Campaign finance watchdog recommends $85K in fines against opponents of Alaska’s ranked choice voting system

Alaska’s campaign finance office is recommending a fine of $85,000 be levied against the groups and individuals behind a ballot initiative intended to repeal Alaska’s open primaries and ranked choice voting system for failing to adhere to the state’s reporting requirements.

The initiative, known as Ballot Measure 2, seeks to revert Alaska’s election system to partisan primaries and a pick-one general election. The Alaska Public Offices Commission found in January that the initiative backers had repeatedly violated state law by funneling their money through a Washington-based church and inaccurately reporting their income and spending to the state.

The commission, whose members are appointed by the governor, fined the backers more than $94,000 in January, including a $46,000 fine for Art Mathias, an Anchorage insurance broker and Christian minister who had given $90,000 to the initiative through a tax-exempt church he formed in Washington state.

According to a commission staff report issued Tuesday, Mathias, along with the church he formed — called the Ranked Choice Education Association — and two groups that advocated for the initiative before it was placed on the ballot, called Alaskans for Honest Elections and Alaskans for Honest Government, have failed to pay the full fines levied against them and have failed to fulfill the campaign reporting requirements spelled out by the commission in January.

The initiative backers challenged some of the fines in Anchorage Superior Court earlier this year. A judge largely upheld the fines. The initiative backers then appealed the decision to the Alaska Supreme Court, where the case is ongoing and not expected to be resolved before the election.

“As respondents have either failed to comply or have only partially complied with the orders of the commission, they remain liable for penalties computed and assessed after the 30-day deadline imposed by the commission,” Michael Sargent, a commission staffer, wrote in a report issued Tuesday.

Those fines amount to a $44,300 fine for Alaskans for Honest Elections; a $17,800 fine for Alaskans for Honest Government; a $21,200 fine for the Ranked Choice Education Association; and a $1,700 fine for Mathias.

Mathias did not respond to a request for comment. Phillip Izon, who led the effort to get the measure on the ballot, declined to be interviewed. Kevin Clarkson, a former Alaska attorney general who is representing Mathias and the initiative groups, said he had not yet read the report when reached by phone Wednesday morning and could not comment on it until he had read it. Subsequent calls were not answered.

The ultimate size of the fines will be determined by the commission. Commissioners’ next scheduled meeting is set to take place after the election, on Jan. 16.

Alaskans for Honest Elections, the main group that advocated for placing the question of repealing ranked choice voting and open primaries on the November ballot, reported in July that it had no money remaining in its account, though the commission found that report was likely faulty.

Scott Kendall, an Anchorage attorney and supporter of Alaska’s ranked choice voting system, filed the original complaint that led to the January fines, in addition to a July complaint that led to the recent staff recommendations.

After the backers of the ballot initiative were fined in January, Izon declared that the groups that had advocated for the initiative until then would be disbanded and replaced with new fundraising arms that were not affiliated with him. The commission ordered at the time for groups led by Izon to remain in place until the fines were paid, but it remained unclear if and how the fines would be paid given the apparent insolvency of at least one of the groups.

Alaskans for Honest Elections, the main group that advocated for placing the question of repealing ranked choice voting and open primaries on the November ballot, reported in July that it had no money remaining in its account, though the commission found that report was likely faulty.

“No one has seen this before, but there are principles of law that allow enforcement action to pierce through the veil and go after the principles,” said Kendall. “The nature of the enforcement action is really going to be up to the attorney general’s office and APOC. They’re going to have an entity that owes tens of thousands of dollars at the end of this that says it has no money, but they are also going to have the individuals who formed the entity and are responsible for its actions.”

Though Mathias and Izon were instrumental to getting the initiative on the ballot, neither has been actively involved in campaigning for it. Kendall said it was unlikely that the “Yes on 2″ group, which has raised funds to support the repeal effort since Ballot Measure 2 was certified, would be held financially liable for the fines levied on the initiative’s original backers. The “Yes on 2″ group has reported raising just over $127,000, a small fraction of the nearly $14 million raised by the “No on 2″ group.

That group has been funded in large part by national organizations that support Alaska’s election system and are working to implement it in other states.

“There are a group of individuals and entities who believe in the idea we came up with here. They’re invested in it,” said Kendall. “I’m not going to be shy about accepting that help.”

The Alaska Public Offices Commission also held a special meeting Thursday to discuss a complaint filed by the 907 Initiative, a left-leaning organization, against Families of the Last Frontier, an independent expenditure group backing Republican legislative candidates.

The 907 Initiative alleged that the group was violating state law by failing to report the “true source” of its contributions. The group reported receiving $150,000 last month from GOPAC Inc., a Virginia-based entity that spends money on races across the country to promote Republican candidates. The 907 Initiative alleges that state law requires Families of the Last Frontier to disclose the individuals who donated money to GOPAC Inc.

The commission is set to meet against next week, ahead of Election Day, to hold an expedited hearing on the complaint against Families of the Last Frontier.