Today, Michael and I talked to former Senator, Jake Merrick, about his run for Governor in the 2026 election cycle.
Though I like to make short clips of our interviews, I’ll not be doing that with candidate interviews. ROPE Report is not going to endorse candidates for office, so I fear that creating shorts would run the risk of sounding as though we were attempting to endorse – or knock out – a candidate for office.
Consequently, we’re leaving it up to the viewer to please make sure you watch the video – you might hear some questions you hadn’t heard Jake answer before. I won’t download the whole video into the blog post, but you can find the full version on either our Rumble or YouTube channels.
While every political campaign has numerous points for failure from fundraising to voter contact, a post mortem of Jake Merrick’s re-election campaign shows that a combination of dark money and redistricting probably did more than anything to sink the re-election campaign of a fine man and public servant.
When I wrote Part 1 of the series, I reported that OCPA, through their Dark Money group Catalyst Oklahoma, had spent $50,620 FOR Merrick’s challenger, Kristen Thompson after spending over $100,000 FOR Merrick’s special election through their dark money group People for Opportunity last year.
I also reported that Senator Merrick – while voting yes in the Senate Education Committee – voted no on the Senate floor on the extremely contentious bill – SB1647 – which would provide publicly funded vouchers to private schools.
Lucia Frohling and Jill Shero both work for ECKO – Every Kid Counts – an organization run by Education Secretary Ryan Walters which supports school choice, including vouchers.
Ryan Martinez wrote a $1,000 check from his campaign account (Friends of Ryan Martinez) to Thompson’s campaign in December of 2021. Martinez is a Representative from the Edmond area who was the House Chair – along with Senator Lonnie Paxton, the Senate Chair – of the state’s legislative redistricting efforts. In March, Friends of Ryan Martinez donated another $1,700 to Thompson.
Mike Cantrell – an originator of Oklahoma Energy Resources Board (OERB) and an 11-year member of the Board of EPIC Charter Schools, who left the Board as depositions began for the criminal investigation which culminated in the arrest of EPIC’s founders, David Cheney and Ben Harris for alleged embezzlement of state tax dollars, donated $1,000.
Josh Cockroft – Governor Stitt’s Political Director.
Donelle Harder – who has worked for Governor Stitt – by way of Washington, D.C. – in several capacities and currently manages his 2022 re-election campaign.
Chris Kannady, an attorney and State Representative for Cleveland County wrote a check from his campaign account (Friends of Chris Kannady) for $1500 to Thompson’s campaign. Kannady told the New York Times that he had led an effort to purge then-elected Republicans from the State House in 2018 because they were a “cancer” to the Party. In July, the Oklahoma Ethics Commission made public that it will sue the Conservative Alliance PAC, from which dark money donated via the Prosperity Alliance was used to oust as many as 11 Conservative House members that year. His campaign pays a consultant called the James Martin Company LLC, owned by Jenna Worthen, wife of Trebor Worthen, former partner with Fount Holland of AH Strategies, an organization who, with client Joy Hofmeister, was charged in a 2016 dark money scheme to oust former State Superintendent Janet Barresi. Today, Trebor runs Sooner State Leadership, a 501C4 dark money group running adds against Governor Kevin Stitt. Kannady also apparently works with CAMP (Campaign Advocacy Management Professionals), run by Worthen’s former partner, Fount Holland. Just a quick glance Kannady’s campaign account is eye-opening. For the first filing period in 2022, Kannady had $341,154.42 and his contributions are a “who’s who” of Oklahoma and national PACs including $10,000 of donations from the OKC Fraternal Order of Police $5,000 and Marathon PAC $5,000.
Trent Smith, the CEO of Accentra, is also co-owner of Sooner Medical Staffing with House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols and was appointed to the Oklahoma State School Board by Governor Kevin Stitt.
Republican House member Preston Stinson donated $1,000 to Thompson via his campaign fund – Stinson for House. Stinson was prominently featured in the state audit against EPIC Charter Schools management organization, Community Strategies. Ben Harris appointed Stinson to the Community Strategies Board – the governing body for Epic One-on-One Charter School and Epic Blended Charter School in 2016 – and later Community Strategies-CA, alleged to be the ‘shell’ company used by Epic Youth Services through which to receive management fees from Epic California creating profits for Harris and Chaney (#49 of Affidavit of Probable Cause). Preston Stinson received 55% of all campaign donations from EPIC founders and family for his 2020 campaign for the House of Representatives.
Former one-term State Superintendent Janet Barresi not only donated the $2,900 maximum to Kristen Thompson, she introduced her at an Oklahoma Conservative PAC meeting where Kristen shared her message with the audience AFTER OCPAC had committed to endorsing Jake Merrick again for his second campaign for Senate. Fully committed to Common Core during her tenure as State Superintendent, ROPE was nevertheless able to help repeal the bill mandating Common Core in 2014.
The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber PAC provided $1,500.
The State Chamber PAC kicked in $1,000.
Friends of Anthony Moore – who now has had an Oklahoma Bar Association complaint filed against him by OCPA President Jonathan Small for the VPO’s filed by his wife prior to the primary – donated $1,000 from his campaign fund (Friends of Anthony Moore 2022).
OKC Firefighters Association PAC Fund – $5,000.
Turnaround Team Pac donated $1,500 to Thompson. Governor Stitt has frequently called his first four years the “Oklahoma Turnaround”. In fact, his latest TV ads for his re-election campaign prominently feature this concept. The Oklahoma Ethics Commission filing for Thompson list a PO box in Jenks, Oklahoma as the PAC’s address. It is listed as an ‘unregistered’ PAC and there is no filing for the PAC with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, but Turnaround Team PAC is registered with the FEC in Newport, Kentucky. The treasurer for the PAC is listed as Kevin Broghamer from Newport, Kentucky, who is also the registered treasurer for Governor Stitt’s Oklahoma campaign account. As of 7/14/22, the PAC has $110,000. Donors include;
Edward Hilliary and Dustin Hilliary ($5k each); The Hilliarys own Hilliary Communications, a broadband and telephone service covering southwestern OK and northwest TX. They also publish the Comanche County Chronicle in Elgin and the Southwest Ledger out of Lawton. Governor Stitt has appointed Dustin Hilliary to the Board of the Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education.
For the past year, the House and Senate worked on re-drawing House and Senate districts across the state. This is done every 10 years in conjunction with the collection and distribution of the decade’s CENSUS data. Here is a picture of Merrick’s original district with the new district transposed over the top with red.
Note the approximate location of Merrick’s house (the small red dot nearly on the new southern district line) – especially compared with before. Prior to re-districting, Merrick’s neighbors could vote for Merrick. Now, only the neighbors to the north had that opportunity. Truly very odd.
It almost seems as though the powers that be wanted to re-district Merrick right out of his district. Losing a large chunk of voters with whom Merrick lived and already had voter recognition was tough.
With 9,485 votes in the election, Merrick lost to Thompson by 833. Merrick won Canadian county by 210 votes (total voters 3,036), but was beaten soundly in Oklahoma County by 1,043 (3,746 to 2,603 – total voters 6,449). Merrick had an uphill battle when most of the voters in this election were in Thompson’s backyard.
PACS MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE
These PACS spent money FOR Thompson (except Job Creators Action Fund).
These PACS spent money AGAINST Merrick. There was no PAC spending FOR Merrick.
{Interestingly, OCPAC’s Bob Linn, quotes Jeff Yas in the OCPAC email of July 11th 2022 where he touts the “money following the kid” (vouchers).}
A large chunk of School Freedom funds have been donated to the Protect Freedom PAC and the Club For Growth.
In Oklahoma, according to the Ethics Commission, the Chairperson for the School Freedom Fund is David McIntosh whose email url reads “clubforgrowth.org”.
Also according to Ethics Commission reports, the School Freedom Fund PAC spent $75,206 FOR Thompson and $119,546.23 AGAINST Merrick.
Then, there’s Common Sense Conservatives, LLC. Here is the address for the PAC.
Yup. A Reesor’s parking lot.
There is no email listed for the Director whose name is simply listed as “Walt Lowe”.
There are a couple Walter Lowe’s in Tulsa, but not anyone who stood out as being someone associated with a PAC – like an attorney. I have tried the number listed on the PAC and it does not work (1-918-236-6078) it’s a constant busy signal as though it’s not a working number. I have checked the Oklahoma Secretary of State website for the LLC. Guess what? Big shocker there – nothing listed. I even tried the FEC and there’s no listing there either. It’s an LLC – according to the Ethics Commission website, so I wouldn’t be able to locate it on the IRS website for non-profit filings. I can’t locate it under “Committees”, I can only find it under “Independent Expenditures”. I’m so mad about it, I filed an Ethics Complaint on the PAC 7/20/22.
Common Sense Conservative (FAKE) PAC spent $66,310 on Digital Ads through an organization in Tennessee called Counterpoint Messaging LLC AGAINST Merrick.
In fact, this PAC spent $207,592.17 against a whole slew of candidates – J.J. Stitt and Brady Butler running against Darcy Jech in SD26, Chris Toney running against Brenda Stanley in SD42, Deb Campbell and Jennifer Sengstock in HD50 against Marcus McEntire, Ron Lynch in HD60 running against Rhonda Baker and Karmin Grider running in an open seat for HD31. ALL candidates but Grider lost. Grider is in a run-off.
In total, PACS spent $158,615.17 FOR Thompson and $185,856.23 AGAINST Merrick, meaning that Thompson benefitted from a WHOPPING $344,471.40.
What in the world? Sadly, how is Kristen Thompson not a bought and paid for candidate by special interest dark money PACS whether she means to be or not? The fact that Oklahoma elections can be BOUGHT like this should concern every voter in the state, not just those in SD22.
WHY DARK MONEY PACS WORK
Most voters don’t work to be educated about issues or candidates. They don’t study candidates or even subscribe to organizations from which they could get an idea of what issues candidates stand for. Consequently, when they see an ad on Facebook calling Jake Merrick a “fake Republican who supported government overreach”, they’re likely not going to look up his voting record, emotions will kick in and Jake will get kicked to the curb. Same with the crazy mailers Fount Holland and his buddies make up.
WHY CAMPAIGN ACCOUNTS SHOULD BE BARRED FROM CONTRIBUTING TO EACH OTHER
Note the number of campaign accounts listed in Thompson’s contribution reports:
Friends of Anthony Moore
Friends of Chris Kannady
Friends of Ryan Martinez
Stinson for House 2022
Four separate campaigns donated to Thompson. Let’s say I donated to Friends of Anthony Moore. I expected that money to go to support his election/re-election campaign, I didn’t expect he would donate my funds to another candidate I might not like instead.
Truly, this is a form of money laundering. Money comes into the campaign for campaign expenses, but it’s then donated to another campaign who then donates it to another. Where is accountability in this round robin? If an elected official wants to donate to a campaign. It should be out of their own pocket, not out of funds citizens provide in good faith that it will be used for their campaigns.
HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM
Though this month (7/22) the Ethics Commission recently shut down arguably the most influential PAC in Oklahoma – the Senate Republican PAC – due to ethics violations, over the years, the legislature has taken away more and more of the Commission’s ability to preside over dark money and other campaign issues.
If we are to take back our elections and elect candidates we want representing our community instead of people from out of state willing to throw around truckloads of cash to get candidates elected to forward their agendas in our legislature, or the school choice voucher cabal here in Oklahoma who use in-state and out-of-state donors to push their political will, we must give the Ethics Commission the tools they need to fight for campaign accountability.
Nothing beats an educated voter, but until we have a million of those, we need an Ethics Commission armed and ready to beat back unethical campaign behavior to keep good candidates like Jake Merrick from being steamrolled out of office.
Explain to your legislator that Oklahoma absolutely must give the Ethics Commission the ability to prosecute any electioneering that occurs against Ethics rules and ask them to sponsor legislation next year toward that end.
It’s our only hope.
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FYI: CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THOMPSON: Catalyst Oklahoma $50,620, School Freedom Fund $75,206, American Energy Action Fund $9,862, Job Creators Action Network $22,927.17
CONTRIBUTIONS AGAINST MERRICK: School Freedom Fund $119,546.23, Common Sense Conservatives $66,310
Jake Merrick won a special election for now-Congresswoman Stephanie Bice’s open Senate seat last year. Senator Merrick is a Conservative, pro-life, pro-2nd amendment, small business owner who has served Oklahoma well since his special election. Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs (OCPA) dark money helped him in his first election. Here’s the rub: After voting YES in committee, he voted NO (on the Senate floor) on a bill to send public money to private schools (voucher – SB1647). This election cycle, OCPA is using many thousands of dollars to influence voters AGAINST HIM through a different dark money group.
What is “dark money”? Dark money is money spent on political campaigns where – since 2010 – the names of the donors to the campaign don’t have to be disclosed. The money can come through STATE or FEDERAL sources – or both. To learn more about “dark money”, click here.
In March of 2021, an Oklahoma PAC called People for Opportunity, Inc. gave over 100 thousand dollars to an organization called WPAi – a political polling, research and analytics team – run by Chris Wilson – in support of Jake Merrick.
Who is People for Opportunity?
According to the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s office, People for Opportunity was begun in 2020 by Jonathan Small – the President of OCPA and Dave Bond – the Vice President for Advocacy at OCPA.
OCPA has long been an organization in part dedicated to the idea of School Choice – which includes ‘vouchers’; providing parents with tax dollars to send their children to private schools.
OCPA is often funded by grants from the Walton Foundation (during campaign cycles apparently), the State Policy Network – an organization of which they are an affiliate – as well as private and other donors. Because they are a private, non-profit organization, however, they do not have to report the source of their donations, only their expenditures.
In 2019, OCPA did make two expenditures.
One to the American Federation for Children – a school choice organization – and one to the OCPA Impact Inc organization.
OCPA Impact Inc., also does business as OCPA Oklahoma Policy Solutions, Inc. under the same EIN (tax number).
In 2019, they reported $19,933 in revenue, but again, from where that came who knows. Where it was spent was not recorded on their tax form either.
In fact, OCPA has LOTS of organizations registered with the OK Secretary of State’s Office. Unfortunately, our state is not a fan of transparency as it costs a minimum of $5 to request ANY documents from the SOS office on any registered organization and upwards of $10 per document to actually see the paperwork the SOS’s office requires for filing.
Why so many organizations associated with OCPA?
Where did the 100K come from for the donation through People for Opportunity?
Who knows? The only way to find out any information about these dark money groups is painstaking and not something many people are going to do. This is sad, because people who SPEND MONEY TO ELECT or REMOVE elected officials have INFLUENCE over the candidates they help elect.
This election cycle, an organization listed as Catalyst Oklahoma recorded expenditures of $50,620 for Jake Merrick’s opponent Kristen Thompson.
Who is Catalyst Oklahoma, Inc. ?
Catalyst Inc., is a dark money subgroup of OCPA with the Principal listed as Charles Sublett – a member of OCPA’s Board.
There is no 990 filing for Catalyst Oklahoma for 2019 and above, though there’s little the form would tell us but to whom the organization has given money.
Why would OCPA work so heavily in dark money in Oklahoma? Why have so many organizations and sub-organizations with so many different names associated? What does OCPA have to hide?
Why spend so much money to help Senator Merrick win and then turn around and spend more money to unseat him? If OCPA is so fired up about “empowering parents” by offering “school choice”, why not put the money being spent on elected legislators into starting new schools to help kids? How does it ’empower parents’ to spend so much money on legislative activities?
Dark money always leaves unanswered questions while it influences the legislative process in ways most ‘average’ Oklahomans can’t.
