KTOK Capitol Correspondent Says Auditor Revelations Have Prompted 'Contributions from strangers' To McMahan Campaign

Revelations about the sources of his campaign money and allegations by two former employees of the Tulsa auditor & inspector's office have prompted "contributions...from strangers" to Auditor & Inspector Jeff McMahan's campaign, radio station KTOK's Capitol correspondent, Bill Bateman, asserted Saturday on the station's weekly program, "News Studio B."

Bateman told host Jerry Bohnen, the station's news director, that there is no evidence of campaign activity today within McMahan's State Capitol office even though no one had made such an assertion. Earlier this week, former Tulsa District Manager Dana Webb alleged the Tulsa office became an adjunct campaign headquarters for McMahan in his 2002 campaign. Former employee Lisa Long, a longtime and well-known Tulsa County Democratic party activist, corroborated Webb's allegations, which include the solicitation of donations by other employees within the office from employees and others, the sale of campaign t-shirts and the use of state equipment to print campaign materials. Webb was fired by McMahan in January 2003 shortly after he took office because, she said, she supported one of his Democratic primary opponents and then supported Republican Gary Jones, McMahan's opponent again this year. Long resigned in August of 2002 because, she said, she told McMahan she would not support him and realized her future in the office was thus bleak. She is now an executive with the Cherokee Nation Casino & Resort and is helping Governor Brad Henry and other Democrats in their campaigns.

Asked by Bohnen about responses by McMahan to Ethics Commission reports that show McMahan has accepted 581 donations from his office's approximately 165 employees over the past five years (and the implication they gave under pressure), Bateman replied, "He says it's a lie." Bateman said an unnamed McMahan campaign official told him that many of the donations listed are for $10 t-shirt sales. Bateman did not indicate he checked McMahan's campaign reports to verify that. TMRO did check the reports; they do show 29 donations this year that are in amounts ($10, $20, $30) that could be payment for campaign t-shirts; the 29 donations are among more than 100 employee donations this year that total about $17,500, or an average of about $175 per employee donation.

Bateman said he is in the auditor's Capitol office daily and, "there is not a McMahan anything in there," he said. "I cannot speak with authority" about his other offices, he added. He said McMahan said the allegations by Webb are "bogus." Bateman seemed unaware that Long had corroborated Webb's allegations. He said McMahan said that when he took office, the Tulsa office was three years behind in audits, the implication being Webb was responsible. Tape recordings made by Webb of conversations reveal she discussed the audits with McMahan and in those tape recordings, he blamed other employees in the office for the "mess" the Tulsa office was in. Bateman seemed unaware of the existence of the recordings even though their content was detailed in stories on The McCarville Report Online.

Bateman said the question is, "If you're accusing somebody of criminal wrong-doing...pressuring campaign contributions on company time, in a state office, using state equipment and using state personnel, that's criminal." He said "it never went to the attorney general in the form of a complaint...."

Bateman continually mentioned that the allegations were against McMahan himself, even though that is not the case; the allegations leveled by Webb and Long involve employees in the Tulsa office. They have not accused McMahan personally of anything, other than "chasing" donations from abstractors that he regulates and using the Tulsa office to make contact with office employees on campaign matters. Bateman seemed unware of that important distinction.

Bateman said that "six months ago" Jones tried to "unload that story (the allegations) and failed on two occasions to supply the promised documentation, transcripts, tapes and so on about the conversations that allegedly took place between Jeff McMahan and Dana Webb."

Bateman said the question is, "From what source do these (allegations) spring?" Bohnen said they came from Dana Webb and Lisa Long.

Bateman said the allegations are "having a very bizarre effect...it's raising contributions to the McMahan campaign from strangers." McMahan's next campaign finance report should reveal whether that's true.

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