JUNEAU — Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer and three state lawmakers have been fined by the Alaska Public Offices Commission for failing to properly disclose last-minute donations during last year’s primary election.
The fines were revealed last week by the commission, which sent letters of violation to Meyer, Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux R-Anchorage; Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage; and Rep. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage.
Meyer’s possible fines total $12,700; Fields and Claman could be fined up to $5,000 apiece and LeDoux faces a fine of up to $2,500. All four have 30 days to appeal, and the commission frequently lowers fines if additional evidence comes to light.
That was the case for Rep. Grier Hopkins, D-Fairbanks. APOC staff had thought one of his contributions was improperly reported; he provided evidence to show it was not, and staff retracted a possible fine.
The fines were first noted by the political blog The Alaska Landmine.
Josh Applebee, chief of staff to Meyer, said late Monday that the lieutenant governor had just returned from a trip to Washington, D.C. and had not yet fully considered the problems alleged in the APOC letters.
“We’re reviewing it. I’m sure it’s something as simple as a clerical mistake,” he said.
According to the APOC documentation, Meyer did not properly document six $500 contributions in the nine days before the Aug. 21 statewide primary. The contributions were noted on a later report, but not when they were supposed to be reported, APOC staff said.
Similar problems were noted in the reports filed by Fields, Claman and LeDoux. Fields failed to properly document two $500 contributions, including one from the state’s leading alcohol industry trade group, APOC said. Claman improperly noted a single $500 contribution, as did LeDoux.
Contacted Monday, Fields said he plans to appeal. Claman said he was “surprised” to receive a letter last week and traced the issue to a report that counted eight contributions instead of nine.
“There’s one contribution that we did not include, and that was an error on our part,” he said. “We’ll communicate with APOC and figure out the best way to address it.”
LeDoux said her mistake was the “result of a data-entry error.”
“I feel pretty confident that it’s all going to go away,” she said.
Sitting lawmakers were not the only ones who received notices from APOC last week. Several losing candidates also face fines.
Among them are Stephen Duplantis, who lost to Rep. Chuck Kopp in the Republican primary for House District 24; Eugene Harnett, who lost the Republican primary to Kelly Merrick in House District 14; and Tom Morphet, who lost the Democratic primary for House District 33.
APOC officials also noted that two people seeking service area board seats in the ongoing Municipality of Anchorage elections have failed to properly complete financial disclosure forms. Those are David Pease, who is seeking a seat on the Upper O’Malley board, and former state senator Bill Stoltze, who is seeking a seat on the Chugiak Fire Service Area board.