M. Scott Carter
The Journal Record
A state group organized to help fund the U.S. Senate campaign of former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon, R-Lawton, did not report its campaign expenditures in compliance with Federal Election Commission requirements, an Oklahoma City attorney claims.
In a March 31 letter to Oklahoma City television stations and to Cox Communications, former Secretary of State Glenn Coffee said the group, Oklahomans for a Conservative Future, did not report its expenditures in compliance with federal election law, nor did it pay for television commercials and mail pieces properly.
Coffee, now a private attorney, is affiliated with Shannon’s opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. James Lankford. Both Shannon and Lankford are seeking to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, who is retiring from office at the end of this congressional term.
In his letter, Coffee charged that the group was registered as a for-profit corporation from Feb. 5 to March 24.
“During this period of time, the OCF filed three Independent Expenditure Reports with the FEC and spent a total of $395,177 in television and mail advertising in support of T.W. Shannon,” wrote Coffee, former president pro tempore of the Oklahoma Senate. “On March 24, the OCF re-registered with the Oklahoma Secretary of State as a nonprofit corporation.”
On Monday, Coffee confirmed the letter.
“They were a for-profit corporation from their initial filing until March 21,” he said. “The position that I was taking with the television stations was that these donors need to be disclosed. It appears that the group’s only activity is political activity.”
Because of that for-profit listing, Coffee said, the OCF must disclose the donors and contributors for the independent expenditures. Coffee also questioned whether the group had engaged in activities to promote social welfare after it registered as a nonprofit organization.
“As of today’s date, the OCF has not filed a single document that reflects a contributor or donor for its independent expenditures,” Coffee wrote.
Documents filed with the Oklahoma secretary of state’s office show that the group was created by Xavier Neira, a vice president of Manhattan Construction Co., and Chad Alexander, a lobbyist and political consultant. Those same documents show that the group incorporated as a for-profit organization, but changed its status to nonprofit on March 24.
Telephone calls to Neira’s office were not returned.
Lee Slater, executive director of the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, said no Oklahoma law would apply to the issue. Federal campaign disclosure documents show that the group last purchased television advertising in the metro area on March 19.
Coffee also wrote that because the OCF was not a tax-exempt organization when it initially received contributions to make political expenditures, it owes corporate taxes on the $395,177 it spent on advertising on Shannon’s behalf.
An official in the Federal Election Commission’s media information office declined to comment on the issue, saying they were not allowed to speak on behalf of the commission.
However, at least one organization said the group could be forced to disclose its contributors. In a post on the Sunlight Foundation website, analyst Peter Olsen-Phillips wrote that the OCF would be a political committee under federal law.
“Paul Ryan of the Campaign Legal Center tells Sunlight in an email that avoiding political disclosure is not as simple as registering a for-profit corporation,” Olsen-Phillips wrote. “Regardless of the corporate form or tax status this group chooses, the federal law definition of ‘political committee’ applies the same way – (1) has the group made expenditures and-or received contributions exceeding $1,000 in a calendar year? And (2) does it have as its major purpose influencing federal elections? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then Oklahomans for a Conservative Future Inc. is a ‘political committee’ under federal law and must register with the FEC and disclose its contributors.”
As if their names haven’t been in the newspapers since Day One.