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.
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’.
Advance Oklahoma PAC has some very interesting connections and affiliations – and just put out a hit piece on a candidate running against a Fount Holland (CAMP) client.
Today I received a mailer against a candidate in my local SD28 race – Jeff McCommas.
Jeff is running against Fount Holland (CAMP) candidate Grant Green. Mr. Holland is the man who was arrested and charged for working with then-candidate Joy Hofmeister to coordinate voter messaging through an Independent Expenditure – a PAC that must be independent of a candidate and his/her committee.
This mailer is tied to a group called Advance Oklahoma PAC. Note the diagram above. Advance Oklahoma PAC has many things in common with a PAC called Build and Protect. They both have the same Treasurer – Dustin McIntyre. They both spend money through three groups – CAMP, Amber Integrated and South Creek Group.
Advance Oklahoma and Build and Protect PAC share an address.
This is what corresponds to the address listed:
Both phone numbers produce similar generic answering messages – essentially no one is available to take the call, please leave a message.
Now, here comes an even more interesting tie – the candidates associated with the PACs.
Advance Oklahoma lists Independent Expenditures for Gabe Renfrow, Logan Phillips, Hunter Zearley, Teresa Sterling, Jeff Sawatzky and Grant Green. The only one who is NOT a CAMP client is a direct mail expense for Richard Miller (running for HD49). But here again is an interesting parallel.
Build and Protect PAC has IE’s supporting only CAMP client John George (running for HD36), but for 1 entry supporting Senator Brenda Stanley (a Neva Hill client).
Inside the Advance Oklahoma PAC there is only ONE documented expense paid to CAMP. That for Richard Miller (an Ascend client).
Notice that both of these entries have funds expended through CAMP.
Advance Oklahoma PAC is registered with the Federal Election Committee as a Super PAC (it can only spend money for candidates who don’t know it’s spending money for them).
Note the Treasurer is the same as registered on the other PAC paperwork. Interestingly, the address on the FEC paperwork corresponds to the address below.
But there’s more.
Looking through the expenditures at FEC.gov shows thousands and thousands of dollars in expenditures to CAMP for the same time period as recorded through the Ethics Commission website for Advance Oklahoma PAC – this is just one page.
Now for the questions.
How can an INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE PAC:
have no legitimate address or phone number tying it to a business or at least a person responsible for the PAC?
pay the political consultant of the client for which the PAC is spending money and still be INDEPENDENT?
have so many things in common as these two PACS who seem to work only for CAMP clients while also paying CAMP for work the PAC does?
If this is legal, it shouldn’t be. If it’s illegal, it should be prosecuted. Where is justice for all the good candidates who are having voters turn against them because of baseless claims by people who seem to be colluding with their clients to change voter perception using money that is supposed to be INDEPENDENT of their candidate campaigns.
In case it’s not legible, the McCommas mailer makes the baseless, untrue claim that Jeff is pro-choice on the basis of an UNRETURNED survey sent out by Oklahoman’s for Life. Jeff doesn’t even remember getting that survey. What candidate remembers to fill out every survey they get? This would be flat silliness if it weren’t so destructive to good people who have put aside their businesses and families and budgets to become SERVANT leaders at our state capitol.
Here’s Jeff’s own mailer from today. Vote Jeff McCommas.
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!
