Posted from ROPE, Article written by Jenni White, ROPE Education Director
Link to original article
No general Oklahoma voter can exercise their vote for one of the most important political positions in the legislature – Speaker of the House. Why, you might ask? Though that’s an excellent and reasonable question, I honestly don’t know, but as long as I’ve been aware, we’ve had to rely on our elected House Representatives to do that for us – often in secret vote.
What, you might say? How can the leader of the House – the one that picks the Committee Chairs, the one that decides what bills are heard, the one that sets the tone for the House of Representatives and can break a tie with their vote on any contentious legislation heard in committee – not be voted on by Oklahoma voters, though he or she would lead one entire half of the body of our legislature? Well, again, that’s a really excellent question.
Here’s what it says about the process in the article announcing Hilbert’s election – because there is nothing on the Oklahoma Legislature website that explains how the Speaker of the House is elected.
Under majority caucus rules, the speaker-designate for the upcoming Legislature is selected through a caucus election on the first Monday in March during election years. The 60th Legislature will be seated after November’s elections and convene for its first session in 2025. The entire body of the House will formally vote on its next speaker on organizational day for the 60th Oklahoma Legislature in early January 2025.
Majority (Republican) caucus rules can change every year, so that’s a comforting notion.
Last year, the current speaker – and longest in the position – Charles McCall, was term-limited (Oklahoma has 12 year term limits for every legislative office). Though 29-year-old Kyle Hilbert of Bristow – who will be the youngest ever to serve as Speaker – was elected by the Republican caucus last spring on the first ballot of the secret vote inside a Republican caucus meeting, Representatives Lonnie Sims and Kevin West also vied for the position. (Here’s a bit about Hilbert according to Ballotpedia.)
But not so fast. There is at least one other vote for House Speaker, so Hilbert’s ascendancy isn’t written in stone.
And why shouldn’t there be another vote? Some of the members of the House at the time of the first vote were either term-limited, or voted out in the primaries. Some still face a candidate in the November 5th election. Why should Representatives who won’t even be seated in the House during the 2025 session vote on the Speaker position instead of the newly elected Representatives who will serve in that legislature?
Recently, representative Tom Gann of Inola has thrown his hat in the ring to challenge Kyle Hilbert for Speaker. (Here’s a bit about Tom Gann from Ballotpedia.)
I thought it might be interesting to compare the two candidates, so I went through the Oklahoma Ethics Guardian System and pulled their Ethics reports from January through August – the first three quarters of the filing year. To make it easy to read, I loaded both Contributions and Expenses data for each candidate into an Excel spreadsheet.
Here is Tom Gann’s. Representative Gann has been in the House since 2016.
Here is Kyle Hilbert’s. Hilbert has also been in the Oklahoma House since 2016.
Totals are at the bottom of each column, but let me recap:
Tom Gann had no contributions for the first three reporting quarters. He had no real expenses other than the loan he repaid himself from 2023.
During that same time period, Kyle Hilbert took $1900 from individuals (including former legislators), $5750 from lobbyists, $61,151.32 from 38 different PACs (9 originating out of state), $20,657.67 from individuals associated with some kind of a business (the entry was John Smith, CEO of XYZ Corporation) and $2950 from two separate tribes – for a total of $92,408.99.
Hilbert’s expenses are not fully listed here. I picked out his payments to other House members – a total of $97,200.00). He also paid CAMP and James Martin Company for his political needs. Both often work together in the world of Oklahoma political consulting.
This is a video of Kyle Hilbert from a KFOR political program on Sunday mornings. Please note. According to him, his job is to get Republicans elected to office.
Clearly, he’s not read the Constitution. That is NOT his job. His job is to protect the liberty of his constituents. Please also note – he was convinced that former Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Kevin Wallace would be re-elected. In a stunning victory for LIBERTY in Lincoln and surrounding counties, citizens came out during a hot July primary to UNELECT Kevin Wallace because he was more interested in special interests than his own constituents – kind of like Kyle Hilbert.
Interestingly, a PAC called the WolfPAC was created in 2023 to work for “Oklahoma’s Legislative Future”. The PAC is run by people I profiled in The Corruption Belt – Diagramming Oklahoma’s Dark Money Web – Political Consultants and PAC Treasurers. The treasurer is Dustin Hilliary, part of the Oklahoma Hilliary Communications network. The Hilliary family are very involved in Oklahoma politics and frequently donate to Oklahoma campaigns.
The following is a quote from a Fox 24 article Oklahoma’s broadband office reboots process for distributing $382 million in federal funds amid concerns:
The Hilliary family are big political donors, including to Governor Kevin Stitt and State Superintendent Ryan Walters. We looked at the Hilliarys’ political contributions since 2015 and found they donated $705,803.20 to candidates and PACS that support them. $249,315.60 of that came directly from Hilliary Communications co-CEO Dustin Hilliary. In April, Dustin was appointed by Governor Stitt to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, even though Dustin, himself, does not hold a college degree.
Here is an invitation for a fund-raiser for the PAC. Note, that James Martin Company – who is paid many multiple thousands of dollars by Hilbert’s campaign account – is taking RSVPs.
The main donations to the PAC are other PACs, lobbyists and individuals associated with companies or corporations – many of which are the same ones donating to Hilbert’s campaign.
The main expenditures from the PAC fund the campaigns of Oklahoma Representatives – including Hilbert. Why? Aren’t people from their own districts supposed to be supporting their office? Aren’t they to be Representatives of the People, not PACs or other candidates or legislators? If a candidate is receiving money from the campaign of a ‘leadership’ PAC or the Speaker Designate, what does that say about the independence of those Oklahoma Representatives? What happens when a bill is run and the Speaker needs votes? (Notice, not every legislator is on either Hilbert’s or WolfPAC’s list). Some Oklahoma legislators don’t take funds like those described above, thus circumventing any of the questions posed about their consequences.
Don’t Oklahomans have the right to wonder what happens during the next vote for Speaker? Do legislators who got checks feel the need to vote for the person who gifted them of his campaign funds? It surely does beg the question and an answer should be carefully considered.
In contrast, here is a video of Tom Gann during an October 8th Interim Study held at the capitol which described how Oklahomans can lose a host of their Constitutional rights when police officers pull over cars and use data captured by Automatic License Plate Readers.
Hmmm…is it just me, or is there really no comparison between Gann and Hilbert now that we’ve had the chance to look at them side-by-side?
Gann is funded by NO ONE – Hilbert is funded by PACs and lobbyists and individuals who represent/work with large corporations and businesses within the state – people who could very well have a stake in any legislation run through the legislature.
NOW, if any of the issues I’ve brought up concern you, contact your House Rep RIGHT NOW and ask them to vote for Tom Gann for Speaker of the House! (If you don’t know who that is, please slap yourself and then go here) It’s the only way to put government back in its box – the one that exists solely of PROTECTING OUR RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES.
List of PACs Contributing To Kyle Hilbert’s Campaign January through August, 2024
Advance Freedom PAC
Amber Integrated PAC
American Electric Power Committee for Responsible Government
American Fidelity Corp PAC
Architects Political Action Committee
Associated Builders and Contractors Oklahoma PAC
AT&T Oklahoma PAC
Beer Distributors of Oklahoma Political Action Committee
Bondsman Political Action Committee
Brightspring PAC (KY)
Boeing Company PAC
CARE PAC
Cox PAC
Delta Dental of Oklahoma For Oral Health PAC
Dentaquest PAC (MA)
Enterprise Holdings Inc. PAC (MO)
IP-PAC (DC) (also an International Paper PAC)
International Paper PAC (DC)
Invenergy Political Action Committee (IL)
Marathon Oil Company PAC (TX)
OK Beef PAC
Oklahoma Academy of Physician Associates
Oklahoma Committee of Automobile Retailers
Oklahoma’s Electric Cooperatives PAC
Oklahoma Funeral Directors Association PAC
Oklahoma Optometric Political Action Committee
Oklahoma Pharmacists Association PAC
Oklahoma Society of Certified Public Accountants Political Action Committee
Oklahoma Title Political Action Committee
Petroleum Alliance PAC
Pfizer PAC (NY)
Phillips 66 PAC
Plains All American PAC (TX)
Realtors PAC of Oklahoma
Sooner State PAC
The Williams Companies PAC
Thoroughbred PAC
Valero PAC (TX)
38 PACs
9 out of state
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