Independent spending boosts coalition candidates in Alaska

Groups supporting progressive and centrist candidates for the Alaska Legislature have outspent groups supporting Republicans in the final weeks leading to the Nov. 5 election.

The outside spending has amplified the funding advantage of left-leaning and centrist candidates, who themselves are outraising their GOP opponents in most contested races.

The outside spending by independent expenditure groups reflects growing confidence from political observers and organizations that Alaska’s Legislature could be controlled by bipartisan coalitions in both the House and Senate, political consultants and group leaders say.

For the past two years, the Alaska Senate was governed by a bipartisan coalition while the House majority numbered mostly Republicans. In several key races, more moderate challengers are looking to unseat key Republican House members who have resisted bipartisanship and sought to back the agenda of Alaska’s conservative Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

Outside groups are looking to boost the campaigns of moderate and progressive candidates with days remaining ahead of the election and early voting already underway. The spending is going in large part toward negative ads attacking the opponents of the groups’ favored candidates.

The American Leadership Committee-Alaska, a group funded by the Washington, D.C.-based Democratic Leadership Campaign Committee, reported spending more than $160,000 this month supporting several Democrats and opposing their Republican rivals. That includes at least $47,000 spent opposing Leslie Hajdukovich, a Republican running against Democratic incumbent Sen. Scott Kawasaki of Fairbanks. The Alaska House Democratic Campaign Committee also reported spending $3,000 to boost Kawasaki — one of a handful of Democrats who appeared earlier this month to be trailing his opponent in fundraising.

Meanwhile, Families of the Last Frontier, a group supporting GOP candidates with funding from Outside political action committees, reported spending $67,550 this week supporting GOP candidates and attacking their more moderate opponents. That includes $18,000 to support Republican incumbent Rep. Craig Johnson, who faces a challenge from more moderate GOP member Chuck Kopp in a South Anchorage House race.

The Alaska Democratic Party reported spending more than $100,000 this month supporting Democrats and independents, and opposing Republicans. The Anchorage Republican Women’s Club and Kenai Peninsula Republican Women’s Club reported this month spending roughly $15,000 combined, including an expense of $3,530 on ads opposing Republican incumbent Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, who is facing a challenge from Republican hardliner Rep. Ben Carpenter in a Kenai Peninsula district.

Putting Alaskans First Committee, a group backed by the AFL-CIO and others in the pro-labor movement, reported spending more than $300,000 this month boosting coalition-favoring candidates. That includes significant spending in favor of Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Merrick of Eagle River, who faces a challenge from Republican Jared Goecker, who has criticized Merrick for joining bipartisan coalitions and working across the political aisle. Public Employees Local 71 also formed a union-backed expenditure group that earlier this month spent more than $5,700 on ads backing Merrick.

907 Action, an entity that favors coalition-minded candidates, spent $9,000 this month promoting its progressive voter guide. The spending was powered by a $10,000 donation from film director Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Spielberg. This appears to be the couple’s first expenditure on Alaska political causes, though Spielberg has given substantial sums in recent years to progressive political causes and candidates across the country.

Alaska Family Action, a conservative Christian organization that broadly opposes LGBTQ rights and abortion access, reported spending just over $4,000 this month to promote its voter guide, which boosts conservative Republicans.

The group’s spending was also directed to opposing the retention of Anchorage Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman, who earlier this year issued a ruling — which was ultimately undone by the Alaska Supreme Court — that made spending public education dollars on private schools, including religious ones, illegal.

Alaska for Fair Courts, a group supporting Zeman’s retention, reported spending more than $30,000 on digital ads advocating for the retention of all judges that appear on the November ballot. The group has raised more than $60,000, much of it from Anchorage-based attorneys.

Americans for Prosperity Action – Alaska, a group supporting conservative Republican candidates, reported spending just over $11,000 in October.

An organization called U.S. Term Limits, a group dedicated to advancing congressional term limits, spent more than $22,000 — all coming from New York real estate investor Howard Rich — promoting three Republican legislative candidates.

They include Mia Costello, an Anchorage Republican running against Democrat Denny Wells for an open House seat; Rep. Mike Cronk, a Tok Republican running against nonpartisan candidate Savannah Fletcher for an open interior Senate seat; and GOP incumbent Rep. Stanley Wright, who faces a challenge from Democrat Ted Eischeid in an East Anchorage district.

Ballot initiative funding

Lopsided funding continues also for the two initiatives that appear on the November ballot.

Ballot Measure 1 seeks to raise Alaska’s minimum wage from $11.73 to $15 per hour by 2027. It would also guarantee most Alaska workers paid sick leave for the first time, and ban employers from mandating meetings that could be used to dissuade workers from unionizing. The initiative has been backed and funded by national organizations that have successfully passed similar ballot measures in other states.

Initially, no campaign formed in Alaska to formally oppose the measure, but industry groups began fundraising to oppose it earlier this month. The newly formed “No on 1″ group reported earlier this month spending exceeding $33,000. But it is a negligible sum compared to spending by the “Yes on 1″ group, which reported earlier this month that it had spent $830,000 in October alone.

Ballot Measure 2 seeks to repeal Alaska’s open primaries and ranked choice voting system, and revert to closed primaries and pick-one general elections, which were in place until 2020, when Alaskans narrowly adopted a ballot measure instating a new voting system.

The “Yes on 2″ group has continued to raise paltry sums in its quest to support the measure. It reported raising just over $25,000 between Oct. 10 and Oct. 20, and spent roughly $10,000 in the same period. Almost the entirety of that sum went to Top Fundraising Solutions, an Anchorage firm, to pay for fundraising consulting. The firm is owned by Mikaela Emswiler, who also chairs the “Yes on 2″ group. Emswiler has not responded to calls seeking comment.

The Anchorage Republican Women’s Club separately reported spending $8,800 on digital advertising to support the passage of the ballot measure.

Meanwhile, the “No on 2″ group has reported raising nearly $14 million, spending nearly $5 million this month, mostly on advertising.