Holland Refused Donation From Jones' Wife

State Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland told The McCarville Report Online Monday that she refused to accept a $2,500 campaign donation from the wife of Enid attorney Stephen Jones.

Holland was asked about the donation because Jones, in an email to TMRO last week, wrote, "incidentally, my wife gave $2,500 to Kim Holland's campaign months ago." Our examination of Holland's campaign finance reports did not show a donation from a member of the Jones family.

Holland said the check was presented to her by "a third party" last May and she declined to accept it because, "I didn't want to take a donation tied up with folks involved in (former Commissioner Carroll) Fisher's problems."

Jones represented Tulsa businessman Gene E. Phillips in the Fisher scandal. More recently, he represented Philllips' son, Bradford A. Phillips, in an examination of an insurance company by the Oklahoma Insurance Department. For details, see our previous stories.

Jones, two out-of-state "of counsel" attorneys to his firm, and a Bartlesville woman he represented in a 2005 divorce action, have donated $39,000 this election cycle to just two candidates, $19,000 to Republican insurance commissioner nominee Bill Case and $20,000 to Oklahoma County judicial candidate Bill Graves. See our story below for details. Jones himself has made multiple other donations, including $1,500 to Democrat David Prater, who seeks to unseat Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane.

Holland said she refused a second donation, this one from a person in Florida, who also had involvement in the Fisher scandal.

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