An investigation by the campaign watchdog group known a Open Secrets has revealed how some Oklahoma oil and gas producers became involved in a non-profit group that illegally funneled money to the failed 2014 U.S. campaign by former Oklahoma Speaker of the House T.W. Shannon.
As reported by Open Secrets, the group called Oklahomans for a Conservative Future was a nonprofit 501(c)(4) which was supposed to give money to social welfare programs. Instead, it contributed to Shannon’s Democratic campaign against Republican James Lankford who won the 2014 U.S. Senate race to replace former Sen. Tom Coburn. The group contributed between $1 million and $2 million to Shannon’s campaign.
As Open Secrets reported, “OCF told the IRS that it had spent 41.4 million boosting Shannon, but totals reported elsewhere in the group’s annual tax filings show that the sum is likely much higher, possibly even the entirety of the group’s $2.1 million in outlays. At a minimum, OCF’s political support came close to matching the $1.9 million that Shannon’s own campaign spent leading up to the primary.”
The group was formed three day’s after Shannon announced his candidacy and one of the founders was Chad Alexander, a close political ally.
What’s the energy connection? Open Secrets discovered that two months after the U.S. Senate primary, Oklahomans for a Conservative Future changed its name to “Heartland Principles” and the website was registered anonymously in July 2015. As the campaign watchdog discovered, the website is not easily found since it was part of the “deep web” and hidden from the “surface web” and conventional search engines.
FCC filings show the new group aired an ad produced by Domestic Energy Producers Alliance and the ad was used in the fight by energy producers to convince Congress to lift the 40-year old ban on U.S. oil exports. As Open Secrets discovered, the executive committee of the Alliance turned out to include Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources Inc; Mike Terry, president of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association and former Democratic congressman Dan Boren who recently went public and said he is considering a run for Governor.
Open Secrets
