Alaska's governor race upended in a day: a disqualification, a last-minute filing, and a lone Democrat

Alaska's race for governor was scrambled in a single day Monday, as a candidate was thrown off the ballot, his wife filed to run in his place with an hour to spare, and another contender dropped out — leaving a November field of three Republicans against one Democrat.

The turmoil traces back to Friday, when Democrat Tom Begich, who finished second in the Aug. 18 primary, withdrew and endorsed the first-place finisher, fellow Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. Alaska sends only the top four primary finishers to the ranked-choice general election, so Begich's exit moved everyone below him up a slot — and opened the fourth and final spot on the ballot.

That spot would have gone to former Attorney General Treg Taylor, who finished fifth. Instead, on Monday morning, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom declined to certify him. The Alaska Public Offices Commission had voted 4-1 that Taylor's financial disclosure did not substantially comply with state law: he reported more than $1 million in rental income from an Anchorage apartment building he owns but would not publicly name his tenants, providing only first names and last initials. "When a candidate has not complied with Alaska's financial disclosure requirements within the time required, the Lieutenant Governor may not certify that person's nomination," Dahlstrom said in a statement, calling it "a difficult decision made under an extraordinarily tight timeline and in circumstances we have not faced before."

Taylor rejected the reasoning. He called the decision "the worst of the unelected bureaucracy: massive authority with no accountability," and said officials "decided an issue that should have been left to Alaskan voters to decide." He had argued he withheld the tenant names out of concern they could be harassed. He can still challenge the disqualification in court.

His removal set off the day's strangest turn. Under Alaska law, Taylor's running mate, businesswoman Candice English, could stay on the ballot if she found a new candidate for lieutenant governor by the 5 p.m. deadline. She did — Jodi Taylor, the disqualified candidate's wife — in a form filed less than an hour before the cutoff. English moved up to run for governor herself. Her ticket's paperwork is still in question, leaving even that fourth slot unsettled.

The reshuffling closed the door on another Republican. Former state Sen. Click Bishop, who finished sixth, had seen his own odds of reaching the ballot improve when Begich dropped out. But Bishop withdrew Monday as well, his campaign saying only that it wanted to "do what's right for Alaska."

That leaves Kreiss-Tomkins, the 37-year-old former state representative from Sitka, as the lone Democrat, consolidating his party behind a single ticket. "To hell with political infighting," he said in a statement when Tom dropped out. The three Republicans splitting the other side of the ballot are Bernadette Wilson, an Anchorage businesswoman and talk-radio host; former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson; and now English.

Alaska's ranked-choice system lets voters rank all the candidates, which in theory allows the Republican vote to consolidate as ballots are counted. But results in recent cycles show a share of voters decline to rank beyond their first choice — a pattern that, with one Democrat facing a divided Republican field, both sides will be watching closely. The general election is Nov. 3.