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Oklahoma Highway Patrol, OKC police arrest man in Capitol vandalism
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troopers and OKC police arrested a man relation to vandalism that occurred at the Oklahoma State Capitol earlier in January.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol
Oklahoma is suing the company that state officials blame for the failed launch of a new campaign finance website.
RFD & Associates, Inc. did not complete a working site, even after the Oklahoma Ethics Commission repeatedly extended deadlines, according to the suit filed by Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
The website, dubbed Guardian 2.0, was supposed to allow Oklahomans to monitor donations to candidates seeking public office. Delays tied to its launch left Oklahoma without a campaign finance site for three months as the 2026 election season got underway.
The state is seeking in excess of $800,000 to recoup the costs of the project, according to the suit, which was filed in Oklahoma County District Court.
Drummond contended that RFD failed to meet six of seven contractual milestones, on top of failing to produce the site.
“Timely and reliable reporting systems are essential to transparency and public trust in our elections,” Drummond said in a statement. “RFD & Associates, Inc. failed to deliver the system it promised, despite repeated opportunities to correct course and must now be held accountable.”
RFD & Associates did not respond to a request for comment about the suit or the state’s claims by publication.
The state had allocated $2.2 million to the new website project, and had spent a total of $960,000 on the site, Commission Executive Director Lee Anne Bruce Boone said at a recent budget meeting. The money that the Ethics Commission had not yet spent is in a revolving fund.
After officially deciding to scrap Guardian 2.0, state officials struck a three-year deal with Civix, the government software provider that built and maintained the original campaign finance site.
The contract will be for $217,000. Bruce Boone said there is a possibility the state will be able to renew the contract after three years.