BY ROBERT J. SMITH

Posted on Friday, October 27, 2006

Poultry companies with operations in Arkansas lashed out Thursday at Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, saying his latest political advertisement contains “grossly irresponsible” and “blatantly untrue” information.

The television ad wrongly criticizes the companies for damaging Oklahoma rivers, the companies’ leaders said during a news conference in Tulsa.

“Mr. Edmondson’s new TV ads confirm what we have said all along — that his lawsuit against our industry is about two things: trial lawyer money and re-election,” said Mark Simmons, chairman of Siloam Springs-based Simmons Foods Inc.

Edmondson, who stood in the hallway at the Tulsa Press Club as Simmons spoke, made his own comments after the news conference ended.

“What they said was basically nothing new,” Edmondson said in a telephone interview. “The same arguments we’ve been making back and forth for years now.”

Edmondson last year sued Simmons Foods and seven other poultry companies, claiming poultry litter is damaging the Illinois River watershed. The lawsuit is pending in U. S. District Court at Tulsa.

Edmondson hired the Motley Rice law firm in South Carolina and Oklahoma law firms to help with the lawsuit against the poultry companies. The South Carolina firm helped Arkansas and other states get a $ 246 billion settlement from tobacco companies in 1998.

One of the 30-second advertisements the poultry companies complained about shows Edmondson in a blue shirt standing on the bank of Baron Fork Creek, talking about phosphorus, arsenic and E. coli bacteria. The creek, which flows from Arkansas into Oklahoma, is part of the Illinois River watershed. Edmondson blames the companies for damaging Oklahoma streams with poultry litter that farmers spread on fields to fertilize crops.

“Near the dump fields, the water is like raw sewage,” Edmondson says at one point in his ad.

Later in the ad, Edmondson says, “Our rivers shouldn’t be open sewers for the poultry industry, so we’re taking action to stop them from polluting our waters. We’re going to make them clean up their mess so we can clean up our rivers.”

Simmons called the campaign ad a “grossly irresponsible characterization of our industry” and “a slap in the face to every Oklahoma farmer.”

“We cannot stand on the sidelines while Mr. Edmondson uses his campaign pulpit to make false statements about the hard-working people in the poultry business,” Simmons said.

Edmondson faces Republican James Dunn in the attorney general’s race. Dunn has said he’ll drop the federal lawsuit against the poultry companies if he wins the Nov. 7 general election.

The Sooner Poll, a statewide public opinion poll, showed Edmondson held a strong lead over Dunn as of Oct. 9. The poll showed 55 percent favored Edmondson and 30 percent favored Dunn. The other 15 percent were undecided.

Keith Gaddie, a University of Oklahoma political science professor, said the advertising may be more important to Edmondson’s overall image than to his race against Dunn.

“With Edmondson, you have to understand that this guy has an incredible reputation in this state, but it’s a foolish politician who rests on his polls,” Gaddie said.

Edmondson said that’s among the reasons he had the advertising put together.

“We’ve been very concerned about the ability and the willingness of a third party to come in and spend a truckload of money against us,” Edmondson said. “We’ve raised the money, and I didn’t see any point in sitting on it.”

The Poultry Community Council, an entity formed by the poultry companies, had advertisements that targeted Edmondson on television until last month.

Those ads were pulled by the companies after Oklahoma Ethics Commission Director Marilyn Hughes on Sept. 17 told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the advertising walked a “fine line” if it didn’t violate state election laws. The companies continue to run advertisements that don’t mention the attorney general, saying they tell the public about the companies’ environmental improvement efforts. Related Web sites

The advertisements accusing poultry companies of damaging Oklahoma rivers can be viewed at Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s campaign Web site, www. edmondsonagain. com.

Advertisements mentioning the “Oklahoma attorney general” have been pulled from the Poultry Community Council’s Web site, but other aspects of the companies ’ media campaign are available at www. oklahomapoultry. org.