Loophole allows legislators to raise money during session

OKLAHOMA CITY—Oklahoma legislators have been raising thousands of dollars from lobbyists at lavish fundraisers during a special session limping into its eighth week, yet they’ve failed to make much progress toward plugging a $215 million hole in the state budget.

The Associated Press obtained invitations to a dozen scheduled fundraisers held over the past few weeks for some of the Legislature’s top Republican leaders, including the powerful chairs of the appropriations committees in the House and Senate.

During the regular session that ended in May, members of the Legislature could have faced fines and up to a year in jail for accepting contributions from lobbyists or the companies that employ them. But legislators intentionally left a loophole in the 2008 law establishing the misdemeanor by deciding it shouldn’t apply to special sessions like the current one.

With no end in sight to the session, state House and Senate members are taking full advantage of the loophole by raising money for elections a year away.

Some lawmakers who hosted fundraisers defended the practice and said the events were scheduled before they knew about a special session, but one state official says accepting the cash can pose a conflict of interest.

“There’s no way I was going to cancel something that had been on the calendar for months,” said Rep. Chris Kannady, an Oklahoma City Republican who hosted an Oct. 17 fundraiser with U.S. Rep. Tom Cole with suggested contributions of $100 to $1,000.

Several lawmakers with scheduled fundraisers, including Kannady, said their contributions from lobbyists don’t influence how they vote on bills.

“It doesn’t affect me. I guess the optics of it could be construed as negative, but I think it depends on the legislator,” said Rep. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee, who ended up canceling his scheduled fundraiser at a barbecue restaurant in Oklahoma City because of a scheduled vote on the House floor.