Tulsa Election 2020: City Council contributions

Oklahoma state statute and Oklahoma Ethics Commission rules require campaign committees for city elections to file a campaign contributions and expenditures report with the City Clerk's office 10 days prior to an election (effectively 8 days, since the clerk's office is closed on the weekend, so the report is due that Monday at 4:30 pm), as well as last-minute contribution reports within 24 hours of receiving donations larger than $1,000 within the last two weeks. Reports are also due one month after the end of each quarter.

For the six candidates for Tulsa City Council on the November 3, 2020, ballot, that means their pre-election report was due to the Tulsa City Clerk at 4:30 pm on Monday, October 26. So far District 5 incumbent Cass Fahler (R) and challenger Mikey Arthrell (D), District 6 incumbent Connie Dodson (D), District 7 incumbent Lori Decter-Wright (D) and challenger Justin Van Kirk (R) have filed their reports. District 6 challenger Christian Bengel's (R) pre-election report is the only one of the six that does not appear on the City Clerk website, but he has provided me his report directly, and it is available below.

There are several important omissions from the reports that were available online. This may be an error in the City Clerk's uploading of the reports, rather than an omission by the candidate. Connie Dodson's pre-runoff Schedule A, a list of itemized contributions, is missing; the cover page of the report indicates that it includes $4,250 in PAC contributions which would be quite interesting. Likewise, there is no itemization of Mykey Arthrell's $3,545.83 pre-general election expenditures.

Several PACs are shown on individual candidate reports to have made contributions, but none of them filed reports: Tulsa Biz PAC (affiliated with the Tulsa Regional Chamber), Fraternal Order of Police, International Association of Fire Fighters, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

For the candidates who were on the August 25, 2020, city general election ballot, but not on next Tuesday's runoff ballot either because they won without a runoff or lost, their post-election quarterly report will be officially due Saturday, October 31, will be effectively due Monday, November 2, 2020, at 4:30 pm, but those reports could have been filed at any time since the beginning of this month, since they only cover contributions through September 30. Many of the candidates failed to file reports prior to the August election; we're looking forward to learning how much they raised and spent.

Here are the aggregate totals for the candidates in Tuesday's Tulsa runoff election, with a list of notable contributions. The name of the seat has a link leading to the Tulsa City Clerk's ethics report webpage for the district; the candidate name has a link to a PDF compiling all of the candidate's reports for this election cycle, which I have compiled, bookmarked, and OCRed.

Putting this together is a very tedious process -- clicking dozens of links, merging PDFs in the right order, then combing through the reports for contributors, double-checking sloppy reporting, and summarizing all of it below -- but BatesLine is the only place you can find organized campaign finance information for the 2020 City of Tulsa runoff. If you appreciate the hours that I've put into this, hit the tip jar and help cover the costs of keeping BatesLine going, which include web hosting, database access, domain registration, and computer equipment. If you'd like to support the site with advertising, contact me at blog@batesline.com.

In the past, when all the records were on paper only, the daily paper would have a City Hall reporter compile the list of contributions (back then $200 and under did not have to be reported). They don't bother nowadays. I find one recent story about campaign finance, focused on an out-of-state organization called the Accountability Project Institute, which is making independent expenditures against Mykey Arthrell and Lori Decter Wright; these candidates support an Office of Independent Monitor for the Tulsa Police Department, which the FOP opposes. No stories at all about the candidate's campaign finance reports. Perhaps they feel that now that the information is online, there's no need to bother. But busy voters need someone to curate the massive amounts of public information now available.

In most cases (every candidate except Cass Fahler), the totals on the most recent report don't match the sum of the amounts reported on each report to date. Candidates (or their treasurers) seem confused on the meaning of the Aggregate Total column. I've put my figures in square brackets. I have not double-checked that the reporting period totals are correct; in some cases this is impossible because key pages are missing from the online records. Most of the mistakes in calculating aggregates for the campaign and for individual contributors would be avoided if candidates were required to use the Oklahoma Ethics Commission system, as they were for a few years in the late 2000s and early 2010s, where individual transactions are uploaded, and the system calculates the totals.

District 5:

Cass Fahler (R): Carryover, $0.96, individual contributions, $15,785.00; PAC contributions, $9,500; total $25,285.96. Expenditures, $20,491.71. Notable contributions: Tulsa FOP, $5,000; Greater Tulsa Association of Realtors, $2,500; Tulsa Biz PAC; International Association of Fire Fighters, $1,000; Robert Zoellner, $2,700; Kurt Dodd, $2,000; Justin Van Kirk, $1,000; Bobby Van Holt, $1,000; John Stava, $1,000; Martha Blackburn, $750; CeCe Siegfried, $750; Meyer Siegfried, $750; Cord Charvat, $500; Jay Helm, $500; Steve Edwards, $500; Warren Ross, $250; Lou Reynolds, $200; Dewey Bartlett, Jr., $200;

Mykey Arthrell (D): Individual contributions, $13,255.00 [$13,355]; in-kind contributions, $1,000; total $14,255.00 [$14,355.00]. Expenditures, $11,094.38 [$12,094.38]. Notable contributions: Robin Flint Ballenger, $2,800; RE UP Dispensary, $1,000; Justin Schuffert, $1,000; George Krumme, $1,000; Kathy Taylor, $500.

District 6:

Christian Bengel (R): Individual contributions, $2,086.64 [$2,196.94]; PAC contributions, $1,000; loans (all from self), [$7,573.37]; total $3,086.64 [$10,670.31]. Expenditures, $3,086.64. Notable contributions: IBEW PAC, $1,000.

Connie Dodson (D): Carryover, $1,546.69; Individual contributions, [$10,435.00]; PAC contributions, $9,750 [$13,750]; total $18,561 [$25,731.69]. Expenditures, [$14,525.77]. Officeholder expenses, [$1,158.70]. Notable contributions: FOP 93 PAC, $3,500; IBEW Local 584, $3,000; Realtors PAC, $2,000; Tulsa Firefighters Local 176, $1,000; Lloyd Robson, $2,800; Cindy Robson, $2,800; Joe Robson, $1,000; Joe Chadwick, $1,000; Amulfo Murillo, $1,000; Sharon King Davis, $150; Lou Reynolds, $200.

District 7:

Justin Van Kirk (R): Individual contributions, $32,885.00 [$25,085.00]; PAC contributions, $7,500; loans (all from self), $10,300.00 [$10,500.00]; total $50,685.00 [$43,085.00]. Expenditures, [$40,135.21]. Notable contributors: FOP PAC, $7,500; Cord Charvat, $3,300; Robert Zoellner, $2,800; Justin Van Kirk, $2,800; Mike Case, $2,700; Albert Reynolds, $2,000; Jim Taylor, $1,105.

Lori Decter Wright (D): Carryover, $148.12; individual contributions, $17,689.50; PAC contributions, $3,500; political party contributions, $550; in-kind contributions, $3,328,49; total, $21,739.50 [$25,216.11]. Expenditures, $20,556.69 [$20,786.08]. Notable contributors: Tulsa Biz PAC [Tulsa Regional Chamber], $1,000; Tulsa Firefighters IAFF PAC, $2,500; Heart of the Party Tulsa County Federation of Democratic Women, $550; Cheryl Roberts, $1,400; Friends of Crista Patrick [District 3 Councilor], $500; Kathy Taylor, $800; Bill Lobeck, $500; Vanessa Hall-Harper [District 1 Councilor], $50; Ken Levit, GKFF executive director, $150; Teresa Burkett, $250; Sharon King Davis, $150.