LAWTON – A candidate for a state legislative seat in southwest Oklahoma lost a small-claims case arising from an unpaid debt over a campaign website.
Brandi Sims of Lawton, founder and CEO of Brandinc PR, sued Shykira Smith, a candidate for state House District 63, for $2,400 in Comanche County District Court.
Smith signed a three-month contract with Sims to provide social media services for Smith’s legislative campaign, Sims claimed. Instead, on Day 29 Smith informed Sims she intended to cancel the contract.
Sims said she reminded Smith that the contract was for three months, and Smith was obligated to pay the full amount. Smith balked and Sims sued on July 14.
After hearing from both parties on Aug. 16, Special District Judge Grant Sheperd awarded Sims $600, apparently, at least in part, because only one-third of the contract period had transpired, and two months remained unfulfilled. The judge decreed that both women were to pay their own court costs.
Sheperd ordered Smith to pay Sims the $600 “today” [Aug. 16], a court document shows. However, Sims told the Ledger she still has not been paid and, after informing Sheperd, filed another small claim against Smith on Aug. 19.
Social media graphics that Sims’ team built for Smith were still being used by Smith last weekend.
Smith is the owner and founder of CSM, Concierge Service Management, which according to its website provides a transportation and relocation service. She also was a medic in the Army and helped rescue a man trapped in a wrecked vehicle in Lawton during a rainstorm four years ago.
In October 2018 Smith was running late, en route to work, when she saw a vehicle that hit a utility pole and tipped over on its side; the driver was trapped. Smith grabbed a hammer from her vehicle, broke out a window of the overturned car and pulled the driver out.
Smith, 43, a Lawton Democrat, was one of three candidates who filed for the HD 63 seat this year. Republican incumbent Trey Caldwell, 33, a farmer/rancher and insurance agent from Lawton, filed for a third consecutive two-year term in the Legislature. Libertarian Gunner Ocskai, 29, of Lawton, also filed but withdrew his candidacy on April 19, four days after the filing period closed.
Caldwell and Smith will meet in the Nov. 8 general election.
HD 63 encompasses all of Tillman and Cotton counties and portions of Comanche and Kiowa counties. Towns represented in HD 63 include Cache, Chattanooga, Davidson, Faxon, Frederick, Geronimo, Grandfield, Hollister, Indiahoma, Lawton, Loveland, Manitou, Medicine Park and Tipton.