Complaints against Wilson and Taylor governor campaigns question donation source, not size

A $25,000 donation to Bernadette Wilson's campaign for governor is not too big under Alaska law. Nothing is. The question in the complaint now pending against her campaign is **whether a company wrote it**, which would make it illegal no matter the amount.

Christopher Constant, who chaired the Anchorage Assembly until April, filed that complaint with the Alaska Public Offices Commission on July 27, and a second one against Treg Taylor's campaign a day later. Neither alleges an over-the-limit contribution, because since 2021 there has been no limit to exceed. Both complaints are Constant's account, and neither contains a response from the campaign it names.

The commission's own published contribution limits table lists an individual's giving to a candidate as "Unlimited," whether or not that individual lives in Alaska. It cites AS 15.13.070 as its authority. That statute, still printed in the Alaska Statutes, says an individual may give no more than $500 a year to a candidate and $1,000 to a joint governor and lieutenant governor ticket.

A staff advisory opinion dated August 3 explains the gap. In it, Executive Director Heather R. Hebdon wrote that in Thompson v. Hebdon "federal courts struck down the individual-to-candidate and group-to-candidate limits in AS 15.13.070(b)-(c) as unconstitutionally low. Those limits have not been replaced, so Alaska does not currently limit such contributions." The Ninth Circuit decided that case in 2021. The document is marked unapproved; the commission is scheduled to vote on it at its August 26 meeting.

**What Alaska still bars is a source.** AS 15.13.074(f) prohibits corporations, companies, business trusts, labor unions and similar entities from giving a candidate anything.

That is the hinge of the Wilson complaint. The campaign's Thirty Day Report lists a $25,000 credit card contribution received April 20 from "LLC, IPOP" of Las Vegas, with the occupation and employer fields beside it reading "Owner" and "IPOP LLC." A company in one field, a person in the next. "Alaska law does not allow a company to give money to a candidate. It does allow an individual, including a business owner, to give," Constant wrote. "Which one actually happened here matters, and the report does not make clear." The complaint asks the commission to determine the true source and order the money returned if it came from the firm. It also questions the campaign's credit card fees, which it calculates at an effective 27.77% across both reports against WinRed's published rate of 3.94%.

The complaint against Taylor and Treasurer Donald Handeland is about description, not money coming in. It identifies 21 payments to three consulting and research vendors and three to law firms, each described only by a month name and the word "Retainer," and alleges 24 violations of the duty to itemize expenditures. The consulting entries total about $139,500; with the attorneys, about $146,800, roughly 23% of the campaign's $636,000 in reported spending. "This pattern is not an isolated drafting lapse; it runs through every retainer-labeled entry filed to date, in both reports, for the full life of the Campaign," Constant wrote. The same Thirty Day Report lists the largest single contribution of the period: a $20,000 check from Candice English, Taylor's running mate for lieutenant governor.

The timing is the complaint's sharpest point. On July 19 an APOC paralegal emailed all candidates, chairs and treasurers a notice quoting the itemization regulation and telling campaigns to amend deficient reports. The Taylor campaign's Thirty Day Report was certified and **filed July 20 with the same labels**.

Neither case appears on the commission's August 26 agenda. Voters get their own say on the limits question through Ballot Measure 1, which appears on the August 18 primary ballot and would cap individual gifts at $2,000 to a candidate and $4,000 to a joint ticket.