A handful of groups, including many that don’t reveal their financial backers, have launched a political ad blitz to try and sway voters on whether to retain three state Supreme Court justices in the Nov. 5 general election.

The three Oklahoma Supreme Court justices, James Edmondson, Noma Gurich and Yvonne Kauger, were all previously appointed by Democratic governors. Voters get to decide whether they should stay on the Supreme Court for another six years.  

Judges and justices are mostly prohibited from campaigning for retention. If voters oust justices, Gov. Kevin Stitt would get to pick replacements from a pool of nominees recommended by the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission.

As of Oct. 29, groups have spent at least $3.4 million on political ads supporting or opposing the three justices. Two groups that have campaigned against retaining the justices reported spending about $1.8 million. Three pro-retention groups, which spent about $1.5 million combined, Ethics Commission spending reports show. The Frontier was able to find the funders for at least two of the groups, the remainder were formed within the last few years and are not legally required to disclose their funders.

PEOPLE FOR OPPORTUNITY

The opening salvo in the retention election came from this group, which opposes keeping the three justices.

Oklahoma Ethics Commission records show People for Opportunity first purchased direct mail ads on Sept. 27 calling for voters to reject the three Supreme Court justices. The group has since spent more than $1.5 million on television ads, text messages, surveys and direct mail pieces as of Oct. 28.

People for Opportunity is a 501(c)(4) political dark money group headed by leadership of the conservative nonprofit think tank Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs has also purchased social media ads and offered opinions about judicial appointees over the past year. But the group’s tax-exempt status limits how much it can advocate for or against candidates in elections.

The think tank has been critical of how the Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled on some issues and during the past legislative session, the group had lobbied and created a public influence campaign to do away with Oklahoma’s Judicial Nominating Commission.

Because People for Opportunity is not a political action committee, but a nonprofit “social welfare” organization, it is not required to disclose who is funding its campaign. The group’s latest publicly available tax return for 2022 shows that it spent a little more than $2 million that year — $1.5 million of that was for advertising.

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Though a complete list of donors to People for Opportunity may not ever be available, tax returns from other nonprofits that have donated to the group in previous years show that the group regularly receives large sums from wealthy and ideologically-driven donors.

The national nonprofit dark money group Advancing Freedom Inc. gave People for Opportunity a $50,000-grant in 2020. People for Opportunity received $60,000 in 2021 from the John and Donnie Brock Foundation, named for Tulsa’s Medallion Petroleum founder John Brock and his late wife Donnie. Tax records show the foundation also donated $200,000 to People for Opportunity and $310,000 to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs in 2022. That year, the group spent hundreds of thousands of dollars both supporting and opposing various legislators and heavily backed then-state superintendent candidate Ryan Walters against his Democratic opponent Jena Nelson, Ethics Commission records show. Brock did not return a phone message from The Frontier seeking comment.

The conservative advocacy group The Concord Fund gave People for Opportunity $450,000 in 2023, tax records show. The Concord Fund, formerly known as the Judicial Crisis Network, spent millions urging support for the confirmation of now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and is a main player in a network of groups tied to conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo. The Concord Fund was described in 2020 as “a group with unmatched influence in recent years in shaping the federal judiciary” by the Center for Responsive Politics. A phone message to Gary Marx, senior advisor and counsel for the Concord Fund was not returned.

“Typically, in past election cycles, Oklahomans have not really had anyone providing them info about the state Supreme Court justices who were up for retention on their ballot, and we wanted to make sure that wasn’t the case this time,” said Dave Bond, spokesman for People for Opportunity and the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. “As we’ve been going around the state, visiting with Oklahomans, many folks are intrigued by the fact that all three of the state Supreme Court justices who are on the retention ballot this year, justices Kauger, Edmondson and Gurich, were appointed by former Democrat governors and have a long, liberal record of legislating from the bench.”

46 ACTION

The 46 Action super PAC, linked to Gov. Kevin Stitt, purchased more than $239,000 in television advertising across the state on Oct. 16 asking voters to get rid of all three justices.

As a super PAC, 46 Action must disclose its donors, but all of the group’s money came from a related nonprofit that doesn’t have to report its funders. The Super PAC’s only donor, 46 Forward Inc., is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. These kinds of political nonprofits are often called dark money groups, since they do not reveal to voters the sources of their funding.

While Stitt’s main campaign advisor, Donelle Harder, served as the group’s treasurer during this year’s primary elections, she has since resigned, she said in a statement to The Frontier. Her replacement is Tulsa real estate agent Sarah Ellis. Ellis declined an interview request from The Frontier Tuesday morning.

A phone message left for 46 Action by The Frontier was not returned, and Stitt spokeswoman Abegail Cave did not respond to email messages. 

Choctaw Nation

The Choctaw Nation also sent mailers to its citizens supporting retention of the three justices.

The expenditure was made directly through the tribe to tribal citizens and was not reported to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. The amount the tribe spent on the mailer is not clear.

Kristina Humenesky, spokeswoman for the Choctaw Nation, said the mailers were sent to only tribal citizens. She said she didn’t have information on how much the tribe spent on the mailers.

Hands Off Our Courts

This dark money group incorporated in Delaware and created a Facebook page on Oct. 9.  Hands Off Our Courts has spent $270,000 as of Oct. 29 supporting the three justices, according to Oklahoma Ethics Commission reports.

Records show the group began purchasing Facebook ads on Oct. 24.

Steve Fairbanks, who is listed as the group’s director, did not respond to phone messages from The Frontier.

Because Hands Off Our Courts was incorporated as a nonprofit limited liability company only weeks ago, no federal tax data yet exists to indicate who its donors might be and it is not required to report its donors to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission.

Pat Hall, the group’s main political consultant, declined to name the group’s main funders. He said he expects the group to run more digital and radio ads in the days before the election. The ads will feature Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, former University of Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer and former state Senator Angela Munson.

“Probably both sides have donors that wish not to be named because, I don’t want to say they have business before the courts, but they may be prominent business people,” Hall said.

Hall said he was asked to be the group’s general consultant after the People for Opportunity ads started running.

“Oklahomans woke up and realized there were lies being told about these three justices, and that there was a lot of money, probably mostly out of state money, pushing a message accusing them of being too liberal and appointed by Democrats instead of telling the truth,” Hall said. “They just didn’t like the rulings of the court, they want to go to a Texas system — pay to play.”

Protect Our Freedoms LLC

This dark money group has spent more than $1.3 million on television and social media ads to persuade voters to retain the justices, records show.

The group was incorporated in Ohio by an attorney who, along with Columbus-area political consulting firms, has established numerous dark money groups that have spent money in past Oklahoma elections.

Advertising and Ethics Commission records show Protect Our Freedoms’ chairman ia Mark Becker, who is also the board president of a group named A Public Voice that distributes hundreds of thousands of dollars to other organizations in the Ohio dark money network, including several that have spent money in Oklahoma campaigns.

Becker did not return phone messages from The Frontier seeking comment about the group.

Protect Our Freedoms formed as a nonprofit LLC in Ohio in 2021. But the IRS website shows no evidence that the group has applied for or received nonprofit status. No tax records for the group are publicly available. Records show the group has not spent money in elections on the federal level or state level prior to 2024. The group previously spent money in the Montgomery County, Texas, sheriff’s race earlier this year.  Protect Our Freedoms has used a Maryland address previously used by United for Clean Power, another dark money group that has funded others that have taken part in Oklahoma elections, campaign finance and tax records show. United for Clean Power helped fund dark money groups that participated in Oklahoma’s 2020 Democratic primary elections, but is connected to Republican consulting firms and the same conservative dark money network in Ohio that has spent money in other Oklahoma races, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit campaign finance watchdog group.