Leftist groups donate $6.3 million to SQ 805

Two out-of-state Leftist organizations contributed a total of $6,336,852.36 in support of State Question 805, the proposed constitutional amendment that will allow temporarily inconvenienced career criminals to return more rapidly to their vocation of victimizing their neighbors. The two organizations, the ACLU and FWD.US, combined to provide 87% of the the contribution totals, which include both cash and in-kind contributions; in-kind contributions include both staffing support and direct payments to campaign consultants. Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform also provided $54,629.01 in in-kind support. The Yes on 805 Committee raised a total of $7,281,215.29, of which $666,014.52 was in-kind, as of September 30, 2020.

The breakdown by organization:

• ACLU $2,970,044.46
• FWD.US $3,366,807.90

Keep in mind that these numbers are as of September 30, 2020, and have no doubt grown significantly.

The largest individual contribution was $500,000 from Tulsa heiress Stacy Schusterman. (Her last name is misspelled on the report, without the C.)

$200,000 came from a New York City financial exec named Robert Granieri, who lists his employer as a controversial trading company called Jane Street.

Financial activity for this campaign began in October 2019, with FWD.US paying substantial sums to consultant Brian Elderbloom, Oklahoma PR firm Saxum Communications, and Tulsa law firm Crowe & Dunleavy, Cash contributions began in December 2019, but the required reports for the 4th quarter of 2019 and the first two quarters of 2020 do not appear in the Oklahoma Ethics Commission database.

The grand total raised in the same period by No on 805 is $133,400. That's a 55:1 ratio in favor of the Yes side. The principal donors are Mo Anderson, Robert Funk, and Robert Funk, Jr., each giving $25,000; Mathis Brothers Furniture, the National Police Support Fund, Frank Robson, and RT Development each gave $10,000; and Frank Keating, Kirk Humphreys, and the Oklahoma Farm Bureau gave $5,000 each.

The ACLU's Communist roots in the Stalinist period are well-known. The organization's support for toleration of dissent is typically one-sided, working to facilitate groups hostile to America's founding principles while standing aside when defenders of the American constitutional order are under attack. It's fair to say that the ACLU planted many of the seeds that led to 2020's Antifa riots.

FWD.US is a newer organization founded in 2013 by Silicon Valley tycoons to support amnesty for illegal immigrants, more visas for foreign tech workers, and mass release of criminal predators. (One of the founders of FWD.US, Mark Zuckerberg, has unleashed an additional, massive attack on trust and social cohesion. It's known as Facebook.) The group has a history of "partnerships" with useful, nominally conservative groups like Americans for Tax Reform.

Why are these national organizations so willing to dump millions of dollars into an allegedly grass-roots Oklahoma referendum? I think it's for the same reason that so much has been invested into trying to get Oklahoma to pass the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact: If a solid red state like Oklahoma approves such a radical change, it becomes easier to persuade other conservative states to follow Oklahoma's example. At the state level, the presence of OCPA on the list of supporters gives a veneer of bipartisanship to this leftist constitutional amendment, while the presence of a long-ago police chief (squishy Drew Diamond, renowned for his refusal to deal honestly with the presence of gangs in Tulsa) and a lone district attorney (who won in 2018 with financial backing from many contributors who are now backing 805) allows all that pro-805 money to craft the appearance that law enforcement is ambivalent, despite the opposition of 96% of Oklahoma's district attorneys, the FOP, both candidates for Oklahoma County sheriff, and countless law enforcement officers.

The bulk of the names on the banner ad running on various websites in support of 805 include left-wing names like former Democrat Gov. Brad Henry, disgraced former Democrat Gov. David Walters, former Democrat Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor, and liberal ex-judge William Kellough (who lost re-election to a poorly funded challenger because of his egregious record).