Oklahoma Republican Party Reportedly Thousands Of Dollars In Debt

Records leaked to News 9 by party insiders show the state GOP is operating more than $18,000 in the hole and has just $71.83 in its bank account for day to day operations.

“We’ve already failed because it means the public out there, the one million registered voters in the state that are registered republicans, it means that they don’t have faith in us as an organization,” said Oklahoma GOP Vice Chair Mike Turner.

Insiders said the party is catering to the far right, alienating more mainstream republican donors.

“You become captive to that audience.  And by being captive to that audience you’ve alienated the vast majority of the other electorate,” said Turner.

Turner said party chair David McLain is doing a lousy job of raising money, but a great job on spending it on things like trips to out of state party functions.

“I think between those trips, a couple of individuals that there’s questionable dollar return on, that single handedly puts us deep in the red,” Turner said.  “Anyone that knows me especially from my time when I served in the state legislature is that I’ve always called a spade a spade.  And it’s always been about following the rules and being financially transparent.”

The solution, Turner said is that McLain has to go.

“The chairman should step aside for the good of the party,” he said.

News 9 reached out to McLain. He did not return our call before this story aired but later released a statement saying: