Jones Spends $60,000 To Air McMahan 'Can't Count' Videotape From Phipps' Christmas Party

UPDATE: Gary Jones put $60,000 of his own money into his campaign to finance his final week of television advertising, a just-filed CR4 campaign finance reports shows. Jones reported his campaign received $63,500 in the past 24 hours; Larry Nichols, CEO of Devon Energy, donated $2,500 and the Edmond Republican Women's Club donated $1,000.

Jones told KTOK radio talk show host Gwin Faulconer Lippert Sunday night that the videotape of Jeff McMahan was taken during a Christmas party hosted by Oklahoma abstractor Steve Phipps. He said McMahan was hypnotized as part of the evening's entertainment. He said he was given the videotape by an anonymous source.

KTOK subsequently reported that the man who hypnotized McMahan was angry about the videotape and threatening legal action, although what that might be was unspecified.

(Originally posted at 5:58 a.m. Saturday, 10/28/06) Republican Gary Jones opened his television advertising campaign Saturday with a spot that says incumbent Auditor & Inspector Jeff McMahan (left) can't even count to 10. The television commercial shows McMahan using his fingers to count to 10 and he omits "6."

The television commercial was posted at midnight on Jones' website.

In the video, McMahan stands with a woman holding a microphone; what appears to be a Christmas tree is in the background. McMahan has his hands out in front of him and counts "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10."

"Where was 6?" writing on the screen asks. The commercial suggests McMahan has no "accounting skills" even though as auditor, he's supposed to account for funds in numerous entities.

The Jones-McMahan race is a repeat of four years ago, when McMahan narrowly defeated Jones. Controversy over McMahan this year has included allegations from a former Tulsa office manager that she was fired for not supporting McMahan in 2002 and a second worker who joined the first in saying the Tulsa auditor's office was turned into an adjunct campaign office for McMahan four years ago.

Jones apparently loaned his campaign the money to place the commercial on television stations. He refuses to accept donations from abstractors, who are regulated by the auditor & inspector. As a result, Jones has raised only a small percentage of the sum McMahan, who has taken tens of thousands of dollars from abstractors, has raised.

Share |