Various groups spent $15.9 million on TV ads to sway voters on Oklahoma’s state questions.
Spending was up significantly over the final three weeks of the election cycle. As of Oct. 17, total spending was just shy of $3 million.
Ben Wieder with the Center for Public Integrity pointed out final tallies often aren’t in until the election is over.
"That makes it very difficult to really get a sense of, you know, who's behind this and who has a stake in whatever the state question is that you're considering," Wieder said.
SQ 779, the education sales tax proposal, was the biggest draw, with a total of $5.2 million in spending. Supporters outspent opponents nearly three-to-one, but the measure failed.
SQ 777, the "right to farm" measure, attracted nearly $4.8 million in spending from two supporting groups and two opposing groups. The opposition outspent supporters by just $80,000.
Supporters were the only ones spending on some, including criminal justice reform initiatives. That concerned Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler, who said Oklahoma’s 27 district attorneys oppose those measures.
"We work for the state. It's not like there's some pot of money laying out there that we can hire up a company to put together a slick ad and put it up on TV to kind of put our message out there," Kunzweiler said.
The Republican State Leadership Committee spent roughly $645,000 — the least on any one state question — in a losing effort on SQ 790, which they pushed as the solution for reinstalling a Ten Commandments monument at the capitol. No one bought opposing ads.
The $15.9 million spent by all groups bought 19,270 TV ads.
There were no ads purchased for SQ 776, which enshrined the death penalty in the state constitution. It passed by the largest margin of any of the state questions.
