http://newsok.com/article/3134081/1190770299

Wed September 26, 2007

Check that: Probe of campaign funds troubling

The Oklahoman Editorial

House Speaker Lance Cargill, who has spent the year soliciting the 100 best ideas for Oklahoma, may wish to add one to his list: Produce an explanation for Republican campaign accounts that appear out of whack, and pronto.

Cargill, R-Harrah, is a party in an investigation by the state Ethics Commission into several 2004 campaign checks that were written to the state Republican Party but instead wound up in the account of the Oklahoma County Republican Committee.

Among those surprised by this turn of events was Cargill's predecessor, former Speaker Todd Hiett, who says he thought his own $5,000 contribution was going to the state. "I delegated campaign finance to Lance Cargill as the (political action committee) chairman,” Hiett told The Oklahoman' s Jennifer Mock. At the time, Cargill was honorary chairman of the House fundraising committee.

Mock reported that a dozen checks from the 2004 election cycle, totaling more than $30,000, are the focus of the investigation. Many who wrote the checks said their contributions went to the county party without them knowing it. Others said that in writing a check to the state GOP, they didn't earmark or even care where the money went, provided it helped Republican candidates.

Five House Republicans produced a statement — issued through Cargill's office — defending their boss. They said Cargill in 2004 didn't ask for the funds and that none of them told the GOP how their donations were to be spent. Cargill says he's glad to cooperate with the Ethics Commission, has denied any wrongdoing and adds that the probe stems from gripes by "political opponents.”

That may be, but having money that's intended for one campaign account turn up in another at the very least emits an unpleasant odor. And to be sure, these sorts of things rarely go over well in the court of public opinion.