The sprawling campaign to repeal Alaska’s open primaries and ranked-choice voting through voter initiative came before Alaska’s campaign regulators on Thursday to answer a complaint that accuses them of violating pretty much every facet of Alaska election law. They spent much of the time blaming the regulators and the group defending the election system.
The complaint charges Alaskans for Honest Elections, its key leaders and several affiliated groups of violating campaign law by failing to register before campaigning, failing to file accurate financial reports on time, failing to include proper paid-for-by disclosures and, in a particularly head-turning move, using a fake church to filter a $90,000 contribution into the campaign.
The staff report recommends more than $100,000 in possible fines, but the final decision will rest with the commissioners of the Alaska Public Offices Commission, which will issue a report within 10 days.
While much of the day revolved around interpretations of Alaska’s election law, commissioners got an earful from Philip Izon, one of the two key organizers of the campaign. He argued that the errors were the fault of the APOC staff that initially gave the group the wrong information about reporting requirements.
“We were working under the impression we had no reporting requirements. I want to make sure that’s very clear. Bad advice from APOC staff is the point,” he said. “What is the point of APOC? What’s the point of you guys? What’s the point of staff?”
Staff doesn’t dispute those errors that happened at the outset—chalking it up to a miscommunication over whether it was a referendum group or an initiative group—but note that they alerted the group of its reporting requirements early this year, leaving them without the proper guidance between January and mid-February. The commission also has the power to reduce or waive fees for that period of time, which is part of the staff’s suggestion.
Still, much of the complaint stems from conduct after they received the notice. Alaskans for Better Elections, the pro-RCV group that filed the complaint in the first place, argues that the violations are still ongoing and has since filed a second complaint alleging just that.
Most of the hearing was spent arguing over a $90,000 contribution that conservative activist Art Mathias made to the Ranked Choice Education Association, a church organized in Washington, as the group made about $90,000 of contributions to Alaskans for Honest Elections. Both organizations include Mathias and Izon in their leadership.
Alaskans for Better Elections and the APOC investigators agreed that Mathias illegally filtered money through the agency, a move that can carry serious penalties. Under Alaska law, you can’t make contributions under a false name or identity. By filtering the money through an organization he had control over — telling commissioners on Thursday that he was the one writing checks — to another organization he had control over, the regulators argue it was a clear violation.
Disgraced former Attorney General Kevin Clarkson, representing Alaskans for Honest Elections, argued otherwise. He said the situation of Mathias putting $90,000 into the Ranked Choice Education Association, an organization he controls, while it was giving the same amount of money to Alaskans for Honest Elections was no different than someone giving to any nonprofit organization. He argued that once the money enters a nonprofit, there’s no way to trace it and that requiring reporting for the $90,000 would represent a radical rewriting of state law that would require anyone who gives a dollar to a politically active nonprofit to disclose their contributions.
In essence, Clarkson argued that the public should have no insight into who is funding the campaign through the Ranked Choice Election Association.
Mathias was questioned about the church and his contributions and said his goal was to “educate Americans” about ranked-choice voting with the Ranked Choice Education Association and not directly influence the state’s election. He denied filtering the money, arguing that hundreds of thousands of other dollars flowed into the church.
At one point, however, Izon filed a form identifying Mathias as the true source of the money. At the hearing on Thursday, he said he no longer believed he needed to file the form based on Clarkson’s reading of the law but dodged when asked whether the form had been accurate.
Kendall, in his closing comments, said the defense was nonsensical and that there was, in fact, a significant difference between an individual giving a small-dollar contribution to an organization and an individual giving a huge contribution to an organization that they have near-complete control over.
“Mr Clarkson would like us to both believe and not believe his clients. Believe Mr. Izon and go easy on him because, look, he reported where the money came from but the money didn’t really come from him,” Kendall said. “Listen to Mr. Mathias. He’s not trying to hide anything. At an event, he said he was going to support the ballot measure, but don’t take him at his word. Actually, what he meant is he’s going to go fight ranked-choice voting in the Lower 48. It doesn’t add up.”
Board members didn’t tip their hand at how they’d vote on the issue, reserving judgment for a written report that will be issued within 10 days of the hearing.
Other complaints
APOC commissioners fielded two other complaints at their hearing on Thursday. One challenged the former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka’s anti-RCV group Preserve Democracy for campaigning without properly registering. The complaints center on her appearance with Alaskans for Honest Elections, where she said they were working in tandem. In her defense, she argued that “in tandem” is equivalent to “in parallel,” meaning they were working in the same direction but never touched.
The other complaint was brought against Anchorage Rep. Jennie Armstrong for having several errors in her financial disclosure reports. The staff found that she had made the errors but noted that they were typical errors for inexperienced first-time filers and suggested a fine of $4,645. Armstrong said she accepted would take responsibility for the errors but also complained about how the complaint was brought against her by right-wing activist Forrest McDonald. She said McDonald has been harassing her, making her and her family feel unsafe throughout the process.
McDonald acknowledged that he was using the process as a political weapon against her but argued that everyone does and “I might be a little more honest about it.”
The commissioners will issue a report and recommendation on those two complaints within that same 10-day window as the one against Alaskans for Better Elections.
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.
