FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: State Rep. Mike Reynolds
Capitol: (405) 557-7337

Reynolds Believes Corporation Commissioner's Campaign Contributions to
Attorney General Violated State Law

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.