Alaska campaign regulator fines political group with ties to university official and state attorney general

The Alaska Public Offices Commission has fined a group active in last year’s legislative elections $2,525 for failing to properly disclose its financial dealings.

The group, Alaska Policy Partners, attacked moderate Republican and Democratic candidates during the election, spending $210,000 with a Utah-based firm called Massey Political Consulting that wasn’t licensed to work in Alaska.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed the group’s president, Seth Church, to the University of Alaska Board of Regents on Thursday.

Alaska Policy Partners has an identically named advocacy group, Alaska Policy Partners Inc., that doesn’t donate to political causes.

Attorney General Treg Taylor and his wife, Jodi, were listed as members of the group’s partner corporation in 2022, and Taylor was listed as the sponsor of a $25,000 per-hotel-room fishing fundraiser for the group.

[Governor appoints Republican donor to University of Alaska regents]

Disclosure documents filed before the election showed both Taylors with ties to the group that ran attack ads; those were replaced after the election with new filings showing them as members of the advocacy group only.

Other ties to Alaska Policy Partners remain: The Taylors’ daughter, Quincy, is part of the Utah-based consulting firm hired by Alaska Policy Partners, and a Taylor family member donated $29,000 to the group in 2021 and 2022.

[Records list Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor as member of political group behind scathing attack ads]

Other donors included Rep. Jesse Sumner, R-Wasilla, who was elected to office a month after he contributed $25,000 to the group.

The fine against Alaska Policy Partners was published last week by the Alaska Public Offices Commission, which released a final report after an investigation by commission staff.

That investigation found Alaska Policy Partners improperly disclosed its campaign spending, including a $100,000 ad buy that wasn’t reported until Dec. 7, almost a month after Election Day.

APOC investigators noted that even though Massey Political Consulting appeared to lack an Alaska business license, it wasn’t within the campaign regulators’ power to fine the firm.

Former state Rep. Jennifer Johnston, R-Anchorage, filed the complaint that led to the APOC investigation. Contacted Friday about the result, she declined comment.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.