Attorney General Treg Taylor’s hypocrisy claiming to defend Alaska from federal overreach is outrageous. Last fall, when a three-judge sub-panel of the Court of Appeals struck down Alaska’s campaign finance law, Taylor declined the invitation of the dissenting chief justice to appeal it to the full panel of judges. Clearly, there was a division of opinion among the judges and we likely could have gotten a ruling more favorable to Alaskans.Alaskans overwhelmingly want strong campaign finance laws. In 2006, 73% of Alaskans voted to override the Legislature and reinstate the strongest campaign finance law in the nation. In the fall of 2020, we voted to end dark money in campaign spending by independent expenditure groups. And in the same month, polling showed 72% of us support a constitutional amendment to overrule the Supreme Court and restore our rights to regulate our own campaign finances.
But Taylor and his boss are not faithfully representing Alaskans. They are serving their own political interest in big, outside money and power. We Alaskans must raise our voices and hold them accountable. If they won’t defend our citizen-initiated state laws against federal overreach, they have failed to represent us and must be voted out.
— Sharman Haley
Anchorage
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