The ongoing right-wing effort to repeal Alaska’s voting system and dark-money disclosure laws has a new ally in the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, who gave the campaign $1.5 million in July.
The spending was disclosed in a report filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission on Friday. That makes him the single-largest backer of Ballot Measure 2, joining several other billionaires as the primary financial backers of the effort. The measure will be on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
“It’s hard to even put into words the gratitude that we feel that these titans of industry would show interest in our small state,” wrote Judge Elege, who chairs the Repeal Now campaign, about the injection of Musk’s cash.
But Musk’s involvement—along with that of prominent conservative billionaires like Jeff Yass, Dick Uihlein, and Hilcorp owner Jeffery Hildebrand, whose contributions were also disclosed in the Friday report—is only public because of the very laws that Repeal Now seeks to erase.
That’s because while much of the campaign has focused on open primaries and ranked-choice voting, it also has another goal: repealing the state’s dark money laws.
Those laws, which voters approved as a package with the voting reforms in 2020, require groups to reveal the “true source” of money routed through intermediary groups like PACs. Prior to the law, it was common practice for wealthy donors to use these types of groups to conceal their spending, effectively shrouding millions of dollars in political spending each cycle.
And if Ballot Measure 2 passes, then they’d be able to resume the practice.
For the No on 2 campaign, however, Musk’s spending plays right into their hands; they argue it’s just the latest example of a billionaire trying to buy an election.
“The only reason Alaskans know that Musk’s money is behind Ballot Measure 2 right now is because of the campaign finance transparency law that Ballot Measure 2 would repeal,” said No on 2 Campaign Director Julia Anastos in a statement to the Alaska Current. “This isn’t hypothetical. Alaskans can see right now exactly the transparency they stand to lose. … It is not hard to connect the dots why Elon Musk is sending over a million dollars to Alaska to repeal these transparency requirements. Musk wants the chance to flood Alaska with untraceable campaign cash.”
While the No on 2 Campaign plans to make sure voters know about Musk’s role, some voters may cast their ballots without knowing he’s one of the driving forces behind the campaign.
Musk’s contribution went through the Yass-affiliated Aurora Action Network, which is facing its own accusations of misleading voters, and while the law requires the original source of the money be included in campaign finance reports, it still allows groups to rely on the intermediary group as the source named in advertising disclosures.
That means those paid-for-by disclosures that run at the end of TV and radio ads or at the bottom of signs and mailers can just list the millions of dollars from various billionaires as a single contribution from the allegedly Anchorage-based Aurora Action Network. Rather than naming Musk, Yass or one of the several billionaires who’ve given a half-million dollars or more, the disclosures will be rounded out by Anchorage businessman Kyle Bates—who was recently indicted for Medicaid fraud—and Palmer business LOT, Inc, which gave $30,000 and $10,000, respectively.
Aurora Action Network is also facing accusations that it’s fraudulently using the personal home address of longtime right-wing activist Bob Griffin as its reported headquarters to make the group—and its millions in billionaire contributions—look like it was Alaska-grown.
“Aurora Action Network is not — and has never been — an Alaska-based corporation or entity,” argued a June complaint filed by Alaskans for Better Elections, a group that supported the election reforms. “By claiming Aurora Action Network is based at an Anchorage, Alaska address, Repeal Now can fool any voter who only hears or reads their disclaimers into believing their campaign is locally funded.”
Alaska Public Office Commission regulators are currently investigating the issue, but as has been the case in several prior elections, penalties and violations are largely seen as the cost of doing business for the campaigns.
As for the race ahead, Musk’s track record on political spending has been mixed at best. His inflammatory personal brand, combined with his chainsaw-brandishing work with DOGE, which hit Alaska particularly hard, has proven polarizing. And in the wake of the news of his involvement, several Alaskans said it made up their mind.
“Jokes on him. Alaskans are just gonna vote harder now,” one redditor said.
“Proof that it’s a good system if that prick wants it gone,” another added.
And as another said, the entire thing just reiterates why the state needs dark money provisions in the first place.
“I think it’s universally accepted across the political spectrum we need to get money out of politics, so I can’t see how this initiative stands if everyone is made aware of this,” the poster said. “It’s your right if you want to stop ranked choice vote and go back to heel to the closed two-party system that hasn’t done us any favors, but vote no on this initiative against allowing more dark money to come into our 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 Bluesky.
