Thursday, March 29, 2007

The Ties That Bind

Originally posted March 18th ~ Jeff McMahan's claims that he knows Steve Phipps only casually are wilting under scrutiny. Here are the public facts at this time: 1 - Phipps' son sang the jingle McMahan used in his 2002 campaign; 2 - McMahan was a guest of honor at a Phipps' Christmas party where he was hypnotized as part of the entertainment; 3 - Gene Stipe at one point described Phipps as McMahan's campaign manager; 4 - Phipps and Stipe were described as McMahan's "money machine" in the 2002 campaign; 5 - Phipps was an active fundraiser for McMahan in 2002 and, some claim, early in the 2006 campaign as well; 6 - Democratic consultant Pat Hall, McMahan's 2002 primary campaign operative, was listed as a paid consultant for Phipps' Rural Development Foundation according to the latest FBI affidavit filed in the Stipe-Phipps investigation; 7 - The Oklahoman reported on March 29th that McMahan had taken three trips with Phipps and two of them may have violated Ethics Commission rules since Phipps paid for them; rules prohibit an official from accepting anything of value from a person or entity he regulates. McMahan regulates abstrators; The Tulsa World reported on May 30th that, after earlier indicating he hardly knows Phipps, McMahan admitted Phipps conducted "one or two" fundraisers for him in 2002. Sources familiar with McMahan's 2002 campaigns say Phipps held many fundraisers for McMahan.
McMahan's attempts to distance himself from abstractor company owner Phipps have intensified as the federal investigation of Phipps and Stipe has developed. McMahan fired the head of his abstract division, Tim Arbaugh, for being an alleged straw donor; Arbaugh's friends say he is McMahan's scapegoat and did nothing that McMahan was not fully aware of and encouraged. Developing....

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