Former Attorney General Treg Taylor — who was one of the most potent political forces of right-wing Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s cabinet — is expected to file to run for governor soon, but first, he’s in the process of trying to hide just who he’s renting to from the public eye.
Taylor, who just last month penned an editorial claiming that “The rule of law doesn’t work unless it applies to all of us.”, has requested an exemption from the state’s financial disclosure laws that would allow him to keep the names of more than 200 renters secret ahead of his anticipated entrance into the race for governor. The matter was before the Alaska Public Offices Commission on Wednesday, and a decision has yet to be issued.
The issue was first reported by longtime conservative writer Suzanne Downing, and ultimately led to her exit from Must Read Alaska after she refused to bow down to pressure from the outlet’s right-wing ownership to take the post down.
“I resigned because the word came down from him,” she said in a phone interview with the Juneau Independent about her interaction with owner and Republican party official Jon Faulkner. “He wanted that story down, and he was very insistent about it, and that’s just not going to work for me.”
The disclosures are part of the public officer public disclosure process, which is intended to give the public a clear view of the financial dealings of its state officers. Things like business dealings, loans and tenants are all things that help paint that picture, illustrating potential conflicts of interest that could color their decision-making in office.
Treg Taylor’s wife, Jodi, spoke to regulators with the Alaska Public Offices Commission on Wednesday to defend the exemption request, arguing that bad actors like “trolls,” the “media,” and “political-minded people” would use the information to harass tenants to dig up dirt on the Taylors.
“I felt like, in this case, people are trolling,” Jodi Taylor said at the hearing, which Treg Taylor did not attend. “It’s been weaponized by the media, and others have already come to try to reach out to our tenants. … Someone found and threatened an employee with a gun.”
Both APOC commissioners and the staff seemed skeptical of granting such a broad waiver, noting that the point of the disclosures is to allow the public to vet the business interests of its elected officials to determine potential conflicts. Other commissioners questioned whether the alleged harassment is just part and parcel of running for governor — opposition groups doing research to get dirt on candidates isn’t anything new — and whether such alleged criminal acts are better handled through the police or troopers.
As for the letter of the state’s disclosure laws, APOC Executive Director Heather Hebdon was clear that there was very little room in the law for them to grant such a sweeping exemption.
“There’s no legal justification to exempt his rental income from electronic disclosure,” said APOC Executive Director Heather Hebdon at the meeting, though she noted that they were willing to make changes so it was logistically easier to file. “But with the argument that the tenants’ right to privacy outweighs the compelling state interest in disclosure, I would say that the staff disagrees with that.”
And not only would it violate the letter of the law, she said, but its intent.
“The purposes of public official financial disclosures in part are to assure that public officials and their official acts are free from the influence of undisclosued business interests and to allow the public to have access to the information necessary to judge the public officials’ credentials or performance in office,” she said.
Commissioner Dan LaSota mused on how the public could be expected to determine whether or not there is a potential conflict of interest if they didn’t have access to the records. He got no clear answer.
At one point during the hearing, Jodi Taylor suggested that providing either just the first names to the state or complete names, as long as APOC didn’t disclose them publicly, would be acceptable for them.
“Like I said, we would turn in the last names if it’s just for APOC, but if there was a public record,” she said before being cut off by Hebdon.
“This is what the statute tells you that needs to be disclosed,” Hebdon said. “It’s not for APOC’s information; it’s for the public information.”
The commissioners ultimately took the issue into an executive session, with a written order due in the near future. It’s likely that it — along with nearly everything related to campaign finance laws in Alaska — could ultimately be decided in the court system, either with the Taylors appealing a decision ordering them to disclose the information or another group suing to overturn a possible exemption.
While party players may be circling the wagons around Treg Taylor — who has one of the highest national profiles of any Republican in the race for governor — it doesn’t seem to be landing well outside that circle. The financial disclosures are no small hurdle that everyone has to contend with while running for office, and it’s particularly head-turning to see the state’s former Attorney General asking for special treatment.
The comment section on Downing’s original post, which is still up as of Thursday, was broadly critical of Taylor’s request. With the top comment stating, “This is the start of Treg Taylor letting all Alaskans know that he is ‘too good’ to follow the instructions and requirements of all others in the same situation … The requirements apply to all candidates equally. Do what everybody else is required to do, or busy yourself with what it takes to land another job. Do not cut corners.”
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 Bluesky.
