The disrupter we need in OKC: SD2 candidate Jarrin Jackson

One of the most competitive runoff elections coming up is in State Senate District 2, which covers the Claremore/Collinsville/Catoosa area, where Jarrin Jackson is facing off in this open seat against Ally Seifried. Seifried is the establishment pick, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in dark money flowing in on her behalf. Jackson, a West Point grad and retired Army Ranger, is an unabashed - and vocal - conservative.

I caught up with Jarrin Jackson earlier this week to talk about his candidacy.

Sean Roberts responds to "politics of personal destruction", Fount Holland smears

Roberts Campaign Comments on Dirty Attacks by Liberal Leslie and Corrupt Campaign Consultant Fount Holland

(August 8th) Today, the Roberts for Labor team was notified about a press release asking for Roberts to resign his candidacy for Oklahoma Labor Commissioner. The press release was a political hit job pushed by Liberal Leslie, corrupt consultant Fount Holland, and Rep. Carol Bush, a Fount Holland client who endorsed Democrat Kendra Horn for US Congress.

This political hit, masquerading as a press release, was designed to go after Roberts for allegations relating to his first marriage 22 years ago. Roberts' ex-wife has released the attached statement detailing these erroneous lies and endorsing him for Oklahoma Labor Commissioner. Our campaign now calls on Representatives Bush, Townley, Roe, and Hasenbeck, as well as Senator Garvin, to stop harassing Roberts' ex-wife and immediately issue apologies.

Corrupt political consultant Fount Holland is best known to most Oklahomans for facing felony charges with then State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister and three others in 2016 for illegal contributions to Hofmeister's campaign.

Dark Money Swamp retaliates against State Auditor Cindy Byrd, props up unqualified straw candidate

There's some phenomenal reporting this morning from the Tulsa World's Randy Krehbiel on the State Auditor's race: Dark money campaign hits state auditor race. You simply have to read the whole thing.

Oklahoma has a political swamp, a deep state, that controls a lot of what goes on politically. There are interconnected fingers between dark money, consultants, campaigns, and elected officials. And now the knives are out for State Auditor Cindy Byrd, who must be removed before she does them more damage.

Mullin announces campaign strategists, consultants

MULLIN FOR U.S. SENATE ANNOUNCES CAMPAIGN LEADERSHIP TEAM

National Public Affairs, CAMP to Serve as Senior Strategists for Markwayne Mullin’s Campaign for U.S. Senate

WESTVILLE, OK – Fresh off of a successful announcement for the U.S. Senate this past weekend, Markwayne Mullin today announced his campaign’s strategic advisors. 

Former Trump Campaign Manager Bill Stepien of National Public Affairs and Oklahoma-based Campaign Advocacy Management Professionals (CAMP), led by Fount Holland, will serve as Senior Strategists for Mullin’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. The campaign’s pollster will be Brent Buchanan of Cygnal, the survey research firm that Stepien added to the Trump presidential campaign in its final months.

“I am proud to have a recruited such a strong team of professionals to help lead our campaign to take back the Senate from the Radical Left,” said Markwayne Mullin, who announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Saturday. “I am a Christian, a family man and a proud supporter of President Trump and I am looking forward to representing our conservative Oklahoman values in the United States Senate.”

State Supt. Hofmeister, 4 others charged with conspiracy, violating campaign finance laws

From TheFrontier:

State superintendent, political advisers among 5 charged with violating state campaign laws

State Education Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, political powerbroker Fount Holland and the head of the Oklahoma Education Association along with two other people were charged four counts Thursday with violating state campaign laws related to Hofmeister’s 2014 campaign, records show.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater filed the charges late Thursday against the five, alleging they took part in a conspiracy to funnel corporate money through education lobbying groups to a dark money group that was supposed to remain independent from Hofmeister. However numerous texts and emails to and from Hofmeister and the other defendants included in an affidavit for the charges, obtained by The Frontier, indicate that did not occur.

Charged were:

• Hofmeister, 52, who defeated then-State Superintendent Janet Barresi in 2014.
• Holland is a political advisor and founder of AH Strategies and claims on his website to have represented more than 100 elected officials in Oklahoma today.
• Stephanie Milligan, 37, a political advisor to Hofmeister and officer of the Alexander Companies, formed by Chad Alexander, a former lobbyist who also worked with Holland.
• Lela Odom, 68, former executive director of the Oklahoma Education Association, a group that lobbies for salary and benefits for education employees, as well as public education funding.
• Steven Crawford, 67, former executive director for the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration, a not-for-profit association for Oklahoma school administrators.

The charges would be felonies that carry up to 10 years in jail if prosecutors are able to prove the five conspired to violate laws setting limits on state campaign contributions.

Read more here.

Outside groups blame AH Strategies, Fount Holland for Shannon's loss

Fount Holland: founder of AH Strategies and main consultant 

for T.W. Shannon's Senate campaign

From TheOkie:

Consultants cast blame for T.W. Shannon disappointment

By Tarini Parti

For a candidate who was seen as a future star in the Republican Party, T.W. Shannon’s campaign was “operating like it was 1998,” according to consultants working on the race — ultimately leading to the highly-touted Oklahoma Senate hopeful’s blowout loss to Rep. James Lankford in Tuesday’s primary.

Shannon’s choice of campaign consultants, strategy, ground game and digital efforts — or lack thereof — are all being blamed in part for his stunningly-decisive defeat, according to some Republican consultants close to the campaign who view the former state House speaker’s failure to even push the race to a runoff as a wasted opportunity for a candidate that just two months ago was attracting extensive national attention and exciting the conservative base.

Lankford, linked to the establishment through his position in House leadership, defeated Shannon, 57 percent to 34 percent, easily avoiding the expected August 26 runoff in the race for the GOP nomination for retiring Sen. Tom Coburn’s seat.

The blame game in Shannon’s camp and Team Lankford’s victory lap — both grand traditions in politics — began immediately after the outcome was determined. Republicans affiliated with conservative outside groups supporting Shannon and those close to his campaign said the consulting firms the campaign hired — AH Strategies, Majority Designs, and others — were all Oklahoma-based firms whose strategy of spending every dime on TV ads and direct mail works for state races but is insufficient for a U.S. Senate race.

“They all just stuck their heads in the sand and didn’t want to listen,” said one Republican strategist close to the campaign.

Read the rest of this interesting article here.

Who is behind 'Oklahomans for a Conservative Future'?

The Sunlight Foundation, a non-partisan (though left-leaning) transparency/openness organization, has tackled the issue of who is behind Oklahomans for a Conservative Future, the new group that is throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars behind T.W. Shannon's Senate campaign.

From SunlightFoundation.com:

An Oklahoma City construction executive and two state lobbyists with ties to a federal political action committee may have found the latest wrinkle in spending big on elections without revealing the source of their funds: registering as a for-profit corporation. Oklahomans for a Conservative Future Inc., a freshly-minted business in the Sooner State, has already spent $300,000 supporting the underdog campaign of T.W. Shannon in the Republican special primary this June. Because it's not organized as a political committee, the company won't have to disclose the source of its funds to the Federal Election Commission. And because it's not a 501(c)4 social welfare nonprofit, it doesn't face the limits on how much of its income it can spend on politics that tax law puts on groups like Crossroads GPS or the League of Conservation Voters.

They continue:

Paul Ryan of the Campaign Legal Center tells Sunlight in an e-mail that avoiding political disclosure is not as simple as registering a for-profit corporation: "Regardless of the corporate form or tax status this group chooses, the federal law definition of “political committee” applies the same way—(1) has the group made expenditures and/or received contributions exceeding $1,000 in a calendar year?  And (2) does it have as its major purpose influencing federal elections?  If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then Oklahomans for a Conservative Future Inc. is a “political committee” under federal law and must register with the FEC and disclose its contributors." As of publication, OCF has not registered as a political committee with the FEC. It is not clear what type of business the corporation — which lists its address at an Oklahoma City UPS Store — engages in. 

According to paperwork filed with the Oklahoma Secretary of State, the three individuals behind OCF are Xavier Neira (vice-president of Manhattan Construction), Chad Alexander (longtime political consultant/lobbyist), and Stephanie Milligan (PAC administrative director and lobbyist).

Neira, Alexander, and Milligan have (or have had) ties to T.W. Shannon's campaign consultant, Fount Holland. In fact, Alexander and Holland have been partners in the firm Majority Designs.

That certainly puts an interesting twist into things.