§ Ethics Rule 2.2Definitions

As used in Rule 2:
1. “Campaign” means all activities for or against the election
of a candidate for elective state office or for or against a state
question;
2. “Candidate” means an individual who has filed or should have
filed a statement of organization for a candidate committee for state
office with the Commission as required by these Rules.
A candidate
committee shall include committees for candidates for partisan
elective offices, for nonpartisan judicial offices and for judicial
retention offices;
3. “Candidate committee” means the only committee authorized by
a candidate to accept contributions or make expenditures on behalf of
the candidate’s campaign, including the campaign of a judicial
retention candidate;
4. “Clearly identified candidate” means a candidate whose name,
nickname, photograph or drawing appears, or whose identity is
otherwise apparent by unambiguous reference;
5. “Commission” means the Oklahoma Ethics Commission;
6. “Contribution” means any gift, subscription, loan, guarantee
or forgiveness of a loan, conveyance, advance, payment, distribution
or deposit of money made to, or anything of value given to, or an
expenditure other than an independent expenditure made on behalf of,
a political party, political action committee or candidate committee,
but shall not include the value of services provided without
compensation by an individual who volunteers those services;
7. “Electioneering communication” means any communication or
series of communications that is sent by Internet advertising, direct
mail, broadcast by radio, television, cable or satellite, or appears
in a newspaper or magazine that (a) refers to a clearly identified
candidate for state office, (b) is made within sixty (60) days before
a general election (including a special general election) or thirty
(30) days before a primary or runoff primary election (including a
special primary or runoff primary election) for the office sought by
the candidate, (c) that is targeted to the relevant electorate and
(d) does not explicitly advocate the election or defeat of any
candidate. “Relevant electorate” shall mean twenty-five thousand
(25,000) or more persons in the State of Oklahoma in the case of a
candidate for statewide elective office, two thousand five hundred
(2,500) or more persons in the district the candidate seeks to
represent in the case of a candidate for the Oklahoma State House of
Representatives or judge of the District Court, and five thousand
(5,000) or more persons in the district the candidate seeks to
represent in the case of all other elective state offices;
8. “Expenditure” means a purchase, payment, distribution, loan,
advance, compensation, reimbursement, fee, deposit or gift made by a
political party, political action committee, candidate committee or
other individual or entity that is used to expressly advocate the
election, retention or defeat of one or more clearly identified
candidates or for or against one or more state questions;
9. “Family member” shall include spouse, children (including
stepchildren), mother, father, sister or brother;
10. “Independent expenditure” means an expenditure made by a
person for a communication expressly advocating the election or
defeat of a clearly identified candidate or a vote for or against the
retention of a judicial retention candidate that is not made in
coordination with, cooperation with, consultation with, or concert
with, or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate, a candidate
committee, or their agents, or a political party committee or its
agents. An independent expenditure shall not include the display of
a noncommercial yard sign, lapel pin, button, bumper sticker or
similar de minimis display of support or opposition to a political
party or a candidate;
11. “Independent judicial retention committee” means a political
action committee organized exclusively for the purpose of making
independent expenditures or electioneering communications supporting
or opposing the retention of a candidate for judicial retention;
12. “Labor union” means an organization of workers formed for the
purpose of advancing its members’ interests in respect to wages,
benefits and working conditions;
13. “Limited committee” means a political action committee
organized to make contributions to candidates. A limited committee
may make independent expenditures or electioneering communications,
but may not accept contributions in excess of the limits prescribed
for limited committees;
14. “Officeholder expenses” means ordinary and necessary expenses
incurred in connection with a candidate’s duties as the holder of a
state elective office, provided that the expenses are not otherwise
reimbursed or paid for by the state. “Ordinary and necessary
expenses” are those that would not exist but for the fact that the
candidate was elected to and holds a state elective office;
15. “Political action committee” means a limited or unlimited
committee that has filed or should have filed a statement of
organization with the Commission as required by these Rules;
16. “Political party” means a political party recognized under
laws of this state;
17. “Political party committee” means a committee authorized by
the political party to accept contributions or make expenditures on
behalf of the political party. A political party committee may
include a state committee, a Congressional District committee, a
county committee, a precinct committee or any other committee or
entity of the party officially recognized in the party’s bylaws or
similar governing document;
18. “State question communication” means an expenditure made by a
person for a communication or series of communications that is sent
by internet advertising, direct mail, broadcast by radio television,
cable or satellite, or appears in a newspaper, magazine, or other
printed medium supporting or opposing a state question that is made
within sixty (60) days before the election deciding the state
question. A state question communication shall not include the
display of a noncommercial yard sign, lapel pin, button, bumper
sticker or similar de minimis display of support or opposition to a
state question;
19. “State question” means an initiative or referendum petition
for which the Governor has issued a proclamation setting the date on
which an election shall be held or a legislative referendum referred
by the Legislature for a vote of the people; and
20. “Unlimited committee” means an independent judicial retention
committee, a political action committee organized exclusively for the
purpose of making independent expenditures or electioneering
communications or a political action committee organized exclusively
for the purpose of advocating the approval or defeat of a state
question.