Chesapeake Employees Donate To Roth's Campaign

By Jerry Bohnen/NewsRadio 1000 KTOK ~ It is clear that oil and gas people in Oklahoma like their Corporation Commissioners...just look at Commissioner Jim Roth's campaign fund where a third of it came from the oil patch. And for the record, there is nothing illegal about it.

As of mid-July, Roth, a Democrat, listed $589,000 in his campaign fund, the most of any of the candidates for corporation commission.

Nearly $198,000 or 33% of his total campaign fund came from people in the oil and gas sector whether they were oil company owners, employees of oil and gas operations or others.

The number of oil and gas contributors totaled approximately 215 out of the 1,075 who gave to his campaign, or only 20% of Roth's total donors. In effect, 20 percent of his contributors gave a third of his total campaign fund.

A breakdown of the contributions showed that 87 of those 215 donors were employees or executives of Oklahoma City based Chesapeake Energy Corporation. They represented 40% of Roth's total number of oil and gas donors and included Chesapeake Energy chairman Aubrey McClendon who donated the maximum of $5,000.

Only one donation came from an employee of Devon Energy, the country's largest independent oil and gas operation based in Oklahoma City.

Records at the State Ethics Commission also showed that there were 39 contributors who gave the maximum of $5,000 each to Roth's election campaign. Among them were billionaire oilman T-Boone Pickens, Barry Switzer, Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor and Clay Bennett, the owner of Oklahoma City's NBA team.

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