Barnett Challenges Meacham On Portfolio

Republican state treasurer candidate Howard Barnett challenged incumbent Democrat Scott Meacham's campaign claim that he increased the state's investment portfolio by $1 billion. Barnett presented documents from Meacham's campaign website that make this claim, as well as information from Meacham's own office that disputes his campaign claim.

"At best, Scott Meacham is simply misleading voters," Barnett said Thursday. "By his own office's report, Oklahoma now has just over $3 billion in investable assets. A year ago, it was at $2.5 billion. Either Scott Meacham isn't very good at math, something that should be a prerequisite for Treasurer, or he believes he can hoodwink the press and the voters."

Barnett added, "The fact is that the State Treasurer’s official website shows that during the first half of this calendar year investable assets actually were reduced. That means something drastic happened, Meacham reversed course after his initial deviation from Robert Butkin’s safer, more conservative money management practices or his office is putting out incorrect or incomplete information."

"Unless he is putting out inaccurate information or using creative accounting schemes similar to those of Enron or Worldcomm, you simply cannot get to the claim of $1 billion made by Meacham," said Barnett campaign manager Shawn Ashley. "Of course, this has become standard operating procedure for Scott Meacham. Whether it has been claims made about expectant revenues from the tobacco compacts, the lottery or gaming, Scott Meacham has a pattern of inflating estimates for the sake of political gain. Unfortunately, he never delivers for the people of Oklahoma."

Share |