In Anchorage mayor’s race, LaFrance continues to lead opponents in campaign fundraising

Anchorage mayoral candidate Suzanne LaFrance continued to outpace her opponents in a second round of campaign fundraising reports ahead of the April 2 city election.

LaFrance, the former Assembly chair and two-term member, reported raising an additional $62,394 for her campaign between Feb. 2 and March 1, bringing her total income so far to $354,212.

Incumbent Mayor Dave Bronson, vying for a second term, has raised $280,017 in total, according to his filing with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. Bronson brought in an additional $42,558 in the same time period.

Trailing LaFrance and Bronson is candidate Chris Tuck, a longtime Democratic state lawmaker and former Alaska House majority leader. Tuck reported bringing in an additional $65,900, putting his campaign total at $159,781. But Tuck has donated to his own campaign more than $44,000 of that total — $39,000 in the latest report and $5,525 in a previous report.

Candidate Bill Popp, the former president of the Anchorage Economic Development Corp., has raised the least of the four top-fundraising mayoral candidates, with $87,844 for his campaign so far, including $22,350 in the latest report.

Ballots will be mailed to voters in less than a week — March 12 — and the campaigns are gearing up for a competitive and expensive push to the finish. The next few weeks are a critical time for campaigns to sway voters.

LaFrance and Bronson are leading the pack going into the most expensive leg of the race, both with substantial cash on hand. LaFrance had $146,134 while Bronson had $141,570, according to their reports. Tuck and Popp had $11,694 and $15,242, respectively.

The reports give insight into where the candidates are receiving support, and how they’re spending it.

As in her previous report, LaFrance again received the most individual donations in the latest reporting period. Almost all came from Anchorage residents and local groups.

Most were smaller donations of $250 or under, though several donors forked over higher amounts.

LaFrance, like in her last report, also pulled in the most monetary support from organized labor groups. She reported several $1,000 donations from local union political action committees, including the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association PAC, and NEA-Alaska’s PAC, a public education employees union.

Bronson reported 130 donations, most from within Anchorage, though several people in other Alaska communities donated to his campaign. Most of the donations were $250 or under, though the incumbent also received many larger donations of $500 or more. He reported 11 out-of-state donations, most of $500 or less.

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In addition to his own donations, Tuck’s support in the latest report has come largely from Anchorage residents.

Popp’s previous report included numerous prominent members of Anchorage’s business community, and that trend held in his most current report. He also received $1,000 in support from the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association PAC. The police PAC has endorsed both LaFrance and Popp in the race.

Bronson’s campaign has spent the most in the last month: $67,560, with $15,146 more in debt. The incumbent’s biggest spending includes more than $31,000 on radio advertisements and $11,625 for polling through Dittman Research.

He spent $4,200 on campaign mailers and $1,831 on consulting from Arena, a Utah-based marketing firm that focuses on digital and direct-mail messaging for Republican and conservative causes. Bronson paid $2,500 to Blake Stieren for campaign management.

LaFrance, who’d spent the most during the previous reporting period, spent less than Bronson over the last month. Her report showed $39,077 in expenditures and another $23,174 in debt.

LaFrance spent the most on management and support, including $14,000 to Katherine Scovic for campaign management and communications and $3,000 to Barbara Jones, a former municipal clerk, for volunteer coordination.

LaFrance’s campaign paid $8,000 to local political consulting firm Ship Creek Group for project management, strategy and fundraising support and direct mailers. Ship Creek Group has worked with numerous successful campaigns of moderate-to-progressive Anchorage Assembly members.

Popp spent $20,964 in the same period, with several smaller expenditures for campaign signs and supplies. His larger expenses went to campaign management and digital advertising via Winfluence Strategies, a local political consulting firm. Popp paid that firm a total of $14,200.

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Tuck spent $58,629 in total. His biggest single expenditure was $14,000 paid to Art Hackney Communications for radio. Hackney is a longtime Alaska conservative political consultant, and worked with Axiom Strategies on Bronson’s 2021 campaign for mayor.

Most of Tuck’s individual expenses went to direct mail postage, spending several thousand on mailers.

Six other candidates are running for mayor, but their campaigns have not reported significant influxes of cash or have not filed reports.

Mayoral candidates aren’t the only ones spending big in the race. A few independent expenditure groups have also begun spending large sums of money to support or oppose candidates.

The Alaska Democratic Party last week spent $8,000 on digital advertising to oppose Bronson’s reelection. The Putting Alaskans First Committee, which backs candidates “who support working families,” has put more than $48,000 into opposing Bronson since February, according to APOC filings. It’s also spent about $7,000 supporting rival LaFrance.

Ballots are scheduled to be mailed to voters on March 12, and the city’s 18 secure ballot drop boxes open the same day. Ballot packages returned by mail must be postmarked on or before the last day to vote, April 2. Secure drop boxes close at 8 p.m. on election day.

If none of the 10 candidates for mayor win at least 45% of the vote, then the top two candidates will head into a runoff election in May. Runoff ballot packages would be mailed May 6 and would be due May 14.