The debate for a special election for U.S. Senate in Oklahoma is under scrutiny after a candidate in the race filed an injunction in what is becoming known as the debate over the debate.
Oklahoma City, OK – The Dr. Randy Grellner for U.S. Senate Campaign filed an injunction an Oklahoma court today against Griffin Communications, LLC, , and their television stations KWTV, Channel 9, in Oklahoma City and KOTV, Channel 6, in Tulsa. The issue involves the upcoming debate to fill the seat being vacated by current U.S. Senator James Inhofe.
The injunction addresses several grievances the campaign has with company regarding the changing of selection criteria as well as refusal of ads for a variety of reasons even though ads were produced and placed with other stations without issues or revisions. In addition, the company’s Tulsa affiliate, KOTV Channel 6, has continually refused accepting payment to place the ads claiming banking issues, even though other stations accepted and placed without delay.
“When we entered the campaign, we were noticeably the underdog since we were going up against several career politicians with a lot of name recognition. We also began raising money to fund the campaign and get our message to the voters Oklahoma,” Grellner said. “We entered the game, and this morning we came to an impasse with one of the news stations over several grievances and felt this injunction was the only alternative available to us and to Oklahoma voters being kept from hearing our message.”
The criteria given for this debate, the only named major statewide debate for this race, was that the top six of the 13 candidates in the race would be selected in a poll conducted by the company. In the event of a tie, the number six candidate who has raised the most funds for the campaign would be the individual selected to participate. Grellner polled at number six, despite his lack of name recognition, late filing, and lack of political advertising running at the time. In addition, the campaign at that point had raised nearly $1.2 million for the race, far and above the other candidate coming in at number six.
“This poll was taken before our campaign completed its media advertising buy within just a few days, and Griffin knew our buys were produced and in the process of being placed, which was going to cause our numbers to increase,” Grellner said. “Despite all of that, they changed the criteria to five, and selected a candidate with no media buys and a very small social media presence of only 25 followers on their Facebook page.
Grellner also noted that after these buys, the campaign is clearly within the top five candidates, and we are continually being denied participation.
“We offered multiple times to do a poll or reimburse them for an additional poll to show we were within the top five candidates after our media buys began to be aired. Each time they declined,” he said.
Grellner said this has been an ongoing pattern between the campaign and the Griffin Communications affiliates.
“There has been a pattern with Griffin Communications and its affiliates, to keep a qualified candidate off the debate stage and keeping Oklahoma voters from hearing from a candidate that supports their thoughts, their beliefs, and their wishes. Instead, they are choosing to give voters a choice to hear only from career politicians who represent special interest groups, Grellner said. “Today, we are fighting not only for the campaign, but for all Oklahomans to have the right to hear from a verified and qualified candidate to represent them in the United States Senate, making this another example of media bias in deciding to pick for themselves their choices for the next U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, making this an election integrity issue.”
Dr. Grellner is a candidate for U.S. Senate from Oklahoma. Additional information can be found at www.drgrellnerussenate.com.