Dark Money Multiplication – The Big Takedown - The Oklahoma Project
Dark Money Multiplication – The Big Takedown - The Oklahoma Project
How to Steal a State: Season 5, Episode 2
Episode 2 – More About The Steal Team’s Pot Fund
It’s dark money season in Oklahoma and the storm of political attacks ads shows no sign of letting up. In our last episode, we learned how the most likely, future Oklahoma State Attorney General, Gentner Drummond (R), and political power-couple John W. (Trey) and Jeri Richardson are financially vested in Oklahoma’s expansive cannabis industry. Drummond, recent winner of the Republican primary for the State AG seat, is the majority owner and director of Blue Sky Bank, which specializes in financing for the cannabis industry, despite federal laws prohibiting that industry’s activities.
The Richardson’s are partners in both Sagac Public Affairs and GR Pro, firms that coordinate dark money campaigns for political candidates and special interests, as well as the owners of Integrity Testing Laboratories, a for-profit, provider of state-required product testing for the cannabis industry.
To recap, those in Oklahoma who craft the political messaging paid for by dark money, along with the man who will likely decide who does and does not get prosecuted across the state, personally profit from the cannabis industry. In addition, we learned that all the usual Steal Team suspects who guided Joy Hofmeister’s political ascension, with several indicted alongside Hofmeister in 2016 for felony conspiracy, were right there coordinating the dark money hit on incumbent AG John O’Connor and in favor of Gentner Drummond during the runup to the June 2022 Republican primary election.
Cannabis in Oklahoma is very big business, with its own professional association and network of legal supports and lobbyists. Similarly, the tangle of firms coordinating and messaging the flood of dark money in Oklahoma’s 2022 election cycle is more like a mansion-industry than a cottage-industry. During this episode, we’ll look at some shadowy, political entities likely fueled by the connection between these two worlds and explore the twisting and turning paths one must take to reveal their funders.
The Oklahoma Project
A group called The Oklahoma Project launched an all-out, multi-site, online and social media attack campaign on Governor Stitt beginning in 2021, then added over $500,000 in television ad buys disparaging Stitt during just the first quarter of 2022. The group’s accounting within their most recent reporting to the OEC omits $219,000 from their major funder, but we’ll get into that shortly after we’ve analyzed the messaging The Oklahoma Project is using to blanket a range of mediums.
The Oklahoma Project provides the perfect starting point amid this year’s dark money juggernauts, as the entity is utilizing a range of deceptive messages also adopted by many of the other groups lambasting Governor Stitt with attack ads. We’ll give each of these narratives names to make it easier to follow as different entities brandish the same messaging crowbar, looking suspiciously like coordination. Oklahoma’s mainstream television and newspaper reporters are like cats in a dark room chasing a single, red-dot laser pointer controlled by the Steal Team, pouncing on and echoing these false narratives without context. If just one major outlet would reach up and turn on the light, all would see a room filled with context, the red-dot message would quickly fade as preposterous and all lies would be revealed. Unfortunately, those outlets will never turn on the light, so The V1SUT Vantage will.
The Oklahoma Project has a separate website for seemingly every one of their hyper-political criticisms of Stitt’s first term, making it deceptively appear like many separate groups with critical opinions about Oklahoma’s incumbent governor. The Oklahoma Project’s main website features a 30-second commerical video to support each of its sidekick-websites’ main narratives.
Stitt currently enjoys a majority approval rating among Oklahoman’s. When the armor is strong, it takes a great many manufactured weapons to make even a small chink, and his dark money opposition seems to be disregarding his opponent Joy Hofmeister’s lack of progress related to education indicators in the state, despite enjoying over seven years in the top office in Oklahoma public education. Hofmeister might want to wear a helmet and practice ducking for when The Oklahoma Project’s negative narratives make the turn back at her.
The Oklahoma Project’s website, up until recently, claimed, “We are inspired by, not affiliated with, The Lincoln Project”. The Lincoln Project is the Super PAC of former establishment Republican strategists who stated their dual goals as being to stop Trump from being re-elected and to stamp out Trumpism. The Lincoln Project crashed and burned shortly after the 2020 election cycle when co-founder John Weaver was accused of sexual misconduct concerning more than 20 young men, including at least one underage male, and accusations that the other members of the group were aware of Weaver’s actions. After grifting liberal donors out of nearly $90 million during the 2020 cycle, the Lincoln Project took credit for a false flag ‘white supremacy’ group stalking the events of populist Virginia candidate for governor, Glenn Youngkin. The Oklahoma Project saying they’re inspired by the Lincoln Project raises all kinds of flags.
In addition to a main website which encourages donations to “help us hold politicians accountable” and sites on Facebook and Twitter bearing the group’s name, The Oklahoma Project is also responsible for the following websites which each do an outstanding job of removing all relevant context a voter may need to properly evaluate each hyperbolic claim against Stitt:
The Oklahoma Project’s sub-website: Stateofok.com
Hit Narrative #1: Oklahoma’s the Worst
This site proports to give the “real state of the state”, providing Oklahoma’s low national rankings for quality in healthcare, education, economic recovery, and public safety during Stitt’s time in office. Predictably, all relevant comparisons or context related to where Oklahoma stood in those rankings prior to Stitt taking office in January of 2019 is missing. Many will know that Oklahoma, as a primarily rural, energy dependent and less populous state, has historically been low across several national indicators.
In addition, the site’s very prominent criticism of Oklahoma currently being ranked as 49th in education doesn’t mention that Stitt’s strongest and most establishment-backed opponent in this year’s election, Hofmeister (D), has been in charge of public education as State Superintendent of Public Instruction since January of 2015. By the same ranking utilized by stateofok.com, Education Week’s quality rankings, Oklahoma ranked 45th in education quality in 2015 as Hofmeister began her two terms at the State Department of Education, dropping to 49th in 2021.
Much of the site’s gloom and doom claims about Oklahoma’s economic recovery and healthcare quality focus on criticism of Stitt’s pandemic policies, which were largely aimed at keeping businesses and schools open and allowing citizens to make their own assessments of risk and benefit. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in their Dec 2021-May 2022 numbers, tell a very different and more accurate story about Oklahoma’s current economy, including a steady increase in employment, low unemployment of 2.8% and growth in nearly all non-farm sectors. Considering what federal policy changes in the last 18 months have done to the state’s oil and gas industry, Oklahoma seems to be doing OK.
The Oklahoma Project’s sub-website: Stittspent.com
Hit Narrative #2: The Governor’s Palace
This is a truly bizarre site that slams Stitt for expenses related to the 2019 renovation of Oklahoma’s governor’s mansion. The site’s statement that “Governor Stitt spent $2 million of your money to remodel his mansion” is so inaccurate and misleading that it’s hard to know where to start.
An accurate statement about the renovation might have read “The Oklahoma legislature allocates $2 million to make much needed renovations and repairs to the state’s governor’s mansion”.
At the time funds were set aside, even the liberal, local media agreed that a major overhaul of the mansion was needed, due to electrical issues, leaking and a host of other problems left behind by former Governor Mary Fallin.
The site fails to mention that Friends of the Mansion, a non-profit founded by former First Lady Kathy Keating, in 1995, and currently chaired by First Lady Sarah Stitt, is again raising private funding to operate and maintain the mansion, which now earns money to support the mansion’s upkeep expenses through event space rentals. Sarah Stitt oversaw the renovation with only 25% of the $8 million budget previously estimated by the state’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES), which necessitated that the first family live away from the mansion for the first year of Governor Stitt’s term.
Much of the information provided at Stittspent.com came from an interview with Sarah Stitt concerning the renovation details that highlight some of the permanent features incorporated into the mansion to reflect the state’s history, including the main lobby and grand staircase carpet that includes the names of Oklahoma’s past governors. Stittspent.com would like you to believe that every rug and appliance purchased during the renovation leaves with the Stitt family after his governorship ends, which is preposterous. The Stitt family currently lives on the second floor of the mansion and have been clear that even the donated furnishings will remain with the mansion when they leave.
The Oklahoma Project’s sub-website: Stittperks.com
Hit Narrative #3: The Case of the Legal Bank Charter
This time, The Oklahoma Project is attacking Stitt as a businessman, insinuating he received special treatment from state regulators prior to his inauguration when a bank charter was granted related to Gateway Mortgage, a business he founded in 2000. The imbedded video on the site provides no proof or details outlining any legal wrongdoing or investigation. It appears the group has taken the legal act of applying for and being granted a bank charter and attempted to paint it as scandalous.
While Gateway Mortgage, along with many other similar companies in the mortgage industry, found warranted ridicule following the 2007-2008 subprime mortgage crisis for making more than its share of shaky loans, Stittperks.com’s claim that Stitt received special treatment related to a charter is unsubstantiated. Drew Edmonson (D), Stitt’s 2018 opponent for governor, previously attempted to use Gateway Mortgage’s involvement in the mortgage crisis as political leverage against Stitt with little success.
The Oklahoma Project’s sub-website: Corruptkevin.com
Hit Narrative #4: EPIC Deflection
This site regurgitates many of the same negative narratives also utilized on the sites already discussed above, but one new attack may be the ultimate boomerang to the forehead of Joy Hofmeister. The site blames Stitt for education funds given to EPIC Schools, a virtual charter school and center of both state and federal level investigations. The EPIC saga began well before Stitt became governor. The FBI and Office of Inspector General began looking into EPIC’s funding in 2013 though Hofmeister said she was not aware of the investigation until 2018, three years into her first term as State Superintendent.
It was the State Department of Education (OSDE), under the leadership of Joy Hofmeister, that failed for years to identify irregularities within EPIC’s use of state and federal education funding as part of the OSDE’s required oversight and auditing responsibilities (See Season 4 of How to Steal a State). Governor Stitt called for an investigative audit of EPIC, in July of 2019, which found significant shortcomings in the OSDE’s auditing process, not only for EPIC Charter Schools, but for all of the state’s school districts. As a result, Stitt requested a full audit of the OSDE in September of 2021.
Hofmeister accepted a total of $49,499 in campaign donations from EPIC leaders during her 2014 and 2018 campaigns and became active in looking into EPIC’s financial structure only after other investigative agencies revealed their concerns.
When Hofmeister backed the education union and most large districts in keeping school buildings closed during the pandemic in 2020 and into 2021, Epic became the largest public school district in the state, pulling substantial numbers of students and their funding away from other school districts. Perhaps if public schools and the State Department of Education would have focused on why parents were choosing virtual charter schooling over their local districts and made some improvements based upon their input, EPIC would not have become the state’s largest and most chosen district.
Oklahoma County DA David Prater, who dropped felony charges on Hofmeister and her co-conspirators without explanation in 2017, was forced to turn over the EPIC investigation due to a conflict of interest related to his wife but managed to wrestle the case back in time for Hofmeister’s gubernatorial run. Much more to come on that situation in future episodes.
The Oklahoma Project, Foggy Bottom Hysteria and Investigation Politics
Hit Narrative #5: Swadley’s Smoked Scapegoat
In addition to its bevy of websites, The Oklahoma Project has already spent over $1.1 million on television ad buys during 2022. The organization’s Youtube channel features six, 30-second spots regurgitating the already familiar narratives against Stitt, but also includes a commercial about a current, media-enhanced “scandal” involving a state contract with Swadley’s Foggy Bottom Kitchens restaurants. This may be the most broadly exaggerative narrative of all, as the distortions, with the help of the media, have drawn in every state politician looking to score some public points during an election year. Worst of all, the narrative has vilified a hardworking, Oklahoma business owner, cost hundreds of Oklahomans their jobs and lessened the chances of saving the state’s failing state park system.
Foggy Bottom Kitchens is the offshoot of a popular local restaurant chain developed to revive traffic to Oklahoma’s declining and dated state parks. The Oklahoma Project would have you believe that Governor Stitt illegally and personally arranged a subversive deal with a close friend and restauranteur by personally granting a sweetheart state contract to operate restaurants at the wildly popular and busy year-round Oklahoma state parks. Once again, context and facts need not be applied or provided for the viewer by the local media, so let’s back up and walk through this.
Upon taking office in 2018, Governor Stitt immediately sought to revamp the state’s image and grow its tourism industry. For those of you from out of state, the change was needed, as Oklahoma’s branding was straight out of the Brady Bunch era. Evidence of the administration’s efforts in this area are everywhere, beginning with the new state logo and signs as motorists enter the state from all directions.
As part of Oklahoma’s image upgrade and effort to attract visitors, the state’s Department of Tourism and Recreation began efforts to perform badly needed updates and deferred maintenance to the state’s park facilities. Camping and lake activities have historically been among the most popular recreation activities and tourist draws for the state, and with many park facilities being dated and in a state of disrepair, traffic had dropped, putting the future of the park system at risk. By 2017, 16 state parks with low traffic were in danger of closing.
In January of 2020, the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department, under the direction of new executive director Jerry Winchester, actively sought bids from ten identified restaurant operators for a single contract to handle all food services at state parks, upgrade food options and serve as a true draw to the parks. Winchester, a successful, private sector executive, was bringing new and big thinking to Oklahoma Tourism, but finding a vendor to embrace this challenge would not be easy.
Here’s how Mike Woolf, CEO of the City Bites restaurant chain, who was approached as a potential bidder, described the situation in his comments to The Oklahoman after he declined to submit a bid:
"I chose not to turn in a bid for this as there was no way this could have been a positive or profitable situation," Woolf responded. "Any restaurant operator could/should have been scared to death about managing state park food-service scattered all over the state. The logistics and seasonality of the parks make turning a profit nearly impossible."
In the end, all ten firms identified as good candidates for the work declined to bid, indicating this was hardly a sweatheart deal for any restauranteur. The only bid received came from Swadley’s, who was not on the list. And not only did Swadley’s bid, proposing a deal that recognized the heavy, front-end financial lift of the effort to transform food services at the parks into a tourist draw, owner Brent Swadley and his team were prepared to jump in immediately to handle the remodels, in what was then the beginning of the Covid shutdown era. Brent Swadley appears to be a scrapy, Oklahoma success story and unabashedly describes his business as “Christian-based, and we wear that on our sleeves”.
What the media and political hit mobs led by The Oklahoma Project won’t mention, is that Swadley’s plan actually worked. After years of governmental talk and small thinking about the declining state parks, The Swadley’s group built and/or renovated facilities at half a dozen parks, including some lodges which were not part of their initial responsibilities, and were up and running in a very short period of time, despite supply chain issues plaguing the construction industry during Covid restrictions.
The Beaver’s Bend location opened in August of 2020, less than seven months after the close of the bidding process, and by all accounts looked great. Here’s what a customer had to say on tripadvisor.com just four days after the opening:
Reviewed August 25, 2020
Outstanding Family-Friendly Atmosphere, Food & Service
The rustic atmosphere on a riverside location in Beavers Bend State Park provides a relaxing place for any meal. Being deep in the woods, casual dress is the norm.
Their adult and children’s menus included many great sandwiches, burgers, salads and entrees. Our group tried their club sandwich, Monte Cristo sandwich and their shrimp. I - being a big eater - was unable to finish the towering club sandwich.
When we’re holidaying, we enjoy trying new places. Rarely do we eat lunch and dinner at the same restaurant. After such a great lunch however, our group unanimously decided to return for dinner. To begin dinner, they served the most wonderful apple fritters. Our dinner choices included one of the varied salads (I believe it was a Southwestern), a 16-ounce ribeye, and the nicest-prepared, thick and juicy, beer-marinated pork chop any of us had ever eaten. (Yes, we all sampled it!!). We were too full to try any of their highly-varied deserts.
For a newly-opened (4 days prior) restaurant, the staff appeared very well-trained, anxious to please and professional in every way. They made us feel like family. The management team was very visible and checked every table to meet the customers and assure their utmost satisfaction. At lunch, we had the pleasure of meeting a delightful manager named Tanya who, by the time we returned for dinner, had been promoted to be the General Manager.
This restaurant was, by itself, truly worth a trip to Broken Bow. They do have several other restaurants in Oklahoma. After what we saw here, we look forward to sampling some of the others and, although it’s two or three hours from our Dallas-area home, returning to this one sometime soon.
Not only had Foggy Bottom Kitchens succeeded in attracting and increasingly seasonal business for the park, the following customer reviews from December 2020 and November 2021 showed they were filling the parking lot during the off-season, a truly astounding reversal for the fate of Oklahoma’s recently failing state parks.
Reviewed November 5, 2021 via mobile
Ate lunch there Wednesday November 3. Our cabin was close enough to walk; we had eaten there several times when it was the old place. Usually then there were a few people there. Not now! It was very busy. The lot was full but still plenty of room inside. The upgraded decor was nice and they had put up Christmas trees and other decor. And unlike many places, they had plenty of help on duty.
The food was really good with big portions so come hungry. My wife and I both got the club and both had a half leftover to take back to the cabin-We could have split one order and had plenty.
Our son had the grilled chicken sandwich and loved it. We saw a couple of CFS dinners go by and they were huge. We each got a complimentary fried apple fritter.
The store had some souvenirs and some basic supplies like charcoal.
A very good addition to the park.Date of visit: November 2021
Reviewed December 1, 2020
A delicious and delightful dining experience! Our family which included my husband, son, daughter in law, and grand daughter decided to have a late lunch after hiking all morning. The staff was very friendly. Our seating was a full view of the river, and our food was not only delicious, but the portions were HUGE! We needed to go boxes all around. While there my granddaughter lost her first tooth. She was treated so special by the staff. After making a to do by the staff, she was beaming. She was then brought a little container for her tooth. After her meal, the staff treated her to her choice of ice cream flavor. I have never experienced such an awesome visit at ANY restaurant! Thank you for making our day during special especially during these stressful times!
XOXO The Davis Family.Date of visit: December 2020
The Foggy Bottom location at Lake Murray, as a remodel, opened even more quickly in May of 2020, receiving the same praise and excitement from visitors.
Reviewed May 31, 2020 via mobile
This is located next to the lodge, within the old Blue Heron, same great lakeside view.
It’s been remodeled beautifully to fit their theme. Plenty of seating inside and outside overlook the beautiful lake. Prices are what to be expected since your dining in the lake, it’s the same at other restaurants on other lakes.
Wife and I was seated promptly and greeted by our server. Wife had the Winchester burger, big thick juicy patty on fresh hot bun served with sweet potato fries; could’ve been more of those. I went with the Campfire Hobo dinner, man O’man that was something. I could’ve had two of those, so
Delicious and I had to fight my wife off with my my fork like we were both gladiators sparing over a last meal, lol. Highly highly recommend trying the Campfire Hobo dinner.Date of visit: May 2020
As locations continued to open across the state throughout 2021, no one had anything negative to report and business was building rapidly. This was a game-changer for Oklahoma’s state parks. The restaurants looked great, the food was getting good reviews, the service was impressive, and hundreds of new jobs had been created across the state. It looked like Swadley’s was on its way to making state park food service, which was previously losing around $1.6 million per year, both consistently enjoyable for visitors and profitable, all while increasing overall and out-of-stater visits to the parks.
That all changed with the emergence of an election year and a governor the Steal Team needed to extract. Once dark money through The Oklahoma Project labeled the contract as corrupt, over two years after it was issued, the politicrats and the media jumped onboard, including Steal Team champion and Oklahoma County DA David Prater, who requested a forensic audit of Swadley’s as a state contractor. In using the narrative to attack Stitt, as if he had been the director of Oklahoma Tourism, the Swadley’s group has been unjustly tarnished. Without question, there are some significant issues related to some of the reimbursed costs for the renovations that should be answered, but those expenses were reviewed and paid during 2020 and 2021 by the state agency overseeing the project and The Oklahoma Office of Management Services (OMES), the oversight for large projects and expenditures within all state agencies.
The state is notoriously bad at overseeing such matters and agreeing to overages, yet no one heard any contractor-bashing by the media or politicians when Manhattan Construction collected $155 million, or more than twice the bid amount, for their portion of the state capitol renovation. Perhaps if Brent Swadley had been a $1.3 million, dark money backer for one of the Steal Team’s candidates, like Manhattan Construction did for T.W. Shannon back in 2014, there would’ve been no Foggy Bottom investigation (See Season 2 of How to Steal a State for details on Manhattan Construction, T.W. Shannon and the dark money conspiracy behind Oklahomans for a Conservative Future).
As a side note, the Manhattan Construction connection to state politics lives on, as Bob Jack, its’ Senior Vice President during the time of the investigation into collusion between Oklahomans for a Conservative Future and the T.W. Shannon for US Senate campaign, is currently running for Tulsa County Commissioner. While the Foggy Bottom revamp of our state park restaurants and lodges shows how much Oklahoma needs talent from the private sector to lend their skills to state improvements, those from companies who buy politicians with dark money in exchange for favors in the contracting and oversight process need not apply. Tulsans should think carefully about the District 3 County Commission race this year, and Tulsa Today is covering the race extensively.
As for our less political, state contract vendor, the Swadley’s group doesn’t appear to have attempted to slip anything by anyone. The construction bills for Foggy Bottom were stamped, approved and paid by OMES. OMES director Steven Harpe, despite being subpoenaed to attend a May 5th hearing of the Oklahoma House’s Special Investigative Committee to answer questions related to the approval of several renovation expenses, was posting on social media from St. Thomas during the hearing, as reported by Nondoc.com. To be fair, Harpe was on his honeymoon, not an easy event to reschedule, but that isn’t helpful for the Swadley’s group that appears to have done amazing work and is being torn apart in the media and scapegoated to cover for state bureaucratic incompetence.
Just as Hofmeister’s OSDE failed to properly audit EPIC charter schools, two state agencies failed to raise timely questions about expenses related to the construction of the state’s Foggy Bottom Kitchens, yet false blame is being aimed at Stitt for political purposes in both cases. Sadly, this time, an Oklahoma business that is observably excellent at what they do, is paying the price for the politicrats’ constant deflection of responsibility.
As the true story behind the Swadley’s Smoked Scapegoat narrative unfolds, the state may be turning out to be the one not living up to its portion of this contract. The contract outlines specific management fees be paid to Swadley’s, and now that the hard work of renovating, staffing and getting six locations off the ground has been completed by Swadley’s, the state appears to be pulling the rug and the restaurants out from under Swadley’s prior to completing a proper investigation and due to political pressure. Tourism records show the state paid Swadley's management fees of $152,615 in 2020, $822,432 in 2021 and $353,000 so far in 2022, for a total of $1,328,047. If you exclude the renovation costs to get the park lodges and restaurants in working order, which the state needed to do with or without Swadley’s at these state-owned properties, it seems having great places to eat at state parks under Swadley’s management is now costing the state management fees of less than half what it was previously losing each year under previous, individual contracts, and is significantly increasing park traffic. The contract is complicated, but the state park’s chain of Swadley’s looked to be on its way to future profitability for both the company and the state.
It seems Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation was lucky to land a competent vendor and restauranteur in the Swadley’s group, after not one of their identified vendors even bid the job, though politicians are rarely appreciative of those who do more than talk by actually getting things accomplished.
Unfortunately, instead of wisely renegotiating any questioned contract specifics with Swadley’s, working through the details of the renovation expenses that Oklahoma Tourism and OMES may have unwisely approved over a year ago, and making any needed amendments to the contract as suggested by Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell, the state launched a predictable, election year investigation into the matter, cancelled the contract, closed the Foggy Bottom’s locations at the peak of visitor season, threw hundreds of Oklahomans out of their jobs without notice, and filed a lawsuit against Swadley’s.
The state’s suit confusingly fails to accuse Swadley’s (Foggy Bottom Kitchens) of any financial wrongdoing but seeks to review financial records in accordance with the contract. In fact, and in keeping with typical rhetoric of the local media, big numbers are flying about for shock value, but no one can confirm that they were not in line with the contract. It appears the true details will now come out in court.
In response to the political pressure created by The Oklahoma Project’s misrepresentation of the situation, Stitt personally announced both the lawsuit against Swadley’s (Foggy Bottom Kitchens) and the resignation of Jerry Winchester from the Department of Tourism and Recreation, which was surprising to many, as Winchester’s leadership resulted in a significant increase in the number of visitors to state parks and great improvements to their infrastructure. Swadley’s has since filed a far more lengthy suit against the state describing how politics played a central role in the undeserved “smear campaign against Swadley’s Foggy Bottom Kitchen”. The suit is detailed in describing the entire series of events beginning with their initial hesitance to bid the project due to the poor conditions of the facilities, with photos included.
With airfare costs unreachable for many Oklahomans at this time, a week at their local park with a few good meals worked in could’ve been a fantastic option for this year’s family vacation. Once again, the hard-working and non-wealthy lose at the hands of the politicrats and dark money masters who seem to suck fun and joy straight out of the air with their election-year chaos creation, grandstanding and incompetence.
Perhaps all so inclined Oklahomans should contact their local State House and Senate representatives, by phone or email, and ask them to stop campaigning, figure this out with Swadley’s, hold state agencies accountable for their incompetence and ‘Bring Back Foggy Bottom Kitchens!’
We can find no evidence to support The Oklahoma Project’s insinuations that Brent Swadley and Governor Stitt are personal friends and that Stitt was somehow directly involved in the initial deal. The highly dishonest local media refers to one picture of Governor Stitt and Brent Swadley at one of the Foggy Bottom locations long after the contract had been issued and locations had already been opened. Stitt is a handshaker who insisted, during his first month as governor, on making the rounds to every floor of every state agency at the capitol complex to shake hands with his new “teammates”. It would be difficult to estimate the number of selfies he’s taken with state employees, vendors, supporters and constituents over the past few years. Depicted in a t-shirt and ball cap, the so-called incriminating photo appears to show the governor stopping during a family outing at Roman Nose State Park to appreciate the hard work and undeniable improvements made by Swadley and his team at Oklahoma’s state park facilities.
The Oklahoma Project has intentionally stirred up a false hornet’s nest full of ladybugs and lies with no concern for who else they might harm or leave unemployed, beyond Governor Stitt. The V1SUT Vantage will be following closely, as Swadley’s pursues its current lawsuit against the state.
So who’s money is behind the PAC The Oklahoma Project?
The entity is registered with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission as a PAC, with Danielle Ezel of Heartland Campaigns as filing agent and Larry Stone of Fourstone Consulting as treasurer. Lawrence H. Stone registered Fourstone Consulting, LLC with the Oklahoma Secretary of State in 2016 with a residential, Nichols Hills address. For those of you unfamiliar with the Oklahoma City area, Nichols Hills is a tiny addition/town wrapped around a lavish country club and dripping with old and new money. Larry appears to work from home, but little else is publicly available about Fourstone Consulting.
Larry Stone was formerly the chairman and treasurer of the PAC Unite Oklahoma with an email address of PLGroup@perkinscoie.com. Yes, that “Perkins Coie”, the Seattle-based law firm with over a thousand lawyers who’s much smaller Politic Law Group (PLGroup) includes infamous characters like Marc Elias (Chair of PLGroup). Elias garnered national attention for paying Fusion GPS on behalf of the Hilary Clinton campaign for the infamous Steele Dossier, a collection of fabricated political dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump. Perkins Coie cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussman was indited in September of 2021 for lying to the FBI during 2016 as part of John Durham’s investigation into the source of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. Sussman told the FBI he was not advising the Clinton campaign as he was falsely raising concerns about a connection between the Trump campaign and Moscow, which has proven to be a lie.
Perkins Coie’s PLGroup also served as coordinator of a $5 million legal effort by billionaire George Soros to allow voting without ID and significantly alter voting procedures during the 2020 national election. Larry Stone, a registered Democrat, appears to have no problem being the state stooge for out-of-state players and interests, and the remaining funds left in Unite Oklahoma PAC ($86,231.05) were transferred to Danielle Ezell’s Oklahomans for Better Representation before the dark money fund was dissolved.
Danielle Ezell (D) of Heartland Campaigns, a 2018 failed state legislative candidate, has her hands in a bevy of campaigns, PACs and political entities, beyond The Oklahoma Project, as filing agent, treasurer and/or chairperson. If you can’t win your own election, it appears joining the Steal Team within the PAC world is a lucrative alternative. Ezell’s Oklahomans for Better Representation, recipient of the remaining funds from Unite Oklahoma, considers it “disproportional” that the Republican party holds a majority of the state’s legislative seats, and its website states a mission of “helping to elect more Democrats into state government to provide better representation for everyday Oklahomans”. For the record, a strong majority of Oklahoma’s registered voters are registered Republicans, making the current makeup of the legislature quite proportional and representative. I guess that just doesn’t feel fair for Ezell’s grifty entities.
Ezell also has several other, newly formed PACs just waiting for the election cycle to flush with funds. Citizens of Oklahoma PAC shows only Ezell as chairperson and treasurer, with no funds yet contributed. Justice Action Committee PAC has Ezell as Treasurer and Sarah Edwards of Hartzog Law as Chairperson. The entity contains only $2,438.42 in rollover funds from a previous PAC, YES on 805, which supported an amendment to the state constitution in support of criminal justice reform that was rejected by voters.
Ezell also serves as both chairperson and treasurer of a PAC called Make a Difference, who’s sole donor of $27,000 is a for-profit business out of Fayetteville, Arkansas, called Fairness Corp. Fairness Corp was registered in Arkansas in September of 2021 by George Shelton. Little information is available about Shelton, except that he is also registered agent for The Sailing Company LLC, also in Arkansas, which appears to be a broker for luxury, Caribbean, yachting vacations. It’s good to be a political, money middleman. Fairness Corp appears to have rushed the $27,000 donation to Make A Difference on December 12, 2021 to pay for $25,000 in expenses already paid to a company named Forward to Win on December 6, 2021 for “media production, digital strategy and advertising buy”.
It is when examining financial report filings for Ezell’s entities Falcon PAC and The Oklahoma Project that we get a clue as to who’s truly behind this one-two punch to governor Stitt. The sole donor to Falcon PAC at this time is a group called Oklahoma Forward, donating three times since March of 2021 for a total of $5,420.00. Interestingly, an in-depth look at the many donors to The Oklahoma Project quickly shows hundreds of very small (mostly $5-$100), often recurring, individual donations and a few larger individual donations, such as $10,000 from George Krumme (D) of Krumme Oil Company, for a total of approximately $37,000 from individuals. Only one organization, or non-individual, has thus far donated to The Oklahoma Project and again, it was the entity Oklahoma Forward, initially giving $219,000 in five separate donations between January to December of 2021. Generally and financially speaking, Oklahoma Forward = The Oklahoma Project + Falcon PAC (with a little help from Krumme’s oil money).
Then something extraordinary happens in terms of accounting. Within The Oklahoma Project’s 1st quarter 2022 filing, as filed on April 30, 2022, Oklahoma Forward gives The Oklahoma Project an additional $635,000 in five separate donations, yet the aggregate reported total in contributions by the entity fails to include the $219,000 previously given. Neither The Oklahoma Project’s Contributions and Expenditures report totaling all contributions by donor type or the required Schedule A listing of individual contributions by donor recognizes Oklahoma Forward’s previous contributions to the PAC. Danielle Ezell appears to have some explaining to do to the OEC, as $219,000 of dark money just fell off the report she signed and submitted.
As of publication, no correction or addendum to the report has been filed to explain the omission. Strangely, among the itemized donations, Ezell seems to correctly carry over aggregate donations for the much smaller donations from individual donors and only fails to do so for Oklahoma Forward, the only entity donor and by far largest contributor to The Oklahoma Project.
So, who is Oklahoma Forward who represents the vast majority of the financing behind The Oklahoma Project? You’d think from the messaging it would be a group highly concerned about quality public education, lowering crime, government corruption or misuse of government funding. Think again.
Oklahoma Forward was registered as a non-profit corporation with the Oklahoma Secretary of State in August 2020 by registering agent Brian Ted Jones, PC. Jones is a former criminal attorney turned lobbyist who specializes in representing the Oklahoma marijuana industry, which clearly has a bone to pick with Governor Stitt. According to his Facebook page, Jones also served as Vice-Chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party.
Judging from a video posted in 2011, in which Jones identifies his favorite case being the defense of a “quintessential little old lady” in a landlord dispute for which he charged his client only $20, it’s probably safe to assume lobbying for Oklahoma’s cannabis industry is more lucrative than his previous practices at both Atkins and Markoff and Ball Morse Lowe law firms.
What the Cannabis Industry Dislikes About Stitt
In June of 2018, the unexpected passage of State Question 788, which was primarily backed by out-of-state funds, ushered in the era of medical marijuana in Oklahoma and left state agencies reeling to quickly put regulations in place for the industry. Oklahoma now has some of the least restrictive marijuana regulations in the country, with the common joke being ‘if you have $60, five minutes and have ever had a headache, you can get a medical marijuana card in Oklahoma’. As a result, Oklahoma quickly had more dispensaries than any other state, and by late 2020, nearly 10% of the state’s population had a marijuana card. In 2021, Oklahoma represented 50% of all cultivation licenses issued nationwide. Formerly known for having a church on every corner, Oklahoma now has more cannabis dispensaries than 7-11s. Not surprisingly, the surge in cannabis growing, selling and use has resulted in serious criminal and safety concerns for the state, which Stitt is attempting to address.
In an attempt to counter growing criminal activity from illegal operations, traffickers and the acquisition of rural lands for illegal purposes by foreign nationals, Stitt is pushing for reforms to the current medical marijuana laws, with the help of the Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives, and has bolstered the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA). The OMMA works with law enforcement agencies, the legislature and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics to address the criminal aspect of the state’s marijuana industry. Purportedly a representative of legal growers and sellers, Brian Ted Jones’ clients appear to be pushing back hard against Stitt’s reforms and his re-election by contributing lots of cash to The Oklahoma Project through Oklahoma Forward. It’s safe to say they’re not pushing for better education, less corruption or lower crime, as their duplicitous entities suggest.
With The Oklahoma Project’s attack ads and misleading messaging blanketing the airways and internet, Oklahoma voters beware. After making a good faith attempt to correct Danielle Ezell’s faulty OEC reporting, The Oklahoma Project appears to be over 95% ‘pot fund’ through Oklahoma Forward. And the other less than 5% in individual donations to The Oklahoma Project appear to be a thinly veiled attempt to make the entity appear legitimate, with most being small donations ($5-$25) by a limited number of repeat donors who give in many separate submissions, as often as 11 times in a quarter and in some cases making multiple donations within a single day. The Oklahoma Project’s stated purpose, manipulative messaging and concealed funding through the cannabis industry smack of duplicity and hypocrisy. Don’t be fooled.
In the next episode of this dark money season, we’ll review the law enforcement misstep that encouraged the current network of PACs and IEs attacking Oklahoma and reveal how one of the Steal Team’s starters is making a big money play of his own. You won’t want to miss it.
From Oklahoma? Please comment and tell us what you might know or think about the attempted theft of the state.
From another state? Please comment and let us know what’s happening in your state and who’s plotting to steal the place you call home.
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