Outside groups have reported more than $100 million in Alaska's Senate race

Outside groups have now reported more than $100 million in spending on Alaska's U.S. Senate race, counting the August primary, and more than $11 million of it was reported since Tuesday. Alaskans vote Nov. 3 in the ranked-choice general election between Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola.

About $93 million of that is for the general election. That's up about $26 million since Oct. 19, when the general-election total stood at $67.4 million. It's split almost evenly, with about $46 million to $47 million reported on each side: one helping Sullivan or attacking Peltola, the other helping Peltola or attacking Sullivan. Groups reported about three of every four of those dollars as opposing a candidate rather than supporting one.

This is spending by super PACs and other groups that aren't part of either campaign. They can raise and spend unlimited amounts but can't coordinate that spending with the candidates, and in the final weeks they must report spending of $1,000 or more to the Federal Election Commission within about a day. Many of the figures are estimates that can be revised. None of the money goes to the campaigns.

Here's a breakdown of who is spending, what came in this week and how the campaigns' own money stands.

The biggest spenders

The biggest outside spender is SLF PAC, a Republican super PAC that registered with the FEC in 2015 as Senate Leadership Fund. It has reported $16.7 million on the general election, most of it against Peltola. It was also the only donor through Oct. 14 to 59 PAC, an Anchorage-registered super PAC that has now reported $3.5 million against Peltola.

Close behind is North Star, which has reported about $15 million on the general election, nearly all of it against Sullivan. All $12.4 million North Star reported raising through Oct. 14 came from two Democratic super PACs: $12.2 million from SMP, also known as Senate Majority PAC, and $200,000 from WinSenate, which has reported $4.7 million against Sullivan on its own.

Other large spenders against Peltola or for Sullivan include No Going Back PAC, with about $9.5 million; Americans for Prosperity Action, with $7.1 million; and Last Frontier PAC, with $6.5 million in the general election after $3.9 million in the primary. No Going Back PAC's filings list $200 million in contributions this year from MAGA Inc., far more than it has spent in Alaska.

Against Sullivan or for Peltola, the next largest are Women Vote, with $5.6 million; Midnight Sun PAC, with $4.1 million; Forward Alaska, with $3.8 million; and Duty and Country, with $3.1 million.

The last few days

Since Tuesday, groups have reported about $7.2 million against Sullivan or for Peltola and about $4.4 million against Peltola or for Sullivan.

The largest new reports came from SLF PAC, about $2.1 million, mostly for ads and mail against Peltola; North Star, $1.8 million in ads against Sullivan, most of it digital; 59 PAC, $1.6 million in ads against Peltola; Lower Costs Now, $1.1 million in ads supporting Peltola; and Women Vote, about $980,000, mostly for TV and radio ads against Sullivan. Midnight Sun PAC reported about $820,000, mostly for canvassing and mail supporting Peltola.

Another group is spending to boost a third candidate. Alaska Values PAC, a super PAC with a Wisconsin address that hasn't named a donor in its filings, has reported about $1.9 million against Sullivan and an equal amount supporting Republican Gerald Heikes, on ads, mail and texts, including ads urging voters to rank Heikes first and leave Sullivan blank.

The campaigns

The campaigns' latest full reports cover Oct. 1 to Oct. 14. In those two weeks, Peltola's campaign took in $4.3 million and spent $3.3 million, according to its report to the FEC. Sullivan's took in $347,000 and spent $2.6 million, more than seven times what it raised, according to its report.

That flipped the cash advantage. Peltola's campaign had $4.1 million in the bank on Oct. 14, Sullivan's $2.8 million. At the end of September, Sullivan had $5.1 million to Peltola's $3.2 million, Alaska News reported.

Since then, the campaigns have had to report contributions of $1,000 or more within 48 hours. Peltola's campaign has reported about $890,000 in such contributions made since Oct. 15, and Sullivan's $271,000. These notices leave out smaller contributions, so they show only part of what's coming in.

For the full election cycle, Peltola's campaign has taken in $36.9 million and spent $32.8 million. Sullivan's has taken in $14.2 million and spent $12.4 million.

Some of the money on both sides has paid for ads styled as local news, Alaska News reported last week. Peltola's campaign pays for ads on the Alaska Brief Facebook page, and Republican groups supporting Sullivan pay for the Alaska Navigator website.

Peltola, a former U.S. representative, and Sullivan, who won the seat in 2014 and was reelected in 2020, share the ballot with two other Republicans, Heikes of Palmer and Daniel J. Sullivan of Petersburg.

How Alaska News counted: The figures count only outside groups' independent spending, not the campaigns' own money. The general-election figures use the latest running totals the larger groups listed on their FEC reports through late Thursday, Oct. 29, and the PaidForPolitics tracker's figures for the rest, including all primary spending. Alaska Values PAC reports each expenditure as two equal entries, one against Sullivan and one for Heikes, and its filings don't say whether each pair is one payment listed twice or one cost split in half. Alaska News counted one entry per pair, as spending against Sullivan. A separate count of the spending notices in the FEC's own data file, which runs through Wednesday, also tops $100 million.