Philanthropist shakes up county politics, again
Philanthropist Sue Ann Arnall has confirmed she was involved in an effort to defeat Oklahoma County Sheriff P.D. Taylor in the runoff election in August.
Taylor lost after a Virginia-based political action committee spent $ 75,843 on mailers and a television ad critical of his operation of the jail. “P.D. Taylor has failed us for long enough,” the narrator says in the TV ad.
“Ms. A rn all is most interested in honesty in government and she did make a substantial donation in the sheriff race,” her attorney said.
The PAC, Defend US, reported getting $75,000 in August from a nonprofit, Citizens for a Working America, to pay for the mailers and TV ad. The nonprofit also has a Virginia address.
Arnal l' s attorney was responding to an email from The Oklahoman asking specifically whether she provided the funding to Citizens for a Working America. The attorney described her contribution as “five figures.”
Arnall is a regular donor to political issues and candidates and to charitable causes. She also is on the trust overseeing the Oklahoma County jail. The trust last year voted to hire an outside administrator to run the jail rather than the sheriff.
“There has been a lot of criticism of the sheriff and of jail operations, and the sheriff will have to endure that forever unless we do something else,” Arnall said last year. “(We need) someone who is not burdened by the past and only sees the future and the potential and the possibilities.”
The sheriff got the most votes of the three Republican candidates in the June primary election but not enough to win the nomination. He lost to a Norman police officer, Tommie Johnson, in the runoff.
Johnson defeated Democrat Wayland Cubit in the general election in November and will be sworn in as sheriff in January.
“It's unbelievable,” Taylor said of Arnall's role in his loss.
He accused a major critic, County Commissioner Kevin Calvey, of telling her “untruths” about him.
“The problem started the day her daughter went to work for Kevin Calvey,” he said Saturday. “I think ... they were both being handfed information about what a mismanaging crook I was. And that's all they heard for a year. ... I think he convinced her that I needed to go.
“I had 50 years of l aw enforcement in Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County and a stellar reputation. Why would she go to that length to try to destroy my reputation?”
Calve yon Saturday called it unfortunate that Taylor“chooses to end hi s career with baseless finger-pointing.”
He said GOP voters chose Johnson over Taylor in August “by a landslide to restore transparency, accountability and cooperation to the sheriff's office.”
Arnall also had a major impact on Oklahoma County politics in 2018 when she gave $100,000 to a new PAC — the Oklahoma Good Government Fund.
In a report to the state Ethics Commission, the Oklahoma Good Government Fund disclosed it spent $65,000 on mailers and online advertising in June 2018 — all on the one Oklahoma County judicial race.
In two of its mailers, the PAC criticized Howard Haralson, the incumbent. He had presided over Arnall's bitter divorce case against billionaire oilman Harold Hamm and had upset her with his rulings in the case. He lost badly in the 2018 primary election and blamed Arnall for his defeat.
The Oklahoma Good Government Fund spent another $18,500 in November 2018 in another Oklahoma County judicial race. It reported the expenses were in opposition to the incumbent, Michele McElwee, and in support of Kendra Coleman.
Coleman won but was removed from office this year for misconduct.