...from the confidential OKPNS Tip Line:

Following yesterday's post regarding questionable donations received by new Speaker of the House Chris Benge, a new analysis of Benge's fundraising reports filed with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission appear to show that every dime the Speaker raised in 2007 came from political action committees ("PACs"), lobbyists or their clients. It does not appear that Benge had a single donor from his own district for all of last year or a donor from anywhere who did not have direct,special interests before the legislature.

OKPNS has reviewed the final 2007 fundraising reports submitted by Benge, which are available at the Oklahoma Ethics Commission website here.

Benge has raised a total of $71,800 in his current account (Benge has yet to open a 2008 campaign account and is still raising money into his 2006 account). Only a small percentage of the money he raised came from individuals. More than two-thirds,$50,950, came from PACs. House Republicans' reliance on PAC money has come under major criticism in recent years, with some claiming a "pay for play" atmosphere has developed at the Capitol. Given his heavy reliance on PAC money, Benge's fundraising figures will only add fuel to this fire.

But even the relatively few individual donors Benge did have in 2007 are all linked to special interests at the Capitol. As reported yesterday here on OKPNS, 43 of Benge's individual donors were employees of the career tech system. As chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee last year, Benge advanced legislation increasing the Career Tech budget, much of which went to give pay raises to Career Tech employees. Benge only had four other individual donors for the entire year. Two of them, Rob Johnson and Tom Rogers, are registered lobbyists. Another donation came from the owner of the only Toyota distributor for the state of Oklahoma who also employs a lobbyist to advance his business interests at the Capitol. The final individual donation came from an accountant with the Department of Corrections. Acceptance of this contribution by Benge raises numerous ethical questions given that the Department of Corrections in 2007 was undergoing a year long audit which Benge helped oversee, not to mention that as House Budget Chairman Benge controlled not only the Department's budget but even his donor's salary.

Because of his total reliance on special interest money in 2007, Capitol observers expect that Benge's fundraising activities this year will draw even more scrutiny, not to mention possible criticism about how those donors will be treated now that Benge is Speaker of the House.

Labels: Speaker Chris Benge

Posted at 3/04/2008 08:32:00 AM