Who's behind Oklahoma Grassroots Conservatives LLC?

Oklahoma Grassroots Conservatives LLC, a Delaware-registered dark-money group, has reported spending $677,828.65 opposing Steve Kunzweiler and supporting Colleen McCarty for Tulsa County District Attorney in the Republican primary. Dustin McIntyre is named as the group's treasurer; the address is a private mailbox facility at 4th and Yale. That astronomical amount does not include any spending in the last two weeks of the campaign.

Dark-money groups, like Oklahoma Grassroots Conservatives, LLC, offer a way for corporations to influence an election; it's illegal for corporations to donate directly to candidates for public office. Dark-money groups also provide an avenue for secret support from donors whose gifts might be embarrassing to a candidate and a way for donors to exceed the $3,500 maximum allowed by law.

It's interesting that we haven't seen many contributions to either candidate from people connected with Tulsa's progressive philanthropocrats. Names that are often on campaign contribution lists just aren't there. It may be that, because their names are poison in GOP primaries, these people are giving instead to the dark-money group to help McCarty.

There are a couple of exceptions. Former Democrat mayor Kathy Taylor gave $1,000 to McCarty, and so did Rachel Zarrow, a San Francisco teacher and freelance writer who serves on the board of the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family Foundation, which was a 2023 donor to Oklahoma Appleseed Project.

George Kaiser and his associates have not yet given to Colleen McCarty's campaign, but the George Kaiser Family Foundation gave $50,000 in 2023 and $50,000 in 2024 to McCarty's Oklahoma Appleseed Project. (The 990 for 2025 is not yet due to be filed.)

By World Economic Forum - Flickr: George Soros - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Billionaire leftist George Soros has been involved in a long-term effort to take over District Attorney's offices across America. According to a 2022 report from the Foundation for Government Accountability, Kim Foxx in Chicago, George Gascon in LA, Alvin Bragg in Manhattan, and DAs in Portland, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and New Orleans won office with support from Soros's organizations.

In 2022, there has been a rise in violent crime across the United States. But many cities and counties run by Soros-backed district attorneys have seen a disproportionally sharp increase in violent crime. Delaware County, Pennsylvania, saw a 127-percent increase in homicides once a Soros district attorney took over the top prosecutor job. Nearby Philadelphia had the highest murder rate of the 10 largest cities in the country. Cook County, Illinois, saw the largest spike in Chicago homicides in more than 30 years while the progressive district attorney backed by $2 million from Soros dropped charges against 30 percent of felony defendants. In Dallas County, Texas, after District Attorney John Creuzot decriminalized theft under $750, criminal trespass, and drug possession, crime increased 15 percent, while convictions dropped 30 percent.

Soros-backed district attorneys in California witnessed crimes in their districts that would seem more at home in movies. Shocking videos emerged of organized flash mob robberies at places like San Francisco's Union Square, Nordstrom, and Louis Vuitton. In Los Angeles, a flash mob ransacked a convenience store and the rest of the country got to learn what exactly rail theft entails.

This is to be expected when prosecutors who promise no prosecution are elected. Parts of the nation can begin to look like a third-world country because people will always push boundaries when there are no consequences....

Funding the campaign of a district attorney is much cheaper than that of a presidential, senatorial, congressional, or gubernatorial candidate. Soros spent $40 million to help elect district attorneys that represent more than 70 million Americans. The most expensive Senate race was Georgia's in 2020 with more than $500 million spent and the most expensive House race that cycle was a special election in California with more than $38 million spent. With the same amount of money as one House race, Soros was able to elect district attorneys representing more than a fifth of all Americans. Money really does go further in these races, which are arguably much more consequential for the day-to-day lives of Americans....

Soros's efforts to turn a largely nonpartisan position into an ideological one is in full swing. These progressive district attorneys have turned criminal law on its head, protecting the criminals and leaving the citizenry exposed. This has predictably led to an increase in crime and a feeling of unease for law-abiding citizens when in the streets of large cities.

After several Soros-backed DAs were ousted by voters in 2022, because of the chaos they caused, Soros wrote in the Wall Street Journal that he would continue to fund "reform prosecutors" in District Attorney elections. Soros echoes the same themes we've seen in McCarty's work at Oklahoma Appleseed and Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform: The criminal justice system is biased against African-Americans, and too many people are going to prison.

Oklahoma Grassroots Conservatives, LLC, has spent nearly a million dollars attacking DA Steve Kunzweiler and supporting Colleen McCarty. There isn't a corresponding dark-money group fighting on the other side. There's a world-renowned billionaire who has publicly stated he funds "reform" DA candidates who align with the "criminal justice reform" policies for which Colleen McCarty has advocated her entire, short, legal career. There's a local billionaire whose foundation made significant grants to Colleen McCarty's organization for the most recent two years for which 990s have been filed, 2023 and 2024. If any names traceable to either billionaire turned up in McCarty's campaign disclosures, it would destroy her viability as a Republican primary candidate. But there's a Delaware-registered dark-money organization right there, making it possible for donors to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars helping their preferred candidate without hurting her by association.

It may take years to find out who's behind it, but if it looks like Soros, and it smells like Soros, you have to wonder.