Exclusive: A group spent $18K to help a Tulsa school board candidate. No one can say where the money came from

Last year, a short-lived Oklahoma political action committee reported spending just over $18,000 on direct mail to help a Tulsa school board candidate unseat an incumbent.

The PAC, Restoring Oklahoman Values, told the Oklahoma Ethics Commission that its money came from a federal political action committee with the same name that spent more than $300,000 in 2020 to help Republican Stephanie Bice defeat Democratic Congresswoman Kendra Horn.

The national group, however, never reported transferring the amount of money reported by the state group helping E’Lena Ashley in Tulsa; in fact, the national group ultimately reported to the Federal Election Commission that it never gave any money to the state PAC.

The national group also never reported receiving any money back from the state group, contrary to a report filed with the state Ethics Commission.

That leaves in question the origin of money used to help Ashley defeat incumbent Shawna Keller last year for a seat on the Tulsa school board. If the national group did not provide the money, then the state organization that financed direct mail pieces for Ashley has never accurately reported who provided the funds.

National conservative organizations are more involved in school board elections, including in Oklahoma

Ashley, who also received help from a separate PAC in Oklahoma, was an example of the heightened involvement nationally by conservative groups in local school board races. In her time on the board, Ashley has become aligned with state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters and the Tulsa chapter of Moms for Liberty; she helped pressure the Tulsa school superintendent to resign and is pushing for prayer in public schools.

Although the $18,000 spent for direct mail pieces on Ashley’s behalf would be a small percentage of expenditures in a contested statewide or congressional race, it is a relatively large amount for a school board race. It equaled what Ashley and Keller reported raising for their campaigns just before the April 5, 2022, election.

Ashley won the race by 126 votes out of 986 cast in the race.

The full-color mailers cast Ashley as a candidate who would demand accountability, focus on parents’ rights and upend the status quo. They featured the same profile picture she used on her campaign material. Also included were pictures of Black school-aged children, her campaign website address and information about the election.

Charity Marcus, who was Ashley’s political consultant, said neither he nor Ashley had any contact with anyone from Restoring Oklahoman Values. State law prohibits coordination between candidates and PACs like Restoring Oklahoman Values.

“As her consultant, I do think their positive-focused mailers played some type of role in her winning,” Marcus said.

Within a few weeks of taking her seat, Ashley and another board member, Jennettie Marshall, sent a letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt requesting an audit of Tulsa Public Schools, a request readily forwarded by Stitt, a frequent critic of the Tulsa school system, to the state auditor.

Stitt said the "special audit" by state Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd should cover the potential misuse of pandemic aid; financial irregularities involving a vendor; and potential violations of House Bill 1775, the controversial law that bans teaching certain concepts about race and sex.

Stitt’s office did not respond last week to an inquiry about whether the governor had spoken to Ashley about requesting an audit before the letter was sent. The audit has yet to be completed.

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Marcus said, “E'Lena has never had any meetings nor talked with Governor Stitt before or during her election nor during her time as an elected official outside of being present at campaign rallies or political organizations' events.”

Ashley’s own campaign reports, filed after they were due in the race last year, don’t correspond to those of a political action committee that donated directly to her campaign.

Ashley reported receiving $500 from the Oklahoma Conservative PAC in December 2021. However, the PAC reported giving her $500 in January 2022, and another $1,000 in March 2022.

That PAC gave to several other school board candidates last year, including ones in Edmond, but most endorsed by the PAC lost their races. It also gave to Walters and Stitt.

One of the school board candidates, Chemise Stancle, in Norman, wrote on her social media site, “Went to Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee (OCPAC) meeting today to receive a donation for my school board campaign. Grateful for the help but was even more grateful to hear Christians openly encouraging one another to get involved in local politics. To listen to prayers for guidance from Jesus Christ and to stand up for a biblical world view. I know our Nation isn’t perfect but I’m sure grateful for the rights and freedoms."

The Oklahoma Conservative PAC donated $5,000 to a Tulsa school board candidate earlier this year, but that candidate was overwhelmingly defeated by the incumbent.

Nationally, conservative PACs have gotten heavily involved in school board elections in several states, with some focusing on religious themes and the topic of how race and gender are taught.

Fundraiser for previous Gov. Stitt campaign affiliated with now defunct PACs

Both the national and state groups registered as Restoring Oklahoman Values are now defunct. The state group was dissolved two months after forming. The national group was terminated early this year.

Though they didn’t apparently share funds, they did share an officer, Cabbell Hobbs, who was the treasurer of the national group and the chair of the state group.

Hobbs has registered as treasurer for numerous organizations in multiple states. He is the treasurer for the Super PAC called Never Back Down Inc., which is backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential run. He was the treasurer of a group called Our American Century PAC that paid a fine last year for not complying with federal law in some ads attacking Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race. And he has been the treasurer for some Republican U.S. senators.

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For the federal and state groups called Restoring Oklahoman Values, Hobbs gave an address in Austin. He did not respond to an email sent to the address given on the PAC registration forms.

Karsten Irwin, who worked as a fundraiser for Stitt’s 2018 campaign for governor, was listed as the treasurer for the state PAC. Irwin did not respond to a text to the phone number he gave on the PAC registration and for a Stitt fundraising event, or to an email to the address he listed.

The national group was formed as Restore Oklahoma in 2020 and collected money from individual donors and businesses. The PAC spent more than $317,000 on media and mail that year to boost Bice in a hard-fought congressional race in the Oklahoma City area.

The group’s fundraising was handled by the same Tulsa firm that Stitt employed for both of his campaigns, and all but one of the donors in 2021 had given to one or both of Stitt’s campaigns.

In early March 2022, the group changed its name to Restoring Oklahoman Values. In its report covering the first quarter of 2022, filed on April 15, the group reported giving $25,000 to the Restoring Oklahoman Values state committee on March 16.

That was a week after the state Restoring Oklahoman Values had formed and reported receiving $50,630.42 from the national Restoring Oklahoman Values committee. Neither the dates nor the amounts reported by the two groups corresponded.

The state group reported making six payments to a group called Majority Strategies in Dallas for the mail pieces for Ashley’s campaign for the Tulsa school board. Then, in May, the group reported giving $31,786.84 back to the national group and dissolving.

The national group never reported receiving that money.

In fact, the national group filed an amended report for the first quarter that showed no contribution to the state group. Instead, the report listed two expenditures to Majority Strategies totaling about $18,200 for non-federal mail production. No other details were provided about the mail.

If the national group had actually given the amount the state group reported receiving, the national group would have gone into the red; candidates and political action committees can't spend more money than they have.

In February 2023, the national group dissolved and reported giving most of its remaining funds, $17,196, to the Oklahoma political action committee that helps Republicans running for state Senate seats.

That PAC, the Senate Majority Fund, is administered by Josh Kivett, of Nichols Hills, an incorporated area inside Oklahoma City. Kivett also works for Majority Strategies, which handled the mail production for the state and national groups calling themselves Restoring Oklahoman Values.

Kivett is also associated with the Jamison Group, another consulting company that received money from the national Restoring Oklahoman Values. Kivett did not respond to emails to his personal email address or the one given for the Senate PAC.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: E'Lena Ashley campaign in Tulsa partially funded by mystery money