State Treasurer Todd Russ is in the news again.
This time around, instead of being accused of steering lucrative state contracts to his investment buddies, he’s being accused of opening a taxpayer-funded satellite office in Clinton as part of a ruse to justify commuting to Oklahoma City in a state vehicle.
Well, at least that’s what I’m accusing him of after reading this Oklahoma Watch article:
Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ is using a newly created unclaimed property office in western Oklahoma as a commuting hub to get back and forth to his office in the Capitol during the work week, according to GPS data from a state vehicle.
Russ opened the Clinton office in June 2025 as part of a plan to give rural residents a place to ask questions about the state’s unclaimed property program, other than Oklahoma City.
But Russ also appears to be using the Clinton office as a commuting hub, with hundreds of trips in a state vehicle to and from the unclaimed property office and the Capitol in Oklahoma City in the past year.
Clinton is 85 miles from Oklahoma City. Russ lives in Cordell, about 15 miles south of Clinton.
Yikes. That’s pretty blatant, lazy and brazen. But, oh well, maybe this Clinton field office is legit and provides a good service to the community, and doesn’t simply look like a state-issued money laundering hub.