Murdoch gives $500,000 to No on 2 as repeal side reports $279,000 from Aurora

New York donor Kathryn Murdoch gave $500,000 to No on 2, the campaign fighting Ballot Measure 2, according to a report the group filed Monday with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. A day earlier, Repeal Now, the group backing the measure, reported $279,000 from Aurora Action Network.

Ballot Measure 2 would repeal Alaska's top-four primary and ranked choice general election, and several campaign finance rules adopted with them in 2020, Alaska News has reported. A similar repeal failed in 2024 by 743 votes. Voters decide Nov. 3.

One of those 2020 rules requires groups that give more than $2,000 a year in money drawn from donations or dues to report its true source, the people who originally gave it. The measure would repeal that requirement.

Murdoch, listed in the filing as co-founder and president of the Quadrivium Foundation, gave Oct. 7 and is listed as her own true source. Her gift led $1.13 million in 20 new contributions to No on 2, bringing the campaign's total to about $9.89 million, according to its Oct. 12 report.

Unite America PAC of Denver gave No on 2 another $460,000 on Oct. 8. The report lists no true sources for it, and a note on the entry reads, "NOT the True Source. The file will not load but is available thru APOC." American Federation of Teachers Solidarity of Washington, D.C., gave $170,000. The other 17 contributions ranged from $5 to $500.

Repeal Now reported $280,240 in new contributions in its report filed Sunday, nearly all of it in two checks from Aurora. Aurora gave $97,000 on Oct. 6 and listed Brett Hendrickson, a retiree from Southlake, Texas, as the true source of all of it. Aurora gave $182,000 the next day. For that check, the filing lists one true source, Richard Weiss, a retiree from Winter Park, Florida, for $5,000, and none for the other $177,000. The filing lists Aurora at an Anchorage address with no officers.

The rest of Repeal Now's new money came in 18 contributions of $10 to $250 from Alaskans. The group has reported about $1.7 million in contributions overall.

Repeal Now spent about $150,000 in the period, most of it $120,389 to G2 Consulting of Sandy, Utah, for mailers, and reported $244,050 in unpaid debts, nearly all of it to Facebook/Meta and Google for ads running through Election Day. No on 2 reported about $25,500 in spending, including $12,600 to Grow Progress for ad testing, and no unpaid debts.

The next campaign reports are due Oct. 27, according to the APOC reporting calendar.