Oklahomans seeking local campaign finance reports have been kept in the dark for months following the state’s failed rollout of a revamped online filing system.
Last year the Legislature enacted Senate Bill 890, which centralized campaign finance filings for municipal and county campaigns under the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. Prior to Nov. 1, the bill’s effective date, city and county clerks were responsible for receiving and maintaining those records.
Lawmakers passed the bill with the understanding that Guardian 2.0, an integrated online filing system capable of receiving and reporting both statewide and local campaign finance reports, would be up and running within months. It was lauded as a significant win for voters, who sometimes had to file a written request or visit the city or county clerk’s office to access local campaign records.
The plan backfired. In December, the Ethics Commission voted to terminate its contract with Texas-based software developer RFD and Associates, citing a dereliction of duty to deliver on its promise to create an update. The Attorney General’s office sued the vendor last month in hopes of clawing back more than $800,000 in state funds.
At the December meeting, the commission also voted to restore access to the legacy Guardian system, though without access to county and municipal information.
Ethics Commission Executive Director Lee Anne Bruce Boone said Civix, the vendor responsible for maintaining the Guardian system, is working to update its system, but it could take four to five months. She said incorporating local reports into the aging software, which launched more than a decade ago, requires a complete coding overhaul.
Meanwhile, municipal candidates have been directed to retain their records and be ready to file promptly once the online system is fully operational.
Several municipal races, including a mayoral election in Oklahoma City and city council elections in Norman, took place on Feb. 10 without a functional reporting system. Local candidates and campaign workers fear voters could remain in the dark without a quick resolution.
While municipal campaigns have a reputation for being low-profile, they can still attract big money. For instance, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt raised nearly $800,000 in his successful 2022 reelection bid.
“This is a place where campaign finance really matters,” said Aaron Wilder, the campaign manager for Norman Mayor Stephen Tyler Holman and Oklahoma City Councilmember James Cooper. “It was already lacking enough transparency, and for the last four months, there’s been basically none.”
In the absence of a centralized reporting database, some candidates took to social media to share their campaign finance activity. Trey Kirby, a candidate for Ward 5 on the Norman City Council, reported $2,500 in self-funding and a $50 individual contribution on his Facebook page. Ward 4 candidate Cindy Gordon, who was defeated in the Feb. 10 election, reported $1,909 in expenses and $3,445 in donations.
Kirby, whose district includes a wide swath of rural east Norman designated for turnpike expansion, said he received numerous requests from voters for the information. He said he’ll continue to post information ahead of the April 7 election, where he’ll face Dianna Hutzel in a runoff.
“With the turnpike issue and the TIF issues and all of these different things, people want to know who is supporting a candidate,” Kirby said. “It will 1,000 percent change a person’s vote.”
During a Feb. 12 commission meeting, Bruce Boone pitched members on various short-term solutions, including hiring temporary staff to manually process local reports and post them on a website separate from the Guardian system. She said the commission’s full-time staff of 11 doesn’t have the capability to manage local report processing and other duties.
Barring a quick fix, Civix is expected to have its work done by the June 16 primary election, she said. The board did not take official action on a temporary remedy.
“We’re just juggling how much money it would cost to put these temporary solutions in place versus the timeline of Civix,” Bruce Boone told board members. “It’s kind of a game right now.”
Wilder said he appreciates the commission’s acknowledgement of the issue, but believes they could have acted with more urgency. State law guarantees voters, municipal and statewide alike, the right to access campaign finance records.
“I do not see in the law where the Ethics Commission is given the authority to not accept local reports,” he said. “While I’m sympathetic to the issues with Guardian 2.0, it’s unacceptable that they were unable to prepare and get ready for that. It’s a really dark thing that people went to the polls not knowing the very basics of who they’re going to support.”
Republished in partnership with Oklahoma Watch under a Creative Commons license. Free Press publishes this report as a collaborative effort to provide the best coverage of state issues that affect our readers.
Keaton Ross covers democracy and criminal justice for Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at (405) 831-9753 or Kross@Oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter at @_KeatonRoss.
