One donor supplied 99 percent of the non-individual money behind Alaska's ranked choice repeal

Nearly all of the large-dollar money behind the campaign to repeal Alaska's ranked-choice voting comes from a single source — one that doesn't appear, in full, in Alaska's campaign finance records.

An entity called Aurora Action Network has given about $1.83 million to Repeal Now, the campaign behind Ballot Measure 2, accounting for more than 99 percent of the money the state has recorded from non-individual donors. But Aurora Action Network is not registered as a group with the Alaska Public Offices Commission and files no reports of its own, so whoever ultimately funds it does not show up in state records.

There are gaps in the paper trail. The campaign's own reported total, about $1.54 million, is roughly $300,000 short of the non-individual money alone in the state's database. And under a rule in effect since late 2024, ballot-measure donors of $500 or more must file a statement naming the true source of their money; two of Aurora Action Network's contributions instead carry an APOC notation saying the true source was submitted separately and sits at the agency rather than in public view.

The contrast with the campaign's grassroots fundraising is stark. Repeal Now's most recent report, covering nine days in August, lists 35 contributions totaling about $3,181 — most of them $25 or less, many from donors who list their occupation as retired, the largest a single $500 gift. State Rep. George Rauscher of Palmer gave $100. That nine-day haul is dwarfed by what the campaign still owes for advertising: about $200,595 in unpaid debt to Facebook and Google running through the November election.

Aurora Action Network's own filings shift partway through. Its contributions from mid-2025 through a $50,000 gift in February are listed from Hudson, Wisconsin; every contribution from April onward — when the amounts jump into the six and seven figures — is listed from Anchorage. That change drew notice at the lieutenant governor's July 27 hearing on the measure, where testifier Christopher Rayner said the group "stated that it's in Anchorage" but "is actually organized in Wisconsin," and argued strong disclosure keeps "dark money from heavily influencing our politics."

Repeal supporters see the disclosure rules differently. Bethany Markham, a sponsor, testified that the 2020 disclosure requirements were designed to shield incumbents and, in her view, actually let more hidden money into the state. "The disclosure changes were made to protect incumbent candidates," she said, and "to ensure that the dark, more dark money can flow into Alaska. And we want to repeal to end both of these things."

Ballot Measure 2 would repeal ranked-choice voting, bring back closed party primaries, and undo the campaign-disclosure rules voters approved in 2020. It reached the ballot after the lieutenant governor verified about 42,800 signatures, above the threshold required. A nearly identical 2024 repeal attempt failed by two-tenths of a percentage point, 49.9 to 50.1.

Alaska News earlier reported on a state filing tying $1.5 million from Elon Musk, routed through a political action committee, to the repeal effort; the records reviewed here do not show whether that money is part of Aurora Action Network's total. The commission declined in July to fast-track a complaint involving Repeal Now and Aurora Action Network. Neither the campaign nor Aurora Action Network responds in the records and testimony this account draws from. Voters decide Nov. 3.