APOC finds ‘reasonable cause’ to believe Gov. Dunleavy and Dunleavy PAC illegally coordinated
APOC Chair Helzer announced the commission would give the complaint expedited consideration: "The public at large has a compelling need to know whether coordination occurred or continues to occur."
It’s Wednesday, Alaska.
In this edition: The Alaska Public Offices Commission has decided to expedite a complaint alleging that a pro-Dunleavy PAC broke campaign finance laws when it signed a consulting contract with Brett Huber, a close Dunleavy ally who at the time was also listed as a deputy treasurer for Gov. Dunleavy’s campaign. While the pro-Dunleavy side of things argued Huber’s status as a deputy treasurer was a mere oversight, the complainants argued there’s no room for leeway in the state law. The hearing has been scheduled for Friday. Also, it shouldn’t be overlooked that the PAC has, so far, refused to participate in the investigation… but they contend they’re definitely not stonewalling the issue in hopes to run out the clock on the election.
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APOC finds ‘reasonable cause’ to believe Gov. Dunleavy and Dunleavy PAC illegally coordinated
The commissioners of the Alaska Public Offices Commission have found “reasonable cause” to believe the campaign of Gov. Mike Dunleavy and a pro-Dunleavy political action committee illegally coordinated their campaigns, throwing the PAC’s past and future spending—which could total as much as $3 million—into question a month ahead of election day.
The finding came at the end of a hearing today over whether to grant expedited consideration—which commissioners approved with a hearing set for Friday—for a complaint that alleges the Dunleavy campaign and the pro-Dunleavy “A Stronger Alaska” campaign illegally coordinated because a Dunleavy ally was a member of both at the same time.
“The commission ... has found that there is reasonable cause to believe that A Stronger Alaska has expended money that was not independent of the campaign based on Alaska Statute,” said APOC Chair Anne Helzer. “The public at large has a compelling need to know whether coordination occurred or continues to occur.”
State law prohibits independent expenditure groups—the state’s term for Super PACs—from any form of coordination or cooperation with the candidates that they support. What’s supposed to be a firewall allows independent expenditure groups to raise and spend an unlimited amount of money, including from corporations, in support of their chosen candidates.
The complaint brought by the Alaska Public Interest Research Group and 907 Initiative argues A Stronger Alaska violated that law when it signed Dunleavy ally Brett Huber to an $80,000 consulting contract while Huber was still listed as a deputy treasurer for Dunleavy’s campaign. Huber, who previously worked in the governor’s office, also held a $50,000 contract with the state at the time.
Scott Kendall, the attorney working with the complainants, argued to APOC commissioners that Huber’s simultaneous connection to both campaigns violates the definition of an independent expenditure group and undermines A Stronger Alaska’s claimed independence. He argued that means the group shouldn’t legally be able to spend money on the election without significant, immediate changes.
“Do we want to wake up in February and realize that $3 million has been illegally spent in Alaska’s elections?” Kendall argued.
A Stronger Alaska is funded with a $3 million infusion from the Republican Governors Association, a dark money group that delivered its funding just days before the state’s stronger disclosure requirements approved by voters in 2020 went into effect (Huber briefly left the Dunleavy administration to campaign against that voter initiative, which also saw the enactment of open primaries and ranked choice voting).
The group has already spent more than $300,000 on direct mailers and the campaign’s cash on hand dwarfs the combined fundraising of all four gubernatorial candidates.
Attorneys for A Stronger Alaska, the Republican Governors Association and the Dunleavy campaign all argued against an expedited hearing, arguing that there was no meaningful coordination between the groups and that the complaint was just an attempt to hamper Dunleavy’s election. A Stronger Alaska attorney Richard Moses as well as the other attorneys argued Huber’s listing as a deputy treasurer for the Dunleavy campaign was an “oversight” and he hadn’t been involved in the campaign since fall 2021.
“Mr. Huber, yes, was mistakenly still listed as a deputy campaign treasurer for the Dunleavy election campaign but he had not accepted any donations on behalf of the campaign since at least Oct. 2021, which was many months before his involvement in A Stronger Alaska,” Moses said. “It is an oversight—as Mr. Kendall said we would say—but that’s not proof and not a ‘smoking gun.’ It’s nothing more than an oversight and a paperwork mistake.”
Kendall argued the state law doesn’t grant any leeway for oversight errors, noting that Huber was hardly a minor player in the Dunleavy orbit but instead is a key ally and confidant who’s worked with Dunleavy in both the Legislature and governor’s office.
“(They) attempted to minimize Mr. Huber’s role,” Kendall said. “Again, I go back to the statute says what it says. The statute says don’t coordinate with the deputy treasurer. It doesn’t say a deputy treasurer who’s more involved or collects money more often or anything like that. It just says don’t do it.”
Even the commissioners were skeptical about the claims that it being a simple oversight ought to shield the PAC from consequences.
Commissioner Dan LaSota asked Moses whether the “oversight” constitutes a loophole in the state’s laws and whether mistakenly violating a law would shield a person from consequences. Moses conceded there were some cases where mistakenly breaking the law would still be considered breaking the law, but reiterated that there was no intentional coordination between the Dunleavy campaign and the PAC.
While the APOC commissioner’s discussions on the matter occurred during an executive session, it appears that they agree with a stricter interpretation of the law that Kendall brought forward rather than the looser interpretation proposed by the attorneys for the pro-Dunleavy groups.
Whether that rises to serious consequences, though, will be determined at a Friday hearing at 1 p.m. There, Kendall will be tasked with making a clear case that the two campaigns have illegally coordinated.
‘We’re not stonewalling!’ says the attorney refusing to reply to anything short of a subpoena
It should also be noted that APOC investigators, whose work would inform the commissioners’ decision-making, were unable to complete their investigation by the Monday deadline this week because both A Stronger Alaska and the Republican Governors Association refused to participate with the investigators’ initial requests for information and documents. The groups both demanded that APOC issue them subpoenas, which likely further draw out the process.
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