In a small office tucked in the southwest corner of the state Capitol, five state employees are watchdogs over thousands of elected officials, lobbyists and political campaigns.
The mission of the Oklahoma Ethics Commission has been consistent since a decisive vote of the people in 1990 authorized and established the agency: Hold elected officials accountable. Reign in the influence of money in politics. Keep elections on a level playing field.
What changed in recent years is a flood of outside money pouring into state political races and a crunch for resources at the commission. While the agency recently settled a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against an out-of-state group that improperly targeted state legislative candidates in the 2018 election cycle, its executive director said similar violations may go unchecked because of funding constraints.
Spending by politically involved nonprofits and super PACs has accelerated following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, when the court ruled that corporations, nonprofits and labor unions have a First Amendment right to support or oppose political candidates and causes using independent expenditures. Though their actions are legal as long as they don’t coordinate with a candidate, so-called dark money groups have drawn scrutiny for mounting exaggerated or untruthful attacks that are often difficult to trace to a single individual or organization. Additionally, there has been evidence in recent election cycles of some out-of-state groups dodging state-level reporting and registration requirements.
More than $75 million poured into state political races during the 2022 midterm election cycle, with independent expenditures making up nearly half of those contributions. Meanwhile, the Ethics Commission has operated on a budget just short of $688,000 in fiscal year 2023, less than it received amid a state budget shortfall in FY 2018.
In a presentation before a Senate appropriations subcommittee in January, Ethics Commission Executive Director Ashley Kemp requested nearly $400,000 in additional appropriations to hire two staff members and restore funding that was cut in 2016. In her pitch to lawmakers, Kemp said the agency has evidence of out-of-state groups injecting themselves into Oklahoma elections but often lacks the money and resources to prosecute them.
“I would encourage that to be considered if we want to take an approach, take a swing at dark money or least out-ofstate money coming in and how we want to regulate that,” Kemp told the committee. “The commission has the ability to do it, and we have the cases to do it, and we’re ready to do it if the Legislature is ready to assist.”
One lawmaker, Sen. Darrell Weaver, R-Moore, said he was alarmed by the presentation and the growing influence of outside groups on state elections. But Kemp’s request was left of Republican lawmakers’ $12.9 billion budget proposal for FY 2024, which included a $2.2 billion increase in general appropriations over 2023.
Kemp said the flat allocation will hamper the Ethics Commission’s ability to investigate and prosecute possible violations in the first half of the 2024 presidential election cycle. Candidate filing for state offices begins in April, with a primary election set for the third Tuesday in June. Outside groups contributed nearly $10 million to state political races in the days and weeks leading up to last year’s primary election.
The $688,000 appropriation also keeps Oklahoma far behind comparable states such as Louisiana and Connecticut, Kemp said. Both allocated more than $1.5 million to their ethics agencies last year.
“Do we have the ability to meaningfully and consistently hold people accountable? I don’t think we do,” Kemp told Oklahoma Watch.