Wisconsin-based super PAC reports $710K urging Alaskans to leave Sullivan blank

A super PAC that hasn't said who funds it reported Friday that it spent about $710,000 on ads and mail urging Alaska voters to rank Republican Gerald Heikes first in the U.S. Senate race and leave Sen. Dan Sullivan blank.

"Rank Heikes first on November 3. Leave Sullivan blank," reads one of Alaska Values PAC's Facebook and Instagram ads, which began Oct. 16 and attack Sullivan's votes on federal debt and spending.

Heikes, a Republican from Palmer, got 1% of the votes in the Aug. 18 primary. He finished fifth, one spot short of the general election ballot, and made it when the fourth-place finisher, Democrat David B. Leslie, withdrew on Aug. 31.

Who is paying for the message isn't clear. Alaska Values PAC registered with the Federal Election Commission on Sept. 2 and lists an address in Hudson, Wisconsin, and a bank in Lino Lakes, Minnesota. No report it has filed names a donor. Its regular report, covering activity through Oct. 14, lists zero receipts, zero spending and zero cash on hand.

Friday's filings show $462,999 paid to Liberty Buying Partners LLC of Cheyenne, Wyoming, for media production and placement, and $247,280.50 paid to GROT LLC of Dover, Delaware, for direct mail. The group lists each payment twice, once as support for Heikes and once as opposition to Sullivan, so its own running total reads about $1.42 million. The actual spending is about $710,280.

Alaska Values PAC shares its treasurer, Thomas Datwyler, and its Hudson address with Right for Alaska, which spent about $2.35 million in the Senate primary: about $1.15 million opposing Sullivan, about $700,000 supporting Heikes and about $504,000 supporting Earl D. "Skip" Southworth.

Right for Alaska's amended termination report, filed Oct. 6, lists $1,285,000 from Liberty Force Action Fund of Alexandria, Virginia, which the report lists as a political party committee, and $990,000 from Sixteen Thirty Fund of Washington, D.C. Sixteen Thirty Fund describes itself as a 501(c)(4) that supports advocacy projects, and its website is headed "Empowering Progressive Changemakers."

The shared treasurer and address do not establish that the two groups share donors. Datwyler is treasurer for 316 committees that have filed with the FEC this year. His firm's website says he works for Republican campaigns and conservative PACs.