The money came from the son of a
controversial insurance firm owner.
controversial insurance firm owner.
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Three Republican lawmakers confirmed Wednesday that they will be returning unsolicited campaign contributions from Bradford Phillips, the son of controversial Texas insurance company owner Gene Phillips.
Rep. Jeff Hickman, R-Dacoma, and Rep. Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville, both said they received checks for $600, and Rep. George Faught, R-Muskogee, received $645. The contributions came in late De cember.
The three are members of a House committee that approved legislation favorable to the Phillips family last spring.
Faught said that when he learned about the controversy surrounding the Phillips family, he decided to return the check. Sears, who had cashed the check, took $600 out of his campaign Tuesday and sent it to Phillips. Hickman said he was mailing the check back Wednesday.
"I returned the contribution; I just felt uncomfortable," Faught said.
House Speaker Lance Cargill and six other Republican lawmakers have confirmed that they recently attended a fundraiser for presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in the Dallas home of Gene Phil lips, who has been linked to former state insurance commissioner Carroll Fisher, who is now in prison.
The speaker and lawmakers have said they either did not realize where the fundraiser was being held or who Gene Phillips was.
Cargill said the fundraiser gave him an opportunity to talk with Huckabee.
Fisher, who is serving a three-year prison term for embezzling money from his campaign, also is accused of accepting $25,000 and other gifts from Phillips, his family and business associates in exchange for favorable treatment of their insurance companies.
Last spring, Bradford Phillips tried but failed to get legislation passed that would have lowered the amount of assets that insurance companies have to show before being allowed to do certain business in Oklahoma.
The legislation contained a key amendment sponsored by Rep. Greg Piatt, the speaker's House majority leader. Piatt, R-Ardmore, received a $5,000 contribution in June from Bradford Phillips, state Ethics Commission records show.
Sears recalled Wednesday that when the legislation was pending last spring, Bradford Phillips took the members of the House Economic Development and Financial Services Committee to dinner at The Ranch Steakhouse in Oklahoma City. Campaign contributions of as much as $5,000 and dinners bought by lawmakers are not illegal if they are reported.
Faught is vice chairman of the committee. Hickman and Sears are members.
Faught said that when the contribution came in, he didn't connect that Bradford Phillips was the one who had sought legislation benefiting his family's insurance companies.
"I prefer to get contributions locally," he said.
Hickman said Wednesday that although he was chair man of the Insurance and Retirement Subcommittee, the legislation that Phillips wanted had bypassed his subcommittee and went directly to the committee led by Rep. Ron Peterson, R-Tulsa.
Representatives who attended the Dallas fundraiser besides the speaker included Peterson; Gus Blackwell, R-Goodwell; Mike Jackson, R- Enid; Rob Johnson, R-Kingfisher; Colby Schwartz, R-Yukon; and T.W. Shannon, R-Lawton.
Former lawmaker Bill Case, who is now a lobbyist, said this week that he rented a bus and took the lawmakers to the Dallas function.
Case, who ran unsuccessfully for insurance commissioner, is a lobbyist partner with Bobby Stem, who represented Phillips at the Capitol in trying to get the legislation passed.
Stopped in the hall at the Capitol, Case said taking the lawmakers to the fundraiser was "very innocent."
"Then all of a sudden it is a media frenzy," he said.
Mick Hinton (405) 528-2465
mick.hinton@tulsaworld.com
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