Judge won't revisit Tagle ruling or widen the case to include Treg Taylor

An Anchorage judge on Monday refused to reconsider her ruling that disqualified House District 22 candidate Jose Tagle Jr., and declined to widen the case to include Treg Taylor, the Republican candidate for governor.

Her orders don't say whether Taylor could be certified if he wins Tuesday. The state Division of Elections argues he couldn't under her ruling, and that his running mate, Candi English, would become governor instead.

Superior Court Judge Josie Garton denied the division's petition for rehearing and denied Taylor's request to join the case. In a handwritten note on that second order, she wrote that "the court denied the Division's petition for rehearing and does not expand the scope of this administrative appeal."

Garton ruled Oct. 22 that Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom broke state law by certifying Tagle's nomination after the Alaska Public Offices Commission found he hadn't substantially complied with the state's financial disclosure law in time. Tagle stays on the ballot, but the division told him Oct. 23 it won't certify him as elected if he gets the most votes.

The ruling never mentions Taylor. But the commission had made a similar finding about him, on a 4-1 vote, and Dahlstrom certified both men on the same day, Sept. 4.

In its petition last week, the division said Garton's holding "applies equally to Taylor." In a Monday filing, it said it isn't asking her to throw out Taylor's nomination and still defends Dahlstrom's decision. But under the ruling, it wrote, the lieutenant governor can't certify the election of either man. Taylor's route, it said, is to appeal the commission's finding about him.

Taylor's lawyer, Richard R. Moses, wrote that Taylor was never a party to the case or served with any filing in it, and that deciding his candidacy without a hearing would violate due process. "The Division cannot keep Taylor out of the courtroom and then ask the Court to keep him off the ballot," he wrote.

Jenny-Marie Stryker and the Alaska Democratic Party, who brought the case, said the petition appeared aimed at protecting Taylor. Consequences for a candidate who isn't a party, their lawyers wrote, "do not establish that the Court overlooked or misconceived anything in deciding Tagle's appeal."

The division plans to certify the general election results on or about Nov. 25.