Claremore -
Republican Congressional Candidate, Markwayne Mullin, defended himself Friday against more criticisms from his opponent for doing business with government.
"All this is just a tactic saying that we did something wrong," said Mullin. "Everything we did was fine. We bid work. We bid jobs. They're competitive bids. We get awarded them and our employees go do the job. I don't see anything wrong with that."
Democratic candidate Rob Wallace told Channel 8 the Federal Procurement Data System reveals Mullin's company has nearly $1.4 million business contracts with the government to do work on the pipeline over the next two years.
Mullin said he is not certain that is true. He said his company is constantly formulating bids. Still, he said, even if it is true, there is nothing wrong with being paid for the work his company does. That is how he responded to criticisms earlier this week that his company accepted $370,000 from work he did for Cherokee Nation that the government paid for. He said he did not know the government paid for the work.
Mullin has been an outspoken critic of excessive government spending. Wallace said he should therefore call off these new contracts.
"If he's really serious about the things he's saying about the government spending, then he needs to be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem," said Wallace. "That means he needs to forfeit those contracts."
Mullin said he thinks these criticisms are tactics Wallace is using to distract voters from the real issues.
