PPL for OPPORTUNITY ok

cleta omly cits

People for Opportunity (Oklahoma) CONCORD LEO

People For Opportunity Inc - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica

frontier

handful of groups, including many that don’t reveal their financial backers, have launched a political ad blitz to try and sway voters on whether to retain three state Supreme Court justices in the Nov. 5 general election.

The three Oklahoma Supreme Court justices, James Edmondson, Noma Gurich and Yvonne Kauger, were all previously appointed by Democratic governors. Voters get to decide whether they should stay on the Supreme Court for another six years.

Judges and justices are mostly prohibited from campaigning for retention. If voters oust justices, Gov. Kevin Stitt would get to pick replacements from a pool of nominees recommended by the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission.

As of Oct. 29, groups have spent at least $3.4 million on political ads supporting or opposing the three justices. Two groups that have campaigned against retaining the justices reported spending about $1.8 million. Three pro-retention groups, which spent about $1.5 million combined, Ethics Commission spending reports show. The Frontierwas able to find the funders for at least two of the groups, the remainder were formed within the last few years and are not legally required to disclose their funders.

PEOPLE FOR OPPORTUNITY

The opening salvo in the retention election came from this group, which opposes keeping the three justices.

Oklahoma Ethics Commission records show People for Opportunity first purchased direct mail ads on Sept. 27 calling for voters to reject the three Supreme Court justices. The group has since spent more than $1.5 million on television ads, text messages, surveys and direct mail pieces as of Oct. 28.

People for Opportunity is a 501(c)(4) political dark money group headed by leadership of the conservative nonprofit think tank Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs has also purchased social media ads and offered opinions about judicial appointees over the past year. But the group’s tax-exempt status limits how much it can advocate for or against candidates in elections.

The think tank has been critical of how the Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled on some issues and during the past legislative session, the group had lobbied and created a public influence campaign to do away with Oklahoma’s Judicial Nominating Commission.

Because People for Opportunity is not a political action committee, but a nonprofit “social welfare” organization, it is not required to disclose who is funding its campaign. The group’s latest publicly available tax return for 2022 shows that it spent a little more than $2 million that year — $1.5 million of that was for advertising.