After 3 years, former Alaska lawmaker will face election-tampering trial in November

A former Alaska state legislator will go on trial Nov. 27, accused of misconduct during Alaska’s 2018 primary and general elections.

Former Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, was indicted on state charges in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic and several subsequent delays have put off her trial until now.

LeDoux’s former chief of staff, Lisa Simpson, and Simpson’s son, Caden Vaught, also are accused of being part of a scheme that allegedly involved them encouraging voters to back LeDoux illegally.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby set the Nov. 27 trial date earlier this year and reconfirmed it during a hearing on Wednesday afternoon.

“We’ve done a lot of rearranging to make sure that this trial can begin on the 27th,” he told attorneys during the hearing.

A trial had been set for last year but was canceled amid procedural motions by both prosecutors and defense attorneys. While not all of the pretrial filings have been completed, Saxby said he is unlikely to change the November date.

“We were ready to go to trial — or close to being ready to go to trial — at one point, and it’s had to be delayed by many, many months and I think further delay is extremely inadvisable, and it’s going to take an awfully strong showing from you to authorize any further delay,” he told the attorneys.

LeDoux has vigorously defended herself from the state’s accusations, calling them politically motivated. Prosecutors filed charges two years after elections officials noted “irregularities” in voting patterns within LeDoux’s district.

LeDoux subsequently lost reelection in her district, whose boundaries have since been redrawn; most of the district is now represented by a Democrat.

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