Op-ed: Don't fall for the dark money lies about Brecheen

Don't fall for the dark money lies about Brecheen

by Kevin Batts

The lies of dark money have been hitting conservative candidates across the state. These attacks include accusations that truly conservative candidates have ties to groups like BLM and other left-wing movements. 

This leads us to the latest attacks against conservative 2nd District Congressional candidate Josh Brecheen, a man with one of the most conservative records during his two terms in the State Senate.

 The mailer and radio ads claim that during his time in office “Brecheen stood with BLM and defund the police.” The obvious problem with these accusations is that some of these bills passed years before the first BLM hashtag appeared on Twitter. Brecheen was well out of the legislature before BLM and defunding the police became a national leftist cause.  

The second issue is that these bills were mostly bipartisan and passed with overwhelming Republican support. To date, these bills that were only targeted toward non-violent offenders have saved the state over 100 million dollars. 

Brecheen was no friend of BLM or any other left-wing cause during his time in the State Senate. He was regularly attacked by leftists (and moderate establishment Republicans) in the state for his legislation and voting record. Brecheen had the third most conservative voting record according to Oklahoma Constitution's Conservative Index, and tied for the second-most conservative record according to American Conservative Union. He is a lifelong Coal County rancher and small business owner - hardly a BLM constituent. 

The group behind this smear is called Fund for a Working Congress; they are also the group responsible for attacking Trump-endorsed candidate Jake Evans in Georgia. They’ve spent $260k targeting Brecheen so far. You’re not going to sink over $200k on a candidate you think doesn’t stand a chance in a possible primary runoff. 

Josh is no career politician. He walked away from the legislature following a self-imposed pledge to term limit himself (eight years, rather than the full twelve years limited by law). Brecheen came up under the tutelage of the late US Senator Tom Coburn. Why would a wise, conservative figure like Coburn mentor the type of politician who would cozy up to BLM? He wouldn’t, because these are lies and these are groups set up by people operating in the shadows to smear conservatives. 

Brecheen is endorsed by Jim Bridenstine, Carolyn Coburn (Dr. Coburn’s wife of 50 years), and 7 former key Coburn staffers are volunteering for his campaign. 

These groups that are attacking conservatives in our state are funded by shadowy moneyed interests. These people won’t even show their faces to take responsibility for the fabricated claims they’ve been making. 

In summary, Oklahoma voters are smart enough to look at the record of those running for office and not take the word of groups lurking in the shadow making wild claims. The bills mentioned on the mailers and radio ads were made before defund the police was even a thing nationwide. They were passed overwhelmingly in a Republican legislature and were signed into law by a Republican Governor. SJR25 was a bill that became a ballot measure which passed with the wide support of Oklahoma voters.

HB 2131 (passed in 2011 by votes of 84-7 in the House and 44-3 in the Senate)
Expanded community sentencing programs and GPS monitoring for nonviolent offenders.

HB 2286 (passed in 2018 by votes of 84-5 in the House and 40-0 in the Senate)
The bill reformed the Parole board laws and created a new system of release for non-violent offenders called administrative parole. 

HB 1574 (passed in 2015 by votes of 56-29 in the House and 37-5 in the Senate)
The bill reforms the three strikes law for non-violent crimes. The 2015 law reduced the minimum sentence after two felony drug convictions from life to 20 years. The law specifically said that as long as the two prior convictions were not both for drug trafficking the judge would have the option to charge 20 years. The law also gave the judge the option to give the individual life without parole if he saw fit.

SJR 25 (passed in 2012 by votes of 86-8 in the House and 39-1 in the Senate)
This was a bill that became a State Question that passed with a statewide vote of 59.2% in favor. This removed the governor from the parole process for nonviolent offenders, a reform that successfully aimed at increasing efficiency in the parole system. Previously, Oklahoma was the only state that required the governor to approve all nonviolent parole recommendations.