How students joined campaign the issue

BY ZIVA BRANSTETTER World Projects Editor
Sunday, October 14, 2007
3/19/08 at 6:38 AM

The note that appeared on the classroom door Jan. 12, 2006, directed students in ORU's Christian Faith and Government Theory class to meet at the hotel across the street.

There, University President Richard Roberts was having a press conference to endorse Randi Miller's bid for Tulsa mayor.

Asked later by the Tulsa World why his students were assigned to attend the press conference, Tim Brooker said: "I'm training future political operatives here. They need to see every aspect of a campaign."

Brooker is one of three former ORU professors who are suing the school and four administrators, including Roberts.

One of the suit's claims is that Roberts required Brooker to use students in Miller's 2006 campaign.

Because ORU is a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization, such a requirement would violate federal tax rules. The IRS later received a complaint about ORU.

One week after the press conference, about 300 ORU students -- all members of the school's College Republicans chapter -- received an e-mail signed by Brooker. It implored them to get involved in Miller's campaign:

"We need you and we need you now," it stated. "Come sign up in the government office as soon as possible."

Brooker later sent out an e-mail of apology to students. He wrote that a student had sent the first e-mail using Brooker's contact list.

The student was later identified as Tobias Huyssen, Miller's campaign manager and the president of ORU's College Republicans.

Brooker said he always refused to have his students take part in local campaigns. He said that when Roberts told him to recruit students for Miller's campaign, he warned against it.

Brooker said he told Roberts that "no good thing could happen from being involved in local politics" and that the school could jeopardize its nonprofit status.

However, he said that when Roberts and Roberts' sister-in-law, Stephanie Cantees, insisted that the students get involved, he decided to go along.

"They told me it was going to happen regardless, so here's the issue: Do I let Richard Roberts and Stephanie Cantees take direct control, or do I act as a buffer and stay involved to protect the kids?" Brooker said.

Cantees said she could not comment on the matter.

Miller has said that she had no knowledge of students being forced to work in her campaign.

Roberts has denied the lawsuit's claims, including that he or other university officials directed students to take part in Miller's campaign. He said individual students were free to volunteer in campaigns.

"I thought it was good for students to be involved in campaigns wherever they are," he said.

Roberts said he endorsed Miller in his role as a private citizen and that he was not speaking on behalf of the university. Records show that he contributed $1,000 to her campaign.

Before ORU hired Brooker in 2001, he was a conservative radio talk show host in Fayetteville, Ark., and had worked in several Arkansas campaigns. He and his wife, Paulita Brooker, live in Siloam Springs, Ark.

The Miller campaign was not the first time ORU students have been involved in a local campaign.

ORU's alumni magazine says Brooker recruited a team of students to campaign for the city's April 2005 general obligation bond issue.

More than 180 student volunteers staffed phone banks and canvassed neighborhoods to urge passage of the measure, which included $15.2 million to fix Fred Creek, which runs through ORU's campus. The creek's flooding and erosion were persistent and expensive problems for the university.

Brooker's students and other ORU students have worked in political campaigns for Republicans all over the country since 2002.

Students in the Christian Faith and Government program are required to document 75 hours of service in a campaign of their choice, according to a 2006 e-mail from Brooker.

Brooker said that involving ORU students as volunteers in political campaigns was the idea of David Barton, an ORU alumnus who worked for the Republican National Committee.

"The RNC was looking for a reliable source of volunteers that could counter the Democrats' asset in the unions to be their ground troops," Brooker said. "So David Barton had said, 'How about Christian college kids?' "

In October 2002, one month after that initial discussion, Brooker recruited 30 ORU students to volunteer during fall break in three Colorado campaigns. He said most were international students who couldn't go home for the break anyway.

The students worked as paid volunteers for the Republican National Committee, which paid all their expenses, Brooker said. They worked in the congressional campaign of Bob Beauprez and the re-election bids of Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard. All three won, although Allard and Beauprez had not been favored to win.

Brooker said Allard still credits the work of ORU students, including bilingual students who campaigned in Hispanic areas, for his re-election.

After that success, Brooker took teams of students to campaign for U.S. Rep. Bobby Jin dal in Louisiana; in Haley Barbour's race for governor in Mississippi, and for a candidate in the Virginia governor's race.

He said the difference between those campaigns and the Miller campaign was the use of university resources and the fact that students volunteered.

"When we would go out with the RNC, every student signed an individual contract and was individually compensated; that's the major difference," he said.

"Here (for the Miller campaign) we were told, 'Get them over here and . . . use every resource at your disposal.' "

Roberts denies that. He said ORU students also worked in the campaigns of other Tulsa mayoral candidates including Chris Medlock and Bill LaFortune. "I am not aware of any (university) resources being used" in the Miller campaign, he said.

The campaign work paid off for the candidates and for the students, according to the 2005-2006 annual report of ORU's History, Humanities and Government Department.

The report lists seven objectives for the program, including objective No. 6: "Assisting students to be placed in strategic positions in government."

It lists the achievements of several current and former students, including alumni working for U.S. senators and representatives, the State Department and conservative think tanks.

Ziva Branstetter 581-8378
ziva.branstetter@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts and his wife, Lindsay Roberts, are interviewed Tuesday by CNN’s Larry King in New York. This image was taken from television.