This cold case is getting warmer.  For the past couple months, it has been an unsolved mystery as to why Mike Thompson’s campaign for Congress imploded with a whimper.  He was expected to be “the one” to beat when he first entered the race.  He had the cash, the support of community power players, and the rising star status many politicians seek.

Then, inexplicably, the man disappeared from the campaign trail only to re-emerge in the last month before the election.  Unsurprisingly, no one is talking about Congressman Mike Thompson.

One theory we heard during the campaign was that Thompson wasn’t really thrilled when the primary field got as crowded as it did, which led him to seek another job as a “back-up.”  Thus, the lethargic campaign.   From one credible source within the business community, we know Thompson was inquiring about a potential lobbying job even as he ran for Congress.

Now that theory is gaining steam.  We’ve learned that Thompson is seeking lobbyist positions with several different organizations, including the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, several transportation organizations, including T.R.U.S.T., and at least one other group seeking a lobbyist.

It appears Thompson has cast a wide net in search for employment.  But that net only falls among groups looking for a professional lobbyist.  Of course, there’s not wrong with Thompson wanting to be a lobbyist or the groups seeking a lobbyist, but it does reinforce the widely-held notion that politician use their office in order to attain a high-paying lobbying job.

We’ll see which group chooses Thompson or which group Thompson chooses to lobby for.  It looks like he may have many options.

Winner: Mike Thompson, Republican for Congressional District 5

It’s now clear Mike Thompson’s campaign slogan should have been a Men’s Wearhouse-esque “I’m Going to Disappoint You. I Guarantee It.”  Mike Thompson started out the race for CD 5 as the unstoppable frontrunner. He’s young, up-and-coming, and was in line with the district’s ideology. To top it off, he had the backing of the business community and had tons of money.

So what happened?  Nothing.  Nothing at all.

The man disappeared for months and no one, not even his most ardent supporters, knew what the heck he was doing or where he was.  Once we saw him at an important dinner with all the big-wigs in the district.  Calvey and Lankford were there, shaking hands and speaking to anyone who approached them.  Thompson arrived late and left early without speaking to more than five people.  Campaigning, it seemed, was an annoyance to him.

To many observers it appeared as if he was furiously trying to meld Rudy Giuliani’s failed “all-eggs-in-one-basket” presidential campaign strategy with Fred Thompson’s epic energy level.  Thompson waited until the last minute to blast the airwaves with trite commercials that communicated the exact same message Calvey had established months earlier.  Nothing distinguished him from the small-government war veteran and the fresh-faced, grassroots political newcomer.  As a result, he got steamrolled and barely came in third.  Talk about disappointment. 

Hopefully, Thompson stays involved in politics. He’s a bright guy who just happened to run a poor campaign.  A really poor campaign.

Runner-Up: Tom Kovach, Democrat for State House District 44

We’re told Democrats in the state legislature recruited Tom to run for House District 44, thinking he would be the best candidate to keep the traditionally Democrat seat safe from Republicans.  Initially, we agreed.  He had all the positives you look for in a candidate: credible experience, established reputation, and funding. In the end, his campaign imploded in spectacular fashion.  Robocalls were sent out attacking his opponents, which turned off voters, and he spent himself into debt.*   How did he go into debt? We have no idea. 

But here’s what we do know:  One of his campaign mail pieces arrived in the mail…today.  And that’s all you need to know about the campaign of Tom Kovach.

[Ed. Note: Mr. Kovach disputes this.  He says Ms. Virgin sent the robocalls and he is not in debt.  We regret the error on the robocalls, but we stick by the other part.  Kovach's most recent ethics report showed that he had spent more than $2,000 dollars than he had taken in and, therefore, had a negative campaign balance.  Since he clearly owed money to someone, according to ethics rules, he was in debt to that person, business, or organization.  Perhaps he has since retired that debt, but the point stands.]

JC Watts has been surprisingly vocal this campaign season, endorsing multiple candidates and even narrating a prominent ad for Ken Miller.

His endorsement of David Holt, a candidate for State Senate in District 30, has apparently drawn some strong criticism from Holt’s opponent, Matt Jackson. Jackson recently sent a mail piece that claimed Holt was endorsed by a lobbyist for the ACLU. By that he means Watts, former Congressman and national conservative icon.

Watts joined with the ACLU to promote reform to current drug sentencing laws, which punish street drugs like crack cocaine with much harsher sentences than higher end drugs like powder cocaine. Crack cocaine is more likely to be used among African-Americans while powder cocaine use is more prevalent among whites. This creates a sentencing disparity that breaks down along racial lines.

Proponents of sentencing reform, which includes many notable conservatives, have said the following:

According to an analysis by the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, just 7 percent of federal cocaine cases are directed at high-level traffickers…If we are to stop the flood of cocaine coming into the country, federal law enforcement should be focused on high-level traffickers.

On the surface, Watts working with the ACLU sounds bad. When examined, we see that the goal is to shift the focus in the war on drugs to the major suppliers rather than the street level distributors.

This seems like a desperate attack from Jackson, who we predicted will lose today to Holt. The election will be decided in the primary.

Several people have e-mailed us over the last couple weeks to question how Emily Virgin, a 23 year old Democrat candidate for HD 44, was able to contribute $7,000 to her own campaign in addition to owning two different houses and being a full-time student.  The e-mailers point out the fact that Ms. Virgin owns and lived in a home in House District 45 and then, two weeks before the deadline, moved into a home her father bought in House District 44.  Virgin says she is buying the house from her father.

According to Virgin’s ethics report, she donated $7,000 to herself.  Interestingly, it was a self-contribution instead of a loan, which means she cannot get that money back.  The questions began to arise for a couple reasons: 1) Her father is a well-known, well-off attorney in Norman who has used his personal connections and wealth to raise money and support for her daughter’s campaign.  Many suspect Mr. Virgin, after contributing the maximum to his daughter, simply gave Emily cash so she could contribute it to herself.  That would be a violation of the law, if it were true. 2) In her campaign literature, Virgin appears to have sparse employment experience, except as an OU football team equipment manager.

We contacted Ms. Virgin about these questions and she responded immediately and dispatched some assumptions being made by her opponents.  Here is what she says to those who question the contribution or her homes:

“I was employed in high school at The Vista Sports Grill as a hostess. I worked all four years of my undergraduate studies at OU as an equipment manager for the football team, where I worked close to 40 hours a week, every week, and sometimes more than that during the summer. In addition, I also work summers as a law clerk. I was paid at all of these jobs, and I felt that it was important to save some of that money that I had earned. In short, no, my father did not give me the $7000. This was money that I had saved over 5-6 years.

My dad does own the house that I live in currently, and I am purchasing it from him. I make the house payment and pay bills every month.”

Indeed, Open Books shows that Ms. Virgin was paid nearly $6,700 last year as an employee of the University of Oklahoma.  Coupled with the fact that she has had various other jobs, it is not unreasonable to assume she saved this money over the course of the last several years.  So, unless evidence comes out showing that she is not telling the truth on this, it’s only fair to assume that nothing improper has occurred.

Last month we wrote this post about supporters of Gary Jones that condemned anyone who said he would resign as State Party Chairman and run for Auditor.

Here is a video from last year showing Gary Jones stating he would not run for Auditor. We did not embed it because the relevant portion begins about 7 minutes into the clip; clicking the link will begin the video at that point.

Supporters of Gary Jones are forced to make a difficult argument: on one hand they say he had to run because no qualified Republican had filed, yet on the other hand they credit his candidate recruitment efforts for Republican success in past election cycles.

Just to make it clear, we are not endorsing the other Republican, who only recently registered in the Grand Old Party and has a history of donating to Democratic candidates. We’re simply highlighting the blind devotion we’ve seen demonstrated by Jones’s supporters – who seem to believe he created the partisan realignment Oklahoma has undergone in recent history.

Finally, it appears Gary Jones’s slogan will again be “An Auditor We Can Trust.” Do you?

After we broke the news that RJ Harris changed his name from Jason Barnes to RJ Harris and was responsible for multiple failed businesses which resulted in tax liens and bankruptcies, Harris took to his Facebook page to respond.  He admitted to changing his name, but denied that it was due to his desire to escape his past. On the contrary, he says, it was based on a desire to return to it.  Harris claimed he only recently learned that he was adopted by his step-father and that his father had abandoned his family when he was very young. When he learned of this, he got very angry at his mother, rebelled and changed his name back to what is allegedly his “real” name in honor of his real father.

According to him, that took place when he was 34 years old.  He then made his wife and young children undergo a similar identity change and uprooted them from their home in Arizona and moved to Oklahoma.  It is quite odd, one must admit, that Harris felt such an extreme, passionate devotion to a father he had never met, who left his family, and was apparently never part of his life.  And after living his entire life as Jason Barnes, he and his whole family suddenly decided to undergo an identity change, including one for his 12 year old daughter and her younger sister.  All for someone they had never known and never met. Or maybe it was simply because it was the perfect time to undertake such a move.  Indeed, two friends of Mr. Harris, from Arizona, have confirmed for us that RJ knew long before 2006 that he was adopted by his step-father.

Considering his political aspirations, it does seem a bit coincidental that Harris, at the age of 34, after going through bankruptcies, failed businesses, and foreclosures, decided it was now the time to change his name and move elsewhere.

Perhaps we should give RJ the benefit of the doubt, but given his past, abject dishonesty to voters and donors, we simply can’t do that anymore.

Claims Financial Responsibility, Records Show Otherwise

On Facebook, Harris also responded to the charges of fiscal irresponsibility.  He says, “Game store closes and personal BK results in 02…family changes last name and I change back to name on birth cert…06. FOUR YEARS LATER. Having dug so deeply into my …personal records OP would know that by that time I had done a very good job rebuilding my credit and was not in need of a name change.”

Bu there are problems with his arguments.  First, his claim that is he changed his name after he filed for bankruptcy aids our point, not his.  He wanted to hide this information.  Second, his claim that he had done a very good job of rebuilding his credit is simply false.  How do we know?  Court records show he and his wife had their home foreclosed on in April of 2008 and sold at public auction in December 2008.  His original name, Jason Barnes, was still on the deed in 2008.  This was his second foreclosure in six years.  Thus, as recently as two years ago, Harris was displaying an extraordinary and consistent lack of financial responsibility in purchasing houses he couldn’t afford.

So we ask, how can we expect someone who exhibits a consistent disregard for their own fiscal situation to properly care for the nation’s fiscal health?

Failed at Business, Blames 9/11

Harris continues: “I have openly stated on my Facebook page, as well as my biography on my main website, that my small chain of game stores did not survive the economic downturn of 2001 which was brought on by the attacks on 911.”

This shameful invocation of terrorist attacks as the reason behind his failed business is outrageous and false.  As we demonstrated in the original post, Maricopa County records show that Harris/Barnes opened one of his gaming businesses (Ultra Gamer, Inc.) in October 2001.  On December 3 of 2001, the city of Tempe, AZ filed a tax lien against Harris for failure to pay taxes.  That’s less than two months after opening his new business.  That was followed by yet another tax lien against him by the IRS on January 21.  A couple weeks later, Harris filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.  Again, Harris showed a striking lack of management ability and business acumen, yet wants us to trust him with our tax dollars.

If he fails while being a steward of our money, will he invoke 9/11 or some other tragedy to explain his failure?  Passing the buck is not what voters want right now, or ever.

Harris Receives a Bailout

Harris launches into another distortion in his post and denies he received a bailout from taxpayers when he failed to pay his taxes and had his debts discharged by the government.  “Even worse of OP is its claim that I received some kind of bailout when the fact is that we repaid all of our vendors AND our tax debts,” Harris says. “The biggest debts that were discharged, and the only reasons I had to file in the first place, were the un-paid leases on the business properties. The owners of those properties had those returned to them in good order and they were re-leased shortly thereafter.”

This is perhaps the most damaging part of the case against Jason Barnes/RJ Harris.  Records from Bankruptcy court show Harris owed at least $100,001 and maybe up to $500,000 to the following entities:

Washington Mutual, Internal Revenue Service, Bank of America, City of Tempe, Mill Towne Center JV LLC, Mr. and Mrs. Darin Rudd, Golden Eagle Leasing, Citgo Credit Card Center, Arizona Department of Revenue, and several others. (Source: U.S. Bankruptcy Court, 02-BK-01858-RJH, Feb. 14, 2002) That bankruptcy case was completed in 2004.

Harris had his debts discharged and the owner of his debt got stiffed because of Harris’s inability to properly manage his finances and businesses.  He was bailed out by the government because he spent money he didn’t have.  Sounds familiar. Yet another piece of evidence that shows Harris can’t be trusted with our tax dollars.

One Last Thing

One last thing:  Harris claims his opponent is responsible for this information coming out, yet doesn’t provide any evidence of that.  The reason he doesn’t provide any evidence is because there isn’t any and there never will be any.  It’s just another lie told by the Harris campaign to explain away embarrassing public information.  Sad, but unsurprising.  We got some of our information from people close to Harris; some we got on our own.  And as we said in the update to the original post, believe us when we say his opponent’s campaign isn’t even thinking about RJ Harris right now.

Harris wants you to think otherwise, but we’ll just let the results on July 27 speak for itself.

The Oklahoma Poll commissioned by the Tulsa World and conducted by SoonerPoll.com shows State Senator Todd Lamb leading the crowded Republican field for Lieutenant Governor, with most voters undecided.

Here are the results:

Todd Lamb 22%
John Wright 5%
Paul Nosak 3%
Bill Crozier 3%
Bernie Adler 2%
Don’t know/refused 65%

Lamb has dominated the fundraising race among the Republican field and outpaced the Democratic nominee State Senator Kenneth Corn. This has allowed him to wage a sustained media campaign. Lamb also earned praise for his ad from many observers, for using one of the more creative setups of any ad thus far:

Term-limited State Representative John Wright has become the darling of the right, but hasn’t managed to inspire the same level of passion as Randy Brogdon. As we reported last week, Wright was outraised by Paul Nosak. Nosak has garnered attention for wearing a trademark hardhat to events and reportedly has some interesting commercials. Unfortunately, we have yet to locate them online. Crozier and Adler have done minimal campaigning.

Updated: Nosak’s ads are on his website at paulnosak.com. Be warned the top bar plays the Battle Hymn of the Republic, his ad is on the bottom and the menu features the sound effect of gun shots.

OkiePundit can confirm that the Tulsa World is withholding a damaging story on incumbent State Senator Harry Coates until after Tuesday’s primary in order to protect his re-election prospects.

Multiple well-placed sources have confirmed for us that the Tulsa World is sitting on the story that explores the allegation that Coates has been engaged in an affair with a lobbyist who is about 30 years younger than he is and that the married lobbyist may be pregnant with the senator’s child.

OkiePundit has the lobbyist’s name, but we will not publish it at this time as she is not a public figure.

We can also confirm that the lobbyist’s husband works for Governor Brad Henry and filed for divorce on July 13th.  Coates, who is vying to become the Senate Republican leader, has been under pressure since this “open secret” came out in political circles several weeks ago.

But the real question concerns the Tulsa World and why they are sitting on this story until after the election.  Perhaps they believe that the story shouldn’t affect voters’ decisions or perhaps they simply want to wait until Coates is safely out of harms way before embarrassing him.  Either way, they are withholding information from voters until after the vote has already been taken.  Coates, if victorious, will not face a general election opponent.