New dark money group attacks Gov. Stitt
Suggest governor is to blame for violent crime skyrocketing in state
A new dark money group critical of Gov. Kevin Stitt says it has raised $10 million to spend on television commercials, mailers and digital advertising.
The Sooner State Leadership Fund launched its first television commercials Tuesday with a 30-second spot that says violent crime is skyrocketing in Oklahoma and suggests Stitt is to blame.
The commercial points to when Stitt in 2020 commuted the sentences of 452 offenders due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the state’s 2019 mass commutation, in which more than 450 people convicted of simple drug possession or property crimes were released from prison.
Although Oklahoma’s violent crime rate increased from 2015 to 2018, the rate dropped in 2019, the most recent year for which FBI crime data is available. The violent crime rate factors in the number of rapes, murders, robberies and aggravated assaults per 100,000 residents.
“Once again, more lies from special interest groups who aren’t being transparent about their intentions,” said Stitt’s campaign manager Donelle Harder said. “Gov. Stitt’s commitment to lead as a conservative political outsider is clearly upsetting some big bosses out there who feel threatened by his unwavering agenda to represent all 4 million Oklahomans, to fight for law and order and fairness in our justice system, and to deliver the promised Oklahoma Turnaround with historic economic achievements.”
The Sooner State Leadership Fund, which touts “promoting conservative leadership” on its website, is a social welfare organization, or a 501(c)(4), said Trebor Worthen, the group’s founder and chairman. Unlike political action committees, social welfare organizations do not have to reveal their donors, which allows unknown individuals to try and influence elections.
The group is made up of business and community leaders dedicated to encouraging strong leadership in Oklahoma, said Worthen, a former Republican state lawmaker who has worked as a strategic adviser to numerous elected officials in the state. Sooner State Leadership Fund has ties to the Washington-based National Public Affairs consulting firm led by former campaign manager for former President Donald Trump.
“We are not required to disclose our donors because we are just a group of concerned individuals advocating for quality leadership and sound policy,” he said. “Thankfully, the law protects individuals by allowing them to exercise their First Amendment rights without fear of retribution.”
Worthen said he founded the group to engage on issues critical to the future of Oklahoma, specifically noting that public safety affects every family across the state. He said he expects the Sooner State Leadership Fund will raise more money, beyond the $10 million already raised, as more Oklahomans learn about the group.
Although the commercial characterizes the mass commutation as the largest release of felons in U.S. history, voter-approved SQ 780 reclassified simple drug possession and low-level property crimes as misdemeanors instead of felonies.
The mass commutation was the direct result of Stitt signing bipartisan legislation to make SQ 780 retroactive.
On the campaign trail, Stitt vowed to lower Oklahoma’s prison population and reduce the state’s incarceration rate, once the worst in the nation. He has talked about the mass commutation as a point of pride for his administration.
The commercial also says Oklahoma has more violent crime than California and New York, which is only partially true, according to the latest national data. FBI crime statistics from 2019 show Oklahoma’s violent crime rate was higher than New York’s but lower than California’s.
This is just the latest dark money group to pile on Stitt, who is running for a second term as governor. In December, a newly formed social welfare organization called Conservative Voice of America started running anti-Stitt commercials on Fox News.
Through advertisements and mailers, the group has tried to portray the governor as soft on crime.
The Conservative Voice of America and the Sooner State Leadership Fund were both incorporated in Delaware.
The Oklahoma Project, a local political action committee, also has purchased local airtime, including a Super Bowl ad, to run commercials critical of the governor. Most of that group’s funding so far has come from a nonprofit group called Oklahoma Forward Inc., which hasn’t publicly disclosed its donors.