In the latest campaign complaint against the former right-wing candidate for U.S. Senate, the Alaska Public Office Commission staff has recommended a hefty fine against a group run by Kelly Tshibaka for failing to register to campaign against the state’s ranked-choice voting system.
Campaign regulators are recommending a $16,450 fine against Preserve Democracy for failing to register as a campaign in favor of a ballot initiative to repeal the state’s voter-approved ranked-choice voting system. Whether the fines actually stick will be up to commissioners, who will meet next month. Tshibaka has already pledged to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
The underlying complaint was brought in July by Alaskans for Better Elections, a group that helped pass RCV and has continued in defense of the measure. Its accusations were far more expansive, accusing Tshibaka of unregistered lobbying and improperly participating in local elections, but attorney Scott Kendall said the APOC staff report addresses the main concern.
“I’m extremely pleased since the unregistered ballot measure campaign was by far the biggest problem,” he said.
Under Alaska law, people and groups who expend resources campaigning are required to register with APOC and disclose their expenditures and sources of income. While Preserve Democracy hasn’t explicitly campaigned in support of the initiative to repeal, it was launched at the same time that the initiative was getting started, and Tshibaka has said publicly that she’s coordinating with that effort.
Per the staff report:
“Here, although PD’s website does not specifically mention (the ballot initiative), staff concludes, based on the timing of the creation of the website; the content of the website message; and the remarks of Ms. Tshibaka at the Bell’s Nursery and Alaska School of Government events, that PD’s website was an express communication from the date of creation through February 27, 2023, because under all the circumstances it was susceptible of no other reasonable interpretation but as an exhortation to support the (the ballot initiative) petition.”
If the commission ultimately approves the fines, it’ll be the second high-profile fine to land against the Republican in the course of her campaigning. In her race against Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, she was fined $270 for commercial fishing for a campaign video without a commercial crew license.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
