House District 45 race draws candidates, money

House District 45
race draws candidates, money

A campaign to unseat an incumbent Norman lawmaker is drawing both candidates and money, documents filed with the state Ethics Commission show.

With less than two weeks remaining before candidates can officially file for office, the House District 45 race had already drawn three Republican candidates -- David Hopper, Aaron Stiles and Ron Henderson, who announced for the seat earlier this week. A fourth GOP candidate, Les White, also is expected to announce candidacy for the office.

The winner of the primary election will face incumbent Democrat Wallace Collins this fall.

Those candidates, Ethics Commission documents show, have raised a total of $42,140 for their various races.

So far, Collins leads the group in generating money.

According to Collins' campaign contributions and expenditures report, Collins raised $10,364 this quarter for this re-election bid.

Collins reported carryover funds -- from either a previous report or previous campaign -- of $14,329. He reported $8,464 in personal contributions for the quarter and $1,900 in contributions from political action committees during the same period.

Collins also reported spending $1,725 for the quarter.

Those contributions bring Collins' total to $26,762 -- $18,884 in personal contributions, $6,450 in contributions from political action committees and $1,428 in other receipts.

Total expenditures for Collins' campaign stand at $9,264. Collins listed $23,031 in remaining funds.

Collins said he was pleased by the results.

"Fundraising is always one of those tasks you have to do," he said. "I don't necessarily enjoy it, and I think you always wish you were doing better, but, at the same time, I feel comfortable with where I am."

Collins said he expected contributions to increase after the legislative session.

"I feel like some people are holding off until after the session is over," he said. "Right now I haven't been real focused on fundraising, I've been spending time on the bills and issues which are a passion for me. But starting next Saturday, I'm sure I'll be devoting more time to it."

Collins' contributors included former Gov. David Walters, $100; former House member Danny Hilliard, $250; the Chickasaw Nation, $1,000; former state Senate Pro Tempore Cal Hobson -- $100; and Democratic Party activist Betty McElderry, $300.

Republican David Hopper reported a total of $8,645 raised for his campaign. That figure, Hopper's report said, was from personal contributions made to his campaign from Jan. 1 through March 31 of this year.

Hopper listed $743 in expenditures and $7,910 in remaining funds.

Hopper said he felt comfortable with where his fundraising was.

"I feel like I'm doing fairly well," he said. "I haven't reached my target yet, but I've raised enough money to do what I want to do so far."

Hopper, a former Norman city councilman, said he hasn't had to aggressively raise money for several years and that raising funds for a legislative race involved a different strategy.

"The last time I ran for council I was unopposed," he said. "So it's been about four years since I've really had to raise money for a race. But, like I said, I feel comfortable with where we're at."

Those giving to Hopper's campaign include Thomas Sherman, a banker, $250; G and G Development of Norman, $588; Harold Heiple, a Norman attorney, $500; and developer James Adair, of Adair and Associates, $1,000.

The Stiles campaign reported a total of $4,145 raised during the first quarter of the year.

Stiles also reported carryover funds -- from last fall's report -- of $1,248, personal contributions of $1,845 and $2,300 in loans during the Jan. 1-March 31 reporting period.

Total funds for Stiles were listed at $6,733, including $88 in in-kind contributions.

Stiles reporting spending $575 during the first quarter of 2008 and total expenditures of $1,827. He listed $4,817 in remaining funds.

Stiles' contributors include Republican activist Charlie Meadows, $50; state Senate candidate Steve Russell, $250; Norman physician Karl Langkamp, $150; retired military officer Don Link, $100; and Norman resident Joanne Klusmeyer, $150.

Stiles said his contributions have come from "the voters in the district."

"I think I've got a good message and people are responding to it well," he said. "I've never been a candidate for office before, and I don't have the political background that some of my opponents do."

State corruption cases come in bunches

State corruption cases come in bunches
By RON JENKINS

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ It's been a rough time for some elected officials in Oklahoma in recent months, leading citizens to question what's going on and causing soul searching over the state's level of corruption.

Gov. Brad Henry is among those who discount the notion that public corruption is any more prevalent in Oklahoma than in most other states, despite a rash of officials being charged with crimes or caught in embarrassing situations.

"Oklahomans are some of the most caring, most ethical people in the country and I think Oklahoma state elected officials are, too," Henry said. "Unfortunately, we've had some unfortunate situations here in the last several months.

"But we need to let the criminal and legislative processes play out and see what happens before we make any ultimate determinations."

William S. Price is a former U.S. attorney in Oklahoma whose office won convictions against 240 county commissioners, former commissioners and material suppliers during the late 1970s and early 1980s in what the FBI classified as the most widespread corruption case in U.S. history.

Price believes public corruption in Oklahoma could be a systemic problem caused partly by a lack of checks and balances in the county commissioner system of government, with officials developing bad habits they take with them to higher office.

But he also says he does not believe corruption is a cultural problem in Oklahoma, like it is elsewhere in the country.

"We never had trouble getting convictions," he said. "I think when the people of Oklahoma learn of corruption involving their public officials they tend to demand their resignation. They tend to put them in jail."

"I don't think we are any more corrupt than anybody else by a long shot," adds John Raley, a former U.S. attorney in Muskogee and a member of the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. Raley is an outspoken proponent of restricting spending by lobbyists and increased public disclosure of activities of legislators and state officials.

Figures compiled by the Public Integrity Division of the Justice Department in a 2007 report to Congress lends credence to the comments of Henry, Price and Raley.

The report showed that over a decade ending in 2006, there were 106 federal convictions in public corruption cases involving judicial districts in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Muskogee.

That is a fraction of convictions in jurisdictions in larger states, led by 574 in northern Florida, 412 in northern Illinois, 399 in central California, 377 in New Jersey, 362 in northern Ohio, 359 in eastern Pennsylvania and 352 in southern New York.

But in the last few months, those "unfortunate situations" Henry spoke of have dominated the news amid calls in the Legislature for ethics reform.

Among other things:

— State Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan and his wife have been hit with federal charges tied to allegedly accepting jewelry and other gifts, plus excessive campaign contributions, from a man implicated in another public corruption case.

— Rep. Lance Cargill was forced to resign as House speaker after he faced insurrection from fellow caucus members over ethics questions and late payment of income and property taxes. Some lawmakers said their constituents were angered by the tax disclosures.

— Labor Commissioner Lloyd Fields was compelled to issue a public apology after he was taken from a party for rodeo performers to a detox center. Witnesses said Fields tried to walk away with an expensive guitar at the party. Fields said it was a practical joke gone bad.

Former Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher is currently in prison on a state embezzlement charge linked to campaign financing and is awaiting trial on bribery and corruption charges.

The decade began with a scandal at the Oklahoma Department of Health, with the acting commissioner of health being convicted on federal bribery charges.

Meanwhile, the Oklahoma attorney general prosecuted several other Health Department employees and officials as ghost employees who did little or no work for their pay and benefits.

As McMahan awaits a federal trial in Muskogee, the new speaker of the House, Rep. Chris Benge of Tulsa, has appointed a committee to study the possibility of bringing impeachment articles against the state official.

Fisher was impeached by the House in 2004 and resigned before a Senate trial. It was the first impeachment since former Secretary of State John Rogers in 1975. The last trial by the Senate led to the conviction of former Supreme Court Justice N.B. Johnston in a bribery case.

Oklahoma has had its share of high-profile public corruption cases over the last few decades, the most notable leading to a federal prison term in the mid-1970s for former Gov. David Hall. A former Tulsa prosecutor, Hall was convicted in a bribery-extortion case linked to the investment of retirement funds.

David Walters, another former governor, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense tied to an alleged scheme to collect excessive campaign donations when he was a candidate. The offense has been expunged from the court records under an agreement with prosecutors.

In another sensational case from the 1990s, Patricia Whitehead, deputy state treasurer and two others were convicted of federal crimes in a kickback scheme that involved $6.7 million in illegal payments from investment of state funds. Treasurer Claudette Henry was never charged in the case, but the scandal led to her defeat for re-election in 1994. She died after a long illness five years later.

Several legislators and former legislators have been charged with various crimes over the years, ranging from accepting bribes to cocaine distribution.

Most recently, former Rep. Mike Mass pleaded guilty to mail fraud for allegedly conspiring with ex-Sen. Gene Stipe and others to defraud taxpayers through improper use of economic development funds appropriated by the Legislature.

Kiowa businessman Steve Phipps is a key witness for the federal government in that case and in the case against McMahan. Phipps was a longtime business partner of Stipe and was the owner of abstract companies regulated by McMahan's office.

Stipe has been found to have dementia and declared mentally incompetent to stand trial. The government is trying to commit him to a federal prison hospital.

The determination of incompetency against Stipe came as prosecutors were attempting to revoke his probation for a previous campaign law violation.

Stipe's trial is pending in the corruption case in which his brother, Francis, also is charged.

Indictments accuse the Stipes of illegally steering state money to private businesses. They also are accused of witness tampering by purchasing a house for Mass.

While saying Oklahoma juries are among "the least tolerant of corruption," Price said his talks with other prosecutors led him to believe convictions are not so easy to come by in other areas of the country.

He said the Oklahoma public's staunch stand against corruption has not been "true in Louisiana at all, and I don't think it is true in some of the big cities of the Northeast."

On the other hand, he said a tier of northern and midwestern states without huge cities have had relatively little corruption by comparison, mentioning Oregon, Minnesota and Wisconsin and Maine.

Price said local government corruption appears to be a problem in Oklahoma and many southern states that have a county commissioner form of government, where three people exercise a lot of power on their own.

He said Kansas had a county manager form of government and has not had the same problems.