Alaska campaign regulator delays decision on complaint against pro-Dunleavy group

The Alaska Public Workplaces Fee won’t rule earlier than the Nov. 8 basic election on a criticism towards a multimillion-dollar group backing the re-election of Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

The choice, launched late Wednesday, is a reversal of a previous fee motion that allowed the fee to contemplate the criticism earlier than the election. The criticism was filed this month by two politically energetic nonprofits.

The criticism accused the nationwide Republican Governors Affiliation of structuring a shell group known as A Stronger Alaska in an effort to evade state marketing campaign disclosure legal guidelines. 

The RGA and A Stronger Alaska rejected the accusation, saying in a listening to final week that the RGA had contributed $3 million to A Stronger Alaska, which acted individually from the RGA regardless of sharing workers, workplace area and a tax ID quantity.

In Wednesday’s choice, the general public places of work fee — in control of regulating marketing campaign contributions and spending for state-level elections — referred the difficulty to workers for additional investigation.

That investigation may discover the RGA in violation of state regulation, commissioners famous, however Wednesday’s discover doesn’t require the RGA to take preventive motion earlier than the election.

The 2 nonprofits that filed the criticism — the Alaska Public Curiosity Analysis Group and the 907 Initiative — had requested that the fee act and penalize the RGA earlier than the election.

Commissioners instructed attorneys for A Stronger Alaska and the RGA to direct their purchasers to protect emails, textual content messages and different information for future investigation.

“Nothing on this order precludes the Republican Governors Affiliation from talking in its personal identify throughout this election cycle,” the order states, “supplied it complies with all marketing campaign finance legal guidelines.”

Alaska Beacon is a part of States Newsroom, a community of stories bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: data@alaskabeacon.com. Observe Alaska Beacon on Fb and Twitter.