Further proof that Drew Edmondson thinks he's above the law? FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: State Rep. Mike Reynolds Capitol: (405) 557-7337 OKLAHOMA CITY (July 27, 2007) - It appears newly appointed Corporation Commissioner Jim Roth has violated state law by giving illegal campaign contributions to Attorney General Drew Edmondson, state Representative Mike Reynolds said today. "While reviewing Attorney General Drew Edmondson's recent letter to the Ethics Commission admitting to being an illegal conduit for political contributions I discovered that not only did he give illegal contributions but he received them as well," said Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City. "The issue at hand is two different contributions given from the campaign account of County Commissioner Jim Roth to the campaign account of Drew Edmondson. After careful scrutiny of the ethics rules, applicable statutes and discussions with officials in the State Ethics Commission, I believe Roth's contributions violated state law." Reynolds has routinely been a watchdog over various filings at the Ethics Commission and is recognized as an expert in ethics database issues. The contributions in question were given in October 2005 and May 2006. Both contributions were recorded in Edmondson's reports as being from the Jim Roth for County Commissioner campaign committee. "Under normal circumstances I would have gone to the Attorney General and asked for an investigation into the matter since it included highly placed public officials, but I obviously was not going to ask the A.G. to investigate himself," Reynolds said. The South Oklahoma City lawmaker also noted that he could not find any reference to the contributions in Roth's ethics reports. "I hope Commissioner Roth was not attempting to hide these contributions because he did not list them on line 16a of his County Commissioner ethics report which is also required by law," Reynolds said.

Labels: AG, Drew Edmondson, Jim Roth

Posted at 7/28/2007 09:22:00 PM