Mike Reynolds Chides Edmondson, Henry, McMahan

Hat Tip to Mike @ http://wwwtmrcom.blogspot.com/


State Rep. Mike Reynolds said today that Attorney General Drew Edmondson, who recently admitted receiving illegal campaign contributions, has yet to correct all the “mistakes” his campaign finance reports show.

“Several months ago I questioned whether Attorney General Edmondson truly cared about Ethics laws in Oklahoma. I don’t know if he asked the State Auditor to help him clean up his errors, but it appears that he has many additional mistakes that have not been corrected,” said Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City.

“While Edmondson decided that he disagreed with the Ethics Commission’s interpretation of its own rules, he apparently thought it best to comply. After taking a week’s vacation to sort the mess out, he wrote a note to the commission saying he was paying back his own campaign for the money he had taken from it.

“When other people that don’t have their own law enforcement branch make these mistakes, they suffer far greater consequences. They may wind up paying legal fees, accounting fees, or fines to the commission – fines that are supposed to be triple the amount of the illegal contribution.

“I would like to thank the AG for correcting his mistakes – OR at least some of them. I have been waiting to see when he would find additional errors that seem to be all too obvious. In addition to the 12 illegal contributions already reported by Edmondson, he might add these to the list.”

(First date is "expense date," second is "contribution date")
09/14/06 $250.00 Brad Henry 09/22/06 Tickets to event;
12/12/06 $500.00 Jari Askins 12/21/06 Event-Campaign Expense;
03/08/06 $100.00 Sandy Garrett 03/14/06 Registration Event;
03/29/06 $100.00 Robbie Kerr 04/17/06 Registration Event;
02/01/06 $100.00 Neil Brannon 02/08/06 Tickets Event;
01/28/06 $100.00 RC Pruett 01/30/06 Tickets Event;
01/24/06 $100.00 Terry Harrison 02/02/06 Tickets Event;
03/13/06 $100.00 Wade Rousselot 03/13/06 Tickets Event;
05/16/06 $100.00 Casey Davis 05/16/06 Tickets Event;
06/14/06 $100.00 Steve Gallo 06/24/06 Registration Event;
07/19/06 $100.00 Eric Proctor 07/31/06 Sponsorship Event;
01/30/06 $100.00 Glen Smithson 01/30/06 Unreimbursed Expense;
09/29/06 $100.00 Wallace Collins 10/15/06 Tickets Event

“When the AG finishes with these corrections, he might also want to see if he received any illegal corporate contributions,” Reynolds said. “I bet if he looks hard enough he can find at least one.

“After taking care of these oversights he might explain to Governor Brad Henry that $5,000 is the maximum that can be legally received.

Friends of Brad Henry 11/12/06 $4000.00 Harry Wilson;
Friends of Brad Henry 11/02/06 $4000.00 Harry Wilson

“And last, but certainly not least, are the contributions to Jeff McMahan. Since his campaign is broke (although he does have enough to repay his personal loan) and cannot refund the excessive contributions received from Gene Stipe, Steve Phipps and their cronies, there must surely be another way to solve this problem,” Reynolds said. “Although he probably would not have his job today if he hadn’t taken these illegal contributions, please add the following to the growing illegal debt. As a certified fraud examiner and State Auditor, I’m sure McMahan will have no problem finding the paperwork.”

Mark Bilbrey* 12/17/03 $1000.00;
Mark Bilbrey 12/29/05 $5000.00
Randy Dittman* 12/17/03 $1200.00;
Randy Dittman 01/01/05 $5000.00
Beverly Jones* 12/17/03 $1000.00;
Beverly Jones 08/07/03 $500.00;
Beverly Jones 06/03/04 $500.00;
Beverly Jones 04/29/03 $500.00;
Beverly Jones 08/16/05 $3000.00;
Beverly Jones 05/15/05 $500.00;
Beverly Jones 05/25/05 $1000.00

“Each of the above is an abstractor, one of the industries the Auditor oversees!” Reynolds said.

“In addition to these oversights there was $12,500 in Campaign Loans that were on the Dec. 31 report that have disappeared on the Report for March 2007.”

Supporting ethics documents, Reynolds said, may be found at www.oklahomadata.com/EthicsProblems.pdf