Guest Columnist: In Defense of Dahm – Part One
Recently, a group of Oklahoma GOP State Committee members asked state GOP Chairman Nathan Dahm to ‘resign for misconduct’. I personally know some of these people and consider them to be friends – unfortunately, they have been tragically misled. Here follows a factual, point-by-point refutation of the first of these ‘allegations’, with more articles to follow addressing each one.
Allegation One - questionable donations attributed to people who allegedly did not make them. The donations disappeared and records amended after an FEC investigation was called.
Refutation One – there are two places the Oklahoma GOP reports for fundraising and expenses – the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Oklahoma Ethics Commission (OEC). For the FEC, we have a ‘federal’ committee named the ‘Oklahoma Leadership Council’ with an FEC number of C00167213. The original report was filed in December of 2023. An amended report is required if there are errors in the prior report. The December report was amended according to the website in January of 2024. If you open the amended report, it states “This report is amended to correct contribution amounts that were previously incorrect due to a clerical error. Cash on hand is adjusted accordingly.” The adjustment was as follows:
Decrease line 6(c) ‘Total Receipts’ from $35509.06 to 25018.13. This references line 19, total receipts. Line 19 breaks down all donations from all sources. The differences as broken down are in these reports if you want to see them – but it’s a total of $10,490.93 due to a clerical error by our accounting vendor.
Who is our accounting vendor? Red Curve Solutions. They’re also listed in these reports. It should be noted that the discrepancy was that the amount of donation was accidentally dragged down the spreadsheet – in other words, the correct donor is listed, but the amount they donated was auto-populated from a donation on a row before. If the spreadsheet cell had a value of $500.00 and it was ‘dragged’ down to the next row, the value in the next row would be $500.01, and the following row $500.02, until the accidental ‘click and drag’ ended. The amended report corrected the donation amount.
No amendment was required for the OEC since this only applied to the federal committee report.
Author’s Opinion – this is an attempt to create doubt as to the integrity and truthfulness of the Chairman and/or the Treasurer, with no factual evidence. Those pushing this as a reason for removing the Chairman are either misinformed or lying to the GOP State Committee, the members of the Republican Party, and the public at large.
Author Disclaimer – I have known Nathan Dahm since 2012. I have always found him to be a principled and ethical advocate for Liberty, even when he has stood alone. This has been the case many times in his career as a State Senator. At the 2024 State GOP Presidential Primary watch party, I expressed to him my severe concern about the actions taken by some to undermine his Chairmanship and volunteered in any capacity he needed to help him at the upcoming 2024 GOP State Convention. He later accepted my offer to help and appointed me the Rules Committee Chairman, with only the instruction to ‘follow the Rules’. Our committee did that – and so did the Ad Hoc Resolutions Committee, which he also asked me to Chair, after the work of the Rules Committee was complete. The Resolutions Committee was created to address a gap in our Rules and was his effort to have the will of the Party expressed at the Convention. I appreciate his confidence and trust in me. Due to these things, many would say I have ‘bias’ regarding Nathan Dahm. Of course I am biased, as is everyone who holds any position, elected or appointed, in the GOP. With that stated, I have included links to all sources of information in this article. Read the publicly filed, actual documents for yourself. Don’t take my word for it – or anyone's. Trust your own eyes and judgement.
Ask yourself if two guys who are volunteers and receive no payment for their efforts (the Chairman and Treasurer) would lie to the Federal Election Commission and the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, risking fines and prison, for – well, I don’t know. There is no logical reason they would lie or file false reports – NONE.
All of this is public.
There are no secret accounts.
The rumors are lies.
The liars spread the rumors.
Steve Dickson
Precinct 405 Chairman, Oklahoma County
2024 Oklahoma County Executive Committee
2024 Oklahoma County and State Convention Rules Chairman
2024 State Ad Hoc Resolutions Committee Chairman
