Stitt called for more election transparency, but supporters used dark money to hide donors

When he took the podium before a joint session of the Oklahoma Legislature to deliver his 2023 State of the State address, Gov. Kevin Stitt was basking in the glow of a solid reelection victory a few months earlier, having overcome millions of dollars worth of negative attack ads attacks against him paid for by shadowy political groups.

It was time, Stitt told the Legislature, to ensure the state’s voters knew who was spending big money to get politicians elected.

“Protecting Oklahomans means protecting the integrity of our elections,” Stitt said. “I’m calling for stronger transparency laws. Because Oklahomans deserve to know exactly who is funding political campaigns. A democracy is doomed when special interests can spread lies and leverage blank checks to buy elections.”

Stitt issued an executive order in November 2023 creating a task force to examine and make recommendations on campaign finance and foreign interference in Oklahoma’s elections.

But less than a month before Stitt issued that executive order, members of his campaign staff, along with a handful of wealthy supporters, were busy setting up their own state political action committee fueled by dark money, according to corporate and campaign records. The group 46 Action would reward the governor’s allies in the Senate with supportive ads during the primary election.

The group spent more than $100,000 leading up to the June 2024 primary election. All of 46 Action’s funding came from 46 Forward, a political nonprofit organization that doesn’t have to disclose its donors. The arrangement helped mask the political action committee’s true funders.

More: As Oklahoma considers loosening campaign finance rules, outside groups run wild

46 Forward was formed in October 2023, corporate records show.

Officers and agents for 46 Action have worked for Stitt in the governor’s office, for his campaign and transition team or for a separate federal political action committee that has provided support for Stitt’s allies, records show.

46 Action’s treasurer is Donelle Harder, Stitt’s chief political strategist and campaign manager, according to Oklahoma Ethics Commission records. Harder has worked for Stitt’s campaign since 2017.

Harder did not answer questions from The Frontierabout 46 Action or 46 Forward, about the group’s major donors or how much involvement Stitt had with the group. She said she was just the treasurer and not leading the group.

“46 Action is an entity that supports conservative candidates and causes in Oklahoma and ran only positive ads for Republican candidates in the 2024 primary,” Harder said in the statement. “All of the entities activities and expenses are available in the ethics report.”

A spokeswoman for Stitt’s office did not respond to written questions or phone messages from The Frontier.

46 Action bought political ads for several Stitt-endorsed candidates

Spending records show 46 Action bought political ads supporting seven Republican state Senate candidates Stitt had previously endorsed — Julie McIntosh; Shane Jett; Rick Wolfe; Cody Rogers; Micheal Bergstrom; Casey Murdock and Brian Guthrie.

All of the seven candidates also received direct donations before the primary from Turnaround Team PAC, a federal political action committee tied to Stitt.

None of the Senate candidates who spoke with The Frontier said they were aware that the group was linked to the governor’s office.

But candidates who benefit from a group’s largesse often know exactly who the money is coming from, Anthony Ferate, former state GOP head and chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Campaign Finance and Election Threats, told an Ethics Commission working group during its July 11 meeting.

“Super PACs and candidates can share attorneys under the law, and they can share donor information,” Ferate said. “That’s not coordination under the law. So will that candidate know what money has been contributed by what person? Yeah, probably.”

Little information about group is available to voters

As with many independent expenditure groups, voters had access to almost no information about 46 Action before the June primary. It was not required to report its donors to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission before the election. And often, even the officials who regulate those groups never know who is truly behind them.

“We don’t know who these individuals are in instances,” Ferate said. “We have guesses, we have concepts of who they are, but we don’t know. We don’t know who the money is coming from in a lot of these instances.”

The group lists its address as a UPS store in Tulsa and first registered with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission on May 21 — too late to file a quarterly report on its fundraising and spending before the June primary.

According to campaign reports filed after the primary , 46 Action was funded with two donations totaling $125,000 from the nonprofit 46 Forward .

Records show 46 Forward was founded by Tulsa resident Romney McGuire, the wife of Corbin McGuire , who has been described as a “close friend” of Stitt’s , engineer and businessman Rodolfo “Rudy” Blanco and Richard Tanenbaum , CEO of the real estate developer Gardner Tanenbaum Holdings. The Frontier reached out to 46 Forward’s founders, but didn’t get any response.

Ethics Commission records show that all of Blanco and McGuire’s state-level political donations since 2017 have been for Stitt or his allies.

The Frontier is a nonprofit newsroom that produces fearless journalism with impact in Oklahoma. Read more at www.readfrontier.org.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Stitt called for more election transparency, but supporters used dark money to hide donors