Updated: 10 minutes ago Posted: 5 hours ago
The Alaska Public Offices Commission has fined a group active in last year’s legislative elections $2,525 for not properly disclosing its financial operations.
The group, Alaska Policy Partners, attacked moderate Republican and Democratic candidates during the election. spend $210,000 with a Utah-based company called Massey Political Consultancy that he was not licensed to work in Alaska.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed the group’s president, Seth Church, to the University of Alaska Board of Regents on Thursday.
Alaska Policy Partners has an advocacy group of the same name, Alaska Policy Partners Inc., which does not donate to political causes.
Attorney General Treg Taylor and his wife, Jodi, were listed as members of the group’s associate corporation in 2022, and Taylor was listed as a sponsor of a $25,000 fishing fundraiser per hotel room for the group.
[Governor appoints Republican donor to University of Alaska regents]
Disclosure documents filed before the election showed the two Taylors had ties to the group that ran the attack ads; these were replaced after the election by new presentations showing them only as members of the defense group.
Other ties to Alaska Policy Partners remain: The Taylors’ daughter, Quincy, is part of the Utah-based consulting firm hired by Alaska Policy Partners, and a member of the Taylor family gave $29,000 to the group in 2021 and 2022.
[Records list Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor as member of political group behind scathing attack ads]
Other donors included Rep. Jesse Sumner, R-Wasilla, who was elected to the position a month after contributing $25,000 to the group.
The fine against Alaska Policy Partners was issued last week by the Alaska Public Offices Commission, which released a final report after an investigation by the staff of the commission.
That investigation found that Alaska Policy Partners improperly disclosed its campaign spending, including a $100,000 ad buy that wasn’t reported until Dec. 7, nearly a month after Election Day.
APOC investigators noted that while Massey Political Consulting did not appear to have an Alaska business license, it was not within the power of campaign regulators to fine the company.
Former state Rep. Jennifer Johnston, R-Anchorage, filed the complaint that led to APOC’s investigation. Contacted Friday about the outcome, he declined to comment.
Originally published by the Alaska Lighthousean independent, nonpartisan news organization covering Alaska state government.
