclusively work with the candidates and organization who promote [these] foundational American values and strive to see them protected in the federal and state government level.” Much of their team has worked with Senator Ted Cruz. Other campaigns include Jim Jordan, Greg Abbott and Chip Roy.
Campaign Advocacy Management Professionals – According to CAMP’s website, CAMP is a partnership between Fount Holland and Matt Parker. Parker hails from Louisiana where he worked for Bobby Jindal. Holland has a long legacy in Oklahoma politics. In 2016, Holland was charged (along with others) on two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony relating to the campaign of then-candidate for Superintendent, Joy Hoffmeister in 2014. During that time, Holland was operating AH Strategies with partner Karl Ahlgren and Trebor Worthen, a former two-term member of the Oklahoma legislature elected to the seat held previously by his father, at only 23 years of age. Holland, Ahlgren and Worthen also owned Majority Designs, a printing/mailing service – now apparently called CAMP Mailrun by Karl Ahlgren, who has his own questionable footprintin Oklahoma politics. Worthen is now working on his own helping candidates he won’t name publicly and operating the Sooner State Leadership Fund dark money PAC which has paid for ads against Governor Stitt.
HPPC/Lance Cargill – Though there is no website I can find for his current organization (this is from an old website), Lance Cargill has been a fixture in Oklahoma politics for two decades. First elected to the House in 2000, Cargill became Speaker of the Oklahoma House from 2007 to 2008 before leaving the legislature due to a scandal involving late payment of property and personal income taxes and accusations of mishandling PAC money. In 2017, HPPC helped Democrat Richard Morrissette run for Oklahoma City Council in a campaign that reported it’s only spending to HPPC.
James Martin Company – Founded by Jenna Worthen, wife of Trebor Worthen, James Martin doesn’t list their political clients or the non-profits with which they have worked. Their team includes Macey Whitehouse, identified as a former employee of CAMP.
Neva Hill – I was unable to find a working website associated with Neva Hill’s political consulting services, however, BallotPedia reports Hill as a fixture in Oklahoma politics over four decades during which she has worked for Tom Cole, James Lankford and Ervin Yen. She has also been a long-time political commentator for KOSU. She served as the State Director for the Bush/Quayle campaign and was the Assistant Commissioner of Labor under Governor Henry Bellmon.
Victory Enterprises – This organization headquarters out of Iowa, but has agents for Oklahoma, Missouri and Wisconsin. Oklahoma’s agent of record is Whitney Michael who apparently lives in OKC. Some of the people for which members of the Victory Enterprises team has worked, according to their website, include, Chuck Grassley, James Lankford and John McCain. Many of the team members have extensive backgrounds in politics.
Dark Money Web – Many Treasurers In Common
You can find the diagram on our Scribd account. This dark money web was created as I began to research Jake Merrick’s failed Senate re-election campaign. I wanted to understand who wanted Jake removed from office so badly as to spend so much money on an Oklahoma Senate seat. Clearly – with nearly $350,000 spent on the race – individual donations were exceptionally unlikely to make up the bulk of the campaign, so I believed a much wider effort had to be at play. I was right.
The problem – if you will – of researching Jake’s race was that I kept finding where money was transferred from one PAC to another and payments were made to organizations for services.
Lots of money went to organizations outside Oklahoma for radio, television and social media (digital) advertising. Of those organizations within the state that were paid for services out of campaign and PAC accounts, several appeared numerous times; CAMP, South Creek Group LLC and Amber Integrated all received checks for services rendered from numerous PACs. In some cases, all three received payments from one PAC.
Another interesting overlap was that many of the PACs had the same treasurer, ie; Dustin McIntyre and Joel Riter and Geoffrey Long appeared numerous times.
Joel Riter, a former aide to Republican Ohio Senate candidate Josh Mandel and lobbyist for Cap Square Solutions in Ohio, has been connected to a dark money web influencing Ohio elections including PACs that also function in Oklahoma. CREW, an ethics watchdog group, has filed FEC complaints on several of Riter’s PACs which network to others on the Dark Money Web, including, A Public Voice, American Exceptionalism Institute Inc, and Prosperity Alliance, Inc.
Riter also has a presence in Oklahoma. The 501c4, Foundation for Economic Prosperity is operated by Trey (John W.) Richardson and Jeri Richardson with Joel Riter listed as Director and Secretary. The Richardsons own SAGAC Public Affairs and GrPRO – the latter of which employs Maressa Treat, the wife of Senate Pro Temp, Greg Treat, who also uses SAGAC and GrPro to manage his campaign. IRS filings for the Foundation for Economic Prosperity are only available from 2016-2019.
Geoffrey Long, for example, is the Designated Filing Agent (originally named treasurer – an error I regret) for Truth PAC (on the upper left in our diagram). This PAC was apparently created by CAMP as the email reads info@camppolitical.com, Matthew Parker is Treasurer and the address is CAMP’s (401 NE 46th Street, OKC 73105). Ethics records show that the PAC received $281,000 from Protect Our Freedoms Pac. Protect our Freedoms PAC – which has a Virginia address at a Parcel Plus in a strip mall – received two $375,000 contributions: One from Benjamin Harris and one from David Chaney, founders of EPIC Charter School, now with four felony charges relating to mismanagement of taxpayer funds. Nearly every penny of the $281k was spent supporting straw candidate Steve McQuillen for State Auditor and Inspector over Cindy Byrd, the current SAI who audited EPIC on orders of the governor and found large numbers of illegalities.
During 2018, the Foundation had over a million dollars, but recorded only spending of approximately 270 thousand dollars to Gr Pro LLC and SAGAC Public Affairs for consulting and event management and a ‘grant’ of $2500 to Advancing Freedom for ‘issue advocacy’.
Advancing Freedom, Inc – which spent $214k opposing Oklahoma AG John O’Connor – ties to the Committee for Advancing Freedom by PO Box and that the organization’s books are listed as in care of Trey Richardson. Advancing Freedom had nearly $200k in revenue from unknown sources and spent $13k in electioneering.
From a client perspective this should be a real asset. Someone who knows the Ethics Commission rules and filing dates could be indispensable as a filing agent. On the other hand, members of the public might be concerned that previous experience at the Ethics Commission could allow them to help clients ‘skirt’ the law, or bend it to make it work for their needs.
What Is A Taxpayer To Do?
Hopefully, at this point – if you’ve read this far – you now know that many of the political consulting firms operating in Oklahoma have clear ethics questions. What should the public think about a person who wishes to be elected to influence taxpayer dollars and laws yet uses a political consulting firm that has observable ethics issues or is somehow tied to a firm that has observable ethics issues? Could it be that there is corruption at the Capitol because there is corruption surrounding it and through it?
If you want a change in Oklahoma politics, here are some steps:
Do not vote for any candidate without knowing who runs their campaign. If they are engaged with members or ancillaries of the Dark Money Web – do not vote for them.
Use the Oklahoma Ethics Commission website to research candidates and find out who is donating to them. If they are getting donations from other lawmakers or PACs in large amounts – do not vote for them because they are already influenced by someone/something other than you. (The factors surrounding Jake Merrick’s re-election campaign make this point in spades.) If you like the candidate and feel they are simply naïve, ask them to return the donations before you’ll vote for them.
During election season, if you see a mailer that’s ugly or misleading, look at the postage and “paid for by” section to see who’s sending it. Use the internet to look them up. If what you find concerns you, confront the candidate they are for. If they don’t publicly come out against them don’t vote for them.
Follow the Ethics Commission meetings and attend their meetings. This is the group that oversees political campaigns in Oklahoma and watchdogs illegal activity. What are they doing? Are they doing enough? What should we expect them to do? These are all questions that need answers – they are our first line of defense against those who want to influence elections for their own gain and, apparently, way too much is getting through their guardrails.
Above all realize this; we somehow began to think that Oklahoma is the ‘reddest state in the union’ – but we are not. True Republicans can list at least 5 conservative principles off the tops of their heads at any given time. Oklahomans have been propagandized to believe that an “R” means ‘conservative’, but it doesn’t. If you’re not sure what to look for or ask about, here is the Oklahoma County Republican Party Platform. It’s only a page. Download it and ask candidates questions based on that platform.
Conservative PRINCIPLES make conservatives, not a letter designation.
If Oklahomans can’t begin to do these things on a WIDE level IMMEDIATELY, we’ll CONTINUE to lose our state to corrupt, unethical Democrats in Republican clothing all the while lulled to sleep believing we’re ‘safe’ here in Oklahoma, the ‘reddest state in the union’.
Conservative Policy Network is yet another group in a long line of groups which is using money from who knows where (Dark Money) to influence Oklahoma elections.
As I’ve written about in previous blogs on Dark Money, campaign consultant Fount Holland was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit a felony for breaking Oklahoma campaign laws. At the time, Mr. Holland was running Joy Hofmeister’s campaign for State Superintendent against former SS Janet Baressi. He was charged because it was found that he – and Mrs. Hofmeister – were working with an independent PAC to help get her elected.
FYI: Any candidate running for office can accept donations of up to $2900 a person or $3800 per couple per each election cycle (a primary, a runoff, a general). Think on this: that’s over $11,000.00 a couple could give a candidate during an entire election campaign. That’s not an insignificant amount.
Still and all, there are people who want to help candidates get elected by contributing more than what’s legal through a campaign account. They do this by creating an “unlimited” PAC. The PAC raises money, but doesn’t have to show where that money comes from (which is why it’s called DARK money) and then spends what they raise to help elect a candidate. THIS IS IMPORTANT: It is illegal for a candidate – or their campaign manager – to work with anyone associated with an unlimited PAC using money to help the candidate get elected. They are called Independent Expenditures because the group is working to elect the candidate INDPENDENTLY of the candidate’s campaign.
Candidates have a campaign account that can be searched on the Oklahoma Ethics Commission website. This transparency allows citizens to be able to see who is donating to that candidate.
501c4’s only have to record WHERE and HOW their money was spent, not where it comes from. This keeps voters in the dark about who might be influencing candidates. Often, Dark Money IE’s are funded through an intricate web of non-profit 501c4’s and PACs which make it very hard to determine anyone associated with a group spending money on behalf of a candidate.
This set of mailers was received today. Look more closely at the address box:
Note that it says, “Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee”. This means it’s an Independent Expenditure and it’s NOT LEGAL for a candidate or their campaign manager to be associated with the group paying for the mailer – in this case, “Conservative Policy Network”.
I wanted to know where this mailer came from, so I went to the Oklahoma Ethics website and searched for Conservative Policy Network. I found the Ethics report at the top of the page. Please note; it says it is an IE OPPOSING Brady Butler, Jarrin Jackson and Karmin Grider.
The address for the group is here:
Legitimate IE groups in Oklahoma are required to have an address to the business or group supporting the IE. This is NOT a legal address for an Independent Expenditure in Oklahoma.
I called the phone number associated with the group and it picks up immediately and says, “The person you are trying to reach is currently unavailable. Please leave a message.” (This happens with EVERY organization without a legitimate address I’ve tried.)
Additionally, I was not able to find an associated Federal PAC, nor an associated 501c4, nor any other information at all about this group created on the 22nd of July – not even a month ago.
Who is running against the candidates being opposed by this group? Brady Butler is running against CAMP (Fount Holland) client Darcy Jech, Jarrin Jackson is running against CAMP client Ally Seifried and Karmin Grider is running against CAMP client Collin Duel. Odd coincidence? Doubtful.
In a few days, I’ll be releasing a diagram of how money is flowing from 501c4 organizations and specific PACs in Oklahoma during this election year. You’ll note at that time, that the filing agent listed on this Ethics Report is one often used by PACs/Groups associated with Fount Holland candidates or paying CAMP for work on campaigns.
DARK MONEY ADS LIKE THE ONE AGAINST KARMIN, CAN URGE VOTERS TO VOTE BASED ON LIES AND HALF-TRUTHS PAID FOR BY PEOPLE WHO WANT TO INFLUENCE ELECTIONS WITHOUT BEING KNOWN!
DON’T MAKE AN UNEDUCATED VOTE!!
Talk to candidates directly. Most all have websites and even phone numbers where they can be reached. Educate yourself before you mark your ballot, don’t be misled by FAKE groups using DARK money to influence you!
