Like ad attacking them, dark money is also responsible for ad urging voters to support OK Supreme Court Justices

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — After a dark money group began airing an ad urging Oklahomans not to retain Oklahoma Supreme Court justices on the ballot, News 4 found a different dark money group is now running its own ad urging voters to retain the justices, and a former Republican Oklahoma Attorney General is also urging voters to keep the justices on the court.

As News 4 previously reported, a dark money group with ties to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), an advisory sponsor of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, is behind a television ad painting three Oklahoma Supreme Court Justices up for retention this November as “liberals.”

Recently, a different ad began airing, urging voters to retain the three justices, claiming they have successfully held State Superintendent Ryan Walters accountable and need to remain on the court to continue doing so.

News 4 has learned a key figure behind the movement urging voters to keep the justices in office is former Republican Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter.

Hunter told News 4, while he is not behind the ads airing in support of the justices, he believes the ad attacking them as “liberals” is “nonsense.”

The ad airing in support of the justices begins with ominous music, as it invokes the name of State Superintendent Ryan Walters.

The ad claims Walters is a law-breaker, and only the Oklahoma State Supreme Court has successfully been able to keep him in check.

“Without adequate funding, our public schools suffer,” a narrator says. “Radical superintendent Ryan Walters tried to take away public funding and give it to religious schools.”

Then, the music shifts to a positive, uplifting beat, as the narrator describes actions the three justices up for retention apparently took in support of public schools.

“Our Oklahoma Supreme Court stopped his disastrous plan and protected our public schools,” the narrator says. “These justices believe investing in every child’s future.”

The ad ends by urging voters to retain three state supreme court justices on the ballot next month.

“Stand up against threats to properly funding our schools,” the narrator says. “Stand with the justices who stood up for our children. Vote yes to keep Oklahoma’s supreme court justices.”

It’s a big contrast from the other ad News 4 reported about earlier this month, urging voters not to retain the justices.

That ad painted the justices as partisan activities.

It referred to them, and Oklahoma’s non-partisan judicial nominating commission, as “liberal.”

“Is it any surprise all three are activist liberal judges,” a narrator in that attack ad says. “It’s simple, vote no to remove liberals Gurich, Kauger and Edmonson from our Oklahoma Supreme Court.”

Dave Bond is the spokesperson for the dark money group behind the ad attacking the judges—'People for Opportunity.’

Bond insists, his group just wants to educate voters about who is on the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

“We're talking about one of the three major branches of our state's government. And it's typically not something that most Oklahomans think about,” Bond told News 4. “A lot of Oklahomans are interested to know that there's still four justices on the state Supreme Court who were appointed by Democrat governors and three of them are on the retention ballot this November.”

As News 4 reported earlier this month, ‘People for Opportunity’—advocates for more than voter education on its website.

Specifically, it calls for things like eliminating Oklahoma’s non-partisan judicial nominating commission, and supporting taxpayer-funded private and charter schools, among other policies.

News 4 also previously reported two of People for Opportunity’s board members work for the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA).

OCPA is an Oklahoma-based conservative think tank and a supporting sponsor of the Heritage Foundation’s ‘Project 2025’ plan.

In addition to them, News 4 found Bond also works for OCPA, serving as the group’s vice president according to its website.

“It's not surprising to us that folks would like to change the narrative and introduce something else to just try to distract Oklahomans from the fact that the three Supreme Court justices who are on the ballot this November were all appointed by Democrat governors and have a liberal track record,” Bond said in response to the new ad airing in support of the justices. “It's really not surprising at all.”

News 4 asked Bond to what he meant by “liberal track record.”

“All three of these Democrat-appointed justices have a long history of legislating from the bench on issues like watering down our state's immigration law, watering down our state's election security law, kind of letting trial lawyers tip the scales in their favor versus small businesses putting a lot of additional costs on small businesses,” Bond said, without citing which specific court decisions he was referencing.  

Bond pointed out, the ad supporting the justices does not make clear which court ruling it is referencing when it says “our Oklahoma Supreme Court stopped [Walters’] disastrous plan and protected our public schools.”

Again, Bond repeated his argument that the justices have a partisan agenda and were appointed by governors who belonged to the Democratic Party.

“I really don't know what ruling [the ad supporting the justices] is even referring to,” Bond said. “I haven't talked with anybody else who has much of an idea of what they were referring to, either. It does seem like they're trying to distract Oklahomans from the fact that the three justices on the ballot were all appointed by Democrat governors and all have a liberal record.”

After the ads by Bond’s group attacking the justice began airing earlier this month, former Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Turpen told News 4 he wasn’t surprised, given People for Opportunity’s ties to OCPA.

“OCPA is a very conservative think tank that generally does the bidding of Kevin Stitt and Ryan Walters, conservative elected officials,” Turpen told News 4 earlier this month.

Turpen predicted the fight to remove the three justices may really all just be about Ryan Walters. 

“The idea would be that [the court] will become more conservative and might defend Ryan Walters attempt to control what books go in to local school libraries all over the state.”

Now, with the new ad defending the justices making that argument, News 4 wanted to find who was behind it.

The fine print at the end of the ad says a group called “Protect Our Freedoms, LLC” is responsible for it.

Like ‘People for Opportunity,’ News 4 found ‘Protect Our Freedoms’ is also a dark money non-profit, thus not required to share its list of donors.   

The group’s address listed on the ad comes back to a shipping store in a non-descript strip mall in Nichols Hills.

The fine print also lists a phone number for Protect Our Freedoms.  

News 4 called the number.

It went straight to voicemail, and News 4 left a message.

A few hours later, News 4 received a call from former Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter.

He told News 4 he is part of an effort supporting the justices, and serves as a spokesperson for the effort.

Although he called News 4 following the voicemail News 4 left to ‘Protect Our Freedoms,’ Hunter said he is not affiliated with the group.  

“I'm not the architect of those ads and I can't say that that I endorse or take issue with the ads that are being run in defense of these justices,” Hunter said.

Describing himself as a “Republican, populist conservative,” Hunter told News 4 he believes its imperative Oklahomans of all political beliefs support the justices.

Hunter says he decided to get involved in the fight once People for Opportunity’s attack ads began airing, and laws prevent the justices from campaigning or speaking up publicly to defend themselves.

“[The three justices] follow the law,” Hunter said. “And what you don't want on a court, is you don't want a conservative or liberal or a politically oriented justice. You want somebody who's going to follow the law.”

Hunter said People for Opportunity’s attack ad painting the justices as partisans is false.

“Using the term liberal to define these justices is just nonsense,” Hunter said. “They're just doing their job. And because a special interest group doesn't agree with their decisions on an issue or two doesn't mean they ought to be pushed off the court.”

He argued Bond’s repeated talking points mentioning the fact the justices were appointed by Democrat governors disingenuous.

“Yes, some were appointed by Democratic governors,” Hunter said. “I don't think, George Nigh is a liberal. I'm sorry, I've known George Nigh almost all my life. And again, these terms shouldn't have any application to whether or not these justices should be retained.”

Hunter also takes issue with how People for Opportunity’s ad attacks the non-partisan judicial nominating commission, a commission the state began after a corruption scandal in the 1960s.

“So let's remember the sixties, let's remember the scandal, and let's note that this system has kept has kept our courts clean and away from scandal for over 60 years,” Hunter said. “There's never been an appellate judge not retained since these reforms were put in place back in the sixties. There's never been a scandal involving an appellate judge. And so I think that I think that the reforms of the sixties, which have an independent body, which isn't liberal—again, I will take strong issue with the allegations that the judicial nominated commission is liberal—I mean, that's just nonsense.”

News 4 asked Hunter how he feels about the fact Protect our Freedoms’ ad supporting the justices is also funded by dark money.

“There's that there's an old saying, don't take don't take a knife to a gunfight,” Hunter said. “I think a decision was made… [People for Opportunity] was using dark money for the wrong reason. In order to protect these judges and to protect the court, it's going to be necessary to fight fire with fire.”