Outside of Joe Exotic, the most eccentric person running for Governor in 2018 is anti-establishment Democrat Connie Johnson.
She's a former State Senator and pro-marijuana advocate who made national news in 2012 when she filed an amendment to a personhood bill that would have made it illegal for a man to deposit semen anywhere but a woman's vagina.
Since she left the legislature, Connie's spent most of her time running for statewide offices that she has no chance of winning, irritating Democratic leaders, and "researching" medical marijuana. She's also not paying her bills. We learned about this when the Mary Failin t-shirt guy sued Connie in 2014, and when KFOR ran this report yesterday:
Cathy Welch has owned Campaign Technology Professionals for 14 years, helping political candidates and political action committees keep track of their finances.
One of the candidates she worked with was Connie Johnson during her 2014 congressional campaign.
“We did all of her bookkeeping, reconciling her account, making her deposits, cutting checks and then also filing her reports with the FEC,” Welch said. “We take care of our clients, and I would hope to get that same respect.”
Almost three years later, Welch said Johnson still owes her almost $7,000 for her work. She said she was stunned when she realized Johnson is now in the race to become Oklahoma's governor.
“I was floored when I found out she was running for governor, opening a new committee, raising funds and still had her congressional committee open and completely left high and dry,” Welch said.
Welch said she has received emails from Johnson’s current staff, but they only offered to pay her $2,500. After KFOR contacted Johnson's campaign, Welch said she received another email from the staff, saying they would pay her $3,500 but nothing more.
“It’s very insulting. I mean, I’ve already paid all my staff for the work they did on her committee. I haven’t paid myself for it. I mean, that’s just money I’m eating,” Welch said.
Yeah, that's not cool. I know it's the in-thing for Oklahoma political candidates to be fiscally irresponsible and bad with money, but this takes it to an extreme. Connie needs to pay this person before she stiffs her next consultant. It's never good to owe too many people money. Plus, it's the proper thing to do.
Connie's treasurer released a statement about the accusation. Naturally, they tried to blame the unpaid vendor and Oklahoma Democratic establishment:
“We have attempted to work through this claim with Ms. Welch and thought we were close to resolving it. I are surprised that she has gone to the press. Other factors may be at work: Ms. Welch now works as the designated filing agent for the campaign committee for Scott Inman for Governor.
Uhm, who cares if "other factors" are at work? You owe the vendor money! If you did what was right and paid them, then you wouldn't have to worry about anti-establishment conspiracy theories.
Ms. Welch's claim is for unpaid fees billed to Connie's campaign committee in her race for US Senate in 2014. Ms. Welch served as accountant for compliance and filings. She was in charge of authorizing expenses and paying all bills. She authorized and paid expenses that resulted in her monthly fees not being paid for two months. She bears some responsibility for her unpaid fees.
We still hope we can work through this with her. Going to the press does not help.”
Actually, going to the press helps a lot. Whether the person gets paid or not, at least we know Connie Johnson is either A) shady or B) can barely manage her own financials. Yes, that's a trait of most Oklahoma politicians, but it's probably not the person we need to lead the state right now.
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