Thanks For Smoking

Last month, the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council voted unanimously to pass a law that subsidizes the sale of tobacco.  So, the Nation is now in the position of buying billboards that say “Tobacco Stops With Me,” while at the same time paying people to sell you tobacco at below-market prices.

Here’s the deal: The Cherokee Nation is going to take $725,000 of the Cherokee people’s money and give it to the people who own the land that the smoke shops sit on.  Which means that the people who run the smokeshops don’t actually have to pay their rent anymore, the Cherokee Nation is picking up the tab.

Which is actually good news, because if the Cherokee Nation has close to a million bucks to subsidize the people who sell us cancer sticks, we’re sure that means they’ve already fully-funded health care and college scholarships, and of course, eyeglasses and dentures.   

We’re glad there are no longer any social problems that need to be addressed in the Cherokee Nation, and we anxiously await the roll-out of subsidies for folks at liquor stores and perhaps the fine folks at Hostess because the price of Ding-Dongs is getting just a little too high for our diabetes-riddled communities.

Accountability Watch, Part 2: When in Rome Edition

Thanks to the fine folks at the Native American Times, we can all read the text of Bill John Baker’s inauguration speech.  From reading it, we can see why some of the folks that went spoke highly of the event.  The speech was well written.  We’re sorry he didn’t take the opportunity to tell us what policy he was referring to that kept employees from talking to their council members, but instead told us that it existed and we should believe him.

He said he made five promises during the campaign that he planned on keeping, so we’ll take this as a challenge for all of us to keep him accountable.

#1: He’s selling Cherforce One and is currently taking bids.

#2: He’s going to have Cherokees build houses for other Cherokees by reactivating the Housing Authority to build hundreds of homes.

#3: He will ‘more fully audit the nation’s books to find more money to help our people,’ having Lacey Horn replace Callie Catcher.

#4: More money for contract health

#5:  A $200 elder stipend every six months for Cherokees ‘in need.’

We’re glad Baker is willing to be held accountable to these, and possibly other promises.  He, of course,  has to find money to pay for these new projects, and if Lacey Horn finds it all in her audits, she will definitely be earning her keep.

From Good to Great?

Baker has nominated a new treasurer.   In an all-employee email, since forwarded to Cherokee Truth, Baker said he wants Lacey Horn to replace Callie Catcher.  In the email, Baker tells us that she has a bachelors and masters degree from SMU and her previous experience includes a four-year stint as senior auditor with Chicago’s KPMG.  She is currently a CPA in Vian, her hometown. She graduated from Vian High School in 2000.  According to an online directory of businesses,

“Lacey A Horn Cpa, Pllc in Vian, OK is a private company categorized under Accounting and Bookkeeping Services. Our records show it was established in and incorporated in Oklahoma. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $35,000 and employs a staff of approximately 1.”

Callie Catcher has been the treasurer of the Cherokee Nation since 2004.  Prior to that, she was controller of Dover Resources, where she was responsible for all financial functions for the international manufacturing group.  Dover’s revenues last quarter were $2.2 billion dollars.  That’s just in one quarter.  That works out to almost $9 billion in revenue per year.  That’s basically NINE times bigger than the Cherokee Nation.

When Catcher was confirmed, Baker voted for her to become Treasurer.  Joe Crittenden said “I have every confidence in her as a professional.”  Crittenden’s Adair County council cohort Jackie Bob Martin said, “We’ve best Secretary/Treasurer of any Indian tribe.”

So how has she done since then?  Well, the Cherokee Nation has won 10 straight awards for excellence in financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association for the Cherokee Nation’s “financial transparency and full accountability by exceeding the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles demonstrated through comprehensive annual reports.”

That means the Cherokee Nation has done really well since Catcher became Treasurer.

Baker says one of his first orders of business is to have Horn audit Catcher’s work. 

So to sum up, Baker wants to replace a Cherokee who wins awards for financial excellence and has overseen finances for a multi-billion dollar company... with quite possibly the best CPA in Vian. 

The Price of Sovereignty: Part "Tali" (That's Cherokee for "2")

In the discussion about the HUD funding being restored, we neglected one more retroactive and inaccurate statement.

While Baker was busy taking credit for selling our sovereignty for roughly $40 million pieces of silver, he also took a shot at Smith, by saying he was getting the money restored that was “withheld from the Nation and the previous administration.”

Either Baker is taking a shot at APCSJC, or he forgot that Smith wasn’t Chief when the ruling came down on August 22.

August 22 is the day that the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court issued the ruling saying the freedmen weren’t citizens any more, and threw everything sideways.  Until that happened, HUD was giving us our money.

Remember--Smith left office on August 14th, and Joe Crittenden was sworn in as Acting Principal Chief, a week before all this hit the fan.

Baker was there; he ought to know that his buddy Joe Crittenden was in office when the Supreme Court issued their ruling and got the ball rolling on this.

Not that its Crittenden’s fault… the Chief doesn’t control the timing or the content of Supreme Court decisions. That goes for Chief Smith, Chief Crittenden and now, Chief Baker.

So, if Baker wants someone to blame for HUD withholding housing funding, he really should start with HUD.  They withheld the money even though there was no law that said they should.  Or he could start with the Cherokee people, for changing the Constitution.

Baker should learn that he doesn’t necessarily look better when he tries to make Smith look worse, especially when he does so by ignoring the Truth.

5 Days until the New Election: Smith's August Finances

As we discussed yesterday, this has become a $1 million Cherokee Chief campaign .  In the last few days before the election, we’ll spend some time talking about where that money is coming from and where it is being spent. We’ll start with Smith today and move to Baker later. 

Smith raised $154,108.99 in the most recent reporting period, including a $38,000 loan.  He had about 132 donors, for an average donation of $879 or so. Donors of note include Barry Derryberry, an OKC area attorney, Council member Jack Baker and former speaker of the house for Oklahoma Chris Benge.  The biggest expenses were $18,924 for telephone (which turns out not to be long distance calls to Uzbekistan, but actually phone polling), $35,106.24 for printing (mailers anyone?) and $23,131.50 for compensation to individuals.

The polling was done by Cole Hardgrave Snodgrass, who we talked about earlier.  He even spent $5,247 on office supplies, which is a lot of staplers and paper clips!

Smith’s total expenditures were $110,992.26, which leaves Smith with $42,616.73 in cash as of September 15. We’ll plan on Baker’s finance report tomorrow, but if our tribal court or the federal court come up with something soon, you’ll understand if we push it back, right?

6 Days Until the New Election: Barenaked Ladies Edition

If I had a million dollars.... I'd build a tree fort in our yard!

If you had a million dollars what would you do with it?  If you answered run  two campaigns  for Principal Chief, you would need every penny.  Between Smith and Baker, more than $1,171,000 is invested in this campaign.  

The Tulsa World did us a semi-favor by posting some information about the latest campaign finance reports, but they managed to not post the actual reports online, so those are still to come. However, we can get to the basics now and the details later.

In August, Smith raised $ 102,979.12 and loaned himself $38,000.    That makes his fundraising total (our math, not the World’s)  $494,544.19, and his loan total of $78,301.91 for a total available to his campaign so far of: $572,648.10.  Which sounds like a lot of money, and it is, until you realize Baker’s stack is just as big.

Between August 16 and September 15, Baker raised $152,851.97, bringing his fundraising total to $444,297.59.  With his loan total of $155,000, the total money available to his campaign so far is $599,297.59.

So we’ve got what has to be the first million dollar campaign in Cherokee Nation history, and we still don’t have a chief!  We’ll post more on the campaign finance reports (and links to the reports themselves) of both candidate  soon.

10 Days Until the New Election: Britney Spears Edition

Yesterday, the freedmen filed something called a “motion to reconsider” with the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court.  Basically, asking for a do-over in the court case, because, hey why not? We’re having a do-over election, right?  Certainly worth a shot.

Today, a surprise so weird we’re not sure what to compare it to:  the Cherokee Nation agreed to the do-over, and oh-by the way asked the court to put the injunction back in place that allowed the freedmen to have citizenship.   

What?  Since March 2007, the Cherokee Nation has been fighting for its Constitutional amendment in court.  Last month, the Cherokee Nation won.  But today, they told the court we can do this over.  So… what’s changed?  If you say the Echo Hawk letter or the HUD funding hold, that might mean you think money is more important than our people’s constitutional amendment.   And APCSJC might agree with you according to his statement on the Cherokee Nation web site today, which said in part: "I believe the Nation should do what is best for its people especially sinceFederal HUD funding is currently frozen."

  

Or you could go with what APCSJC said to Channel 2 tonight:  

"They may have helped put me in office. I believe they're entitled to vote again."

Surely he didn’t mean it the way it sounded, because some people might interpret that to mean he’s in favor of doing something for the people who voted him in, even if the Supreme Court disagrees.

Meanwhile, the Cherokee Nation Election Commission met tonight and decided freedmen could vote in this election after all, despite the Supreme Court ruling.  The Commission is going to send ballots to freedmen absentee voters and is going to allow freedmen to walk in and vote as well.  They are going to cast challenge/provisional ballots, which means… well, we’ll let Election Commission Chair Susan Plumb explain it: "If a court decides the freedmen descendants can vote we will have the ability to certify the election," Plumb said. "If the court decides they cannot vote we will still be able to preserve the election."

Anyway, to paraphrase Britney Spears: it looks like everybody involved wants our Supreme Court to say Oops!

12 Days Until the New Election: Betting the Farm

The Tulsa World did a finance story over the weekend about the campaign, and got some answers to questions we’ve been wondering about ourselves.

They noticed that Baker has lost money on his furniture business, but still managed to loan himself $155,000.  Baker told the World that he was “plowing a good portion of my lifetime profits into trying to serve the Cherokee people.”

That’s the first time we’ve heard a peep from Baker about how he’s paying for the election, so many thanks to the World for getting Baker on the record.   The World also solved the mystery of how Baker’s income is less than his actual council salary.  They say “much of his $36,000 council-member salary is withheld for tax purposes or goes directly into a retirement fund.”

Smith has loaned himself $40,000, which we’ve covered before as well.  He says that money comes from a loan.  He tells the World:  "For my adult years, I've worked hard, paid my taxes and provided for my family. I do not have the means to self-fund my campaign."

So it looks like both candidates are betting the farm on this one.  The stakes are not just high for the Nation, but for the candidates themselves, which may be a contributing factor in the high emotions surrounding this election.

13 Days Until the New Election: Best Month Ever

Best month ever!  Very Nice!

Yesterday we looked at Chad Smith’s most recent campaign finance reports, to see who is giving him money and what he is spending it on.  Today, it’s Baker’s turn, and we’ll repeat some of yesterday’s caveats:

Keep in mind, this reporting period is for the calendar month of July, which, looking back, went something like recount, court appeal, second recount, court orders new election, Deputy Chief election, then we’re pretty much in August.  The new election was ordered by the Supreme Court on July 21 (see our riveting blog here).

Baker’s report though, covers July 15-August 15, so his numbers should, and are, higher than Smith's.

In fact, the Baker campaign might call July 15-August 15 the best month ever.  The Supreme Court didn’t make Smith chief, even though they counted more votes for Smith.  Baker’s Deputy Chief fave S. Joe Crittenden won the runoff election, and then got sworn in as APCSJC on August 14.  Then on August 15, Baker turned in a report showing that he raised almost $100,000 in those 30 days, which is almost half as much as he raised from other folks this whole election cycle up until July 15.  And he didn’t have to add to the $155,000 in loans he’s made to his campaign.  So again, a pretty good month for Baker. 

His contributors include a few folks who gave to Smith before, so some people may be hedging their bets.  Contributors of note include $1000 bucks from election commissioner-to-be Susan Plumb, $500 from freedmen advocate David Cornsilk, and $2000 from former Supreme Court Justice and Chief candidate Stacy Leeds.  Also, another big donation from a Cherokee Truth reader, but we’ll let that person ID themselves if they wish.

Baker’s expenditures for the month totaled $68,438.79.  His biggest expenses were related to the recount and other miscellaneous ($28,500) and printing ($26,969).

Baker’s attorney Kalyn Free got $10k for ‘lawsuit’ and a DC firm got $20,000 for mail printing.

Baker’s cash on hand was $61,176.20 on August 15.

Baker’s total contributions from others so far now total $291,445.62.

That’s on top of the $155,000 loan, which puts the total money in his campaign so far at $446,445.62.

The September 15 reports will be out soon, and we’ll get you information on those as quick as we can.  If any of our readers have access to those reports, please email them to cherokeetruth@gmail.com.

14 Days Until the New Election: Money Money Money!

Maybe it’s a little overdue (since we’re into September), but we owe it to you, our readers, to keep up with our campaign finance watchdoggery. Mainly because no one else is really trying very hard!  We’ll look at Smith and Baker’s August 15 financial reports in the next couple of days.  Today, we’ll start with Smith and tomorrow we’ll go with Baker.

Keep in mind, this reporting period is for the calendar month of July, which, looking back, went something like recount, court appeal, second recount, court orders new election, Deputy Chief election, then we’re pretty much in August.  The new election was ordered by the Supreme Court on July 21 (see our riveting blog from that day here).

So there wasn’t much time for fundraising, or much to spend money on, for either of the candidates.

Smith started with $28,060, raised $12,890 and loaned himself $26,003.  That brings his total loans to about $40,000. Click here to reference Smith's entire report.

Interesting donors include state legislator Brian Bingman, former Cherokee Supreme Court Justice Philip Viles, and an employee Baker wrongfully accused of breaking the law. 

Smith’s expenditures for the month totaled $53,824.  The biggest expenditures were for miscellaneous/recount/election challenge, which includes paying some lawyers.  That total was $18,631.  Next was advertising, which might be bills coming in from the ads placed prior to the June election.  The total there was $16,698.

Smith’s cash on hand at the end of July was $13,129.87

Smith’s fundraising total through the whole campaign $391,565.07. On top of his $40,103.91 in loans,  Smith has had a total of $431,668.98 to spend on his campaign thus far. 

16 Days Until the New Election: Barney Frank Edition

News on Wednesday is that the smart folks at HUD can’t figure out what the law is, so they are holding up $33 million of housing funding that was set to hit the Cherokee Nation’s bank account.  HUD told the Tulsa World they had “suspended disbursements to the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma while we seek additional guidance on an unclear statute involving the Freedmen. The funding can be restored once this issue is resolved.”

Cherokee Nation Attorney General weighed in with a strongly worded letter, telling HUD that if they don’t understand the law, it doesn’t mean the Cherokees don’t get their money.  It might just mean that the folks at HUD are dumb.  Channel 6 posted Hammons’ letter, and for us was the part where she said: “If Congress wanted to deny funding to the Cherokee Nation, it would have done so…. Congress made a choice that did not side with a particular party, but instead maintained the status quo until the tribal courts decided the matter.”

So just to be clear to the folks at HUD:  Congress could’ve denied funding to the Cherokee people, but they didn’t.  So go ahead and make that check payable to Cherokee Nation, Acting Principal Chief S. Joe Crittenden (APCSJC), and don’t even think about back dating it.

Speaking of APCSJC, we heard from him on this issue, and both candidates as well, in a Smoot article in the Muskogee Phoenix.  Crittenden told us everything’s going to be all right, he’s got it under control, which is good to know.

Baker said it’s all Smith’s fault, saying he could’ve kept congress from choosing sides.  Of course, Hammons says that’s what the law says already, and Crittenden apparently thinks so too, because he says the Nation is complying with the law and he’ll get our funding.

Smith challenges Baker to fight for Cherokees-- and that the Freedmen, who publicly support Baker, are the only people actively seeking to cut services to the Cherokee Nation if they can’t win their legal arguments (or the constitutional votes of the Cherokee people). 

Congressman Barney Frank, (D) Mass.

And of course, this wouldn’t be the Barney Frank edition of the Cherokee Truth if the Massachusetts congressman didn’t weigh in, because, after all, this is a big issue up in Boston.   Frank, according to Indian Country Today, told HUD not to part with a penny for the Cherokee Nation.

Of course, Frank is an expert on the legal intricacies of this case because…?  If you are not familiar with Frank’s track record, google him up.  For instance, last year a tribal leader in California said one of Frank’s proposals was ‘the biggest threat to Indian gaming in 20 years.'

We’ve had a little fun with this, but it’s not really a laughing matter.  There’s $33 million that’s supposed to be heading to Tahlequah to pay employees and help Cherokees.  As much faith as we have in APCSJC, that’s a whole lot of rental assistance, so we hope that gets worked out soon.

38 & 37 Days Until the New Election-Baker Spending

Baker spent $46,273.26  during the reporting period ending July 15.  Almost exactly half of that, $23,083.10, went to a company called Winning Connections in Washington DC for phone calls.  That’s a lot of money.  On their web site, they don’t give prices, so we can only guesstimate.  Our research showed a range of costs, with $.12 per robocall seeming to be fairly representative, though there were plenty of services that were cheaper.

Assuming those were all robocalls at $.12 each, that would work out to 192,359 phone calls from Baker.  While it seems like we got about 100,000 between just us here at Cherokee Truth, that may be right.   Of course, some of those may have been live calls from actual people.  According to a Cherokee Phoenix report, those may cost less than a buck each.   

Even so, that’s at least 23,000 phone calls.  So somewhere between 23,000 and 192,359 phone calls paid for by Baker, on top of however many phone calls his campaign volunteers made.

Speaking of which, just like every other report, Baker doesn’t have a phone bill charged to his campaign.  He does have a campaign phone number, but apparently he doesn’t have to pay for it.  Again no reported costs for office supplies, office expenses, campaign office rent, utilities or travel.

He did spend more than three grand at Reasors for a Hog Fry and $4500 to the election commission for a recount.  Which, considering how badly they butchered it (losing a few hundred votes and costing both candidates a ton of legal fees trying to figure out their mistake), might be the biggest rip off of the campaign so far. 

The usual suspects showed up as labor costs--- roommates Johnathan Levy and Sean Nordwall (1200 N. Cedar) and furniture store dweller Lindi Conover, for a total of $8280.

Baker’s total expenditures for the July reporting period were $46,273.26.  He ended with a balance of $24,787.54.  He’s spent a total of $321,859.42 so far.