Alaska’s U.S. Senate race has become one of the most expensive fights for control of Congress. With three weeks to go, it’s getting harder to ignore the independent groups involved in the race.
Federal campaign finance filings show that independent expenditure groups, including super PACs, have spent more than $31 million since the August primary. While super PACs are required to report their donors, certain Alaska-branded 501(c)(4) nonprofits — and the national networks that fund them — are not.
In Alaska, the most visible example is the 907 Initiative, an Anchorage-based group that has spent more than $1 million on ads targeting Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
A Federal Election Commission complaint was filed against 907 Initiative in September accusing it of illegally coordinating with a little-known candidate who shared the incumbent senator’s name. The complaint centered on Amber Lee, a Democratic consultant who worked for the candidate while sitting on the 907 Initiative’s board. She’s denied wrongdoing.
Federal prosecutors are already investigating whether the same-name opponent got into the race to confuse Alaska voters.
Now the American Accountability Foundation wants federal prosecutors involved to see if campaign finance violations occurred. AAF has asked the Justice Department to examine whether groups running ads against Sen. Sullivan illegally worked hand in hand with the same-name candidate. It also wants a probe into whether money was moved through other groups to intentionally hide who was really paying.
The referral named the 907 Initiative and Majority Forward, a Washington nonprofit tied to Senate Majority PAC, along with two Alaska groups.
The money is also following one of the issues Alaskans care about most. The 907 Initiative launched an Alaskans Against Big Trawl campaign aimed at Sullivan’s fishing industry ties. SalmonState, one of the loudest anti-trawl voices in the state, is not a standalone Alaska nonprofit itself. By its own description, it’s a sponsored project of New Venture Fund, a Washington-based progressive dark-money nonprofit.
That structure is at the heart of AAF’s other complaints. The group has asked the IRS and the Alaska Department of Law to investigate New Venture Fund, SalmonState and the Alaska Venture Fund. AAF argues those projects present themselves publicly as independent organizations while their finances are folded into their sponsor’s tax filings, which leaves little disclosure at the project level.
New Venture Fund is no stranger to Alaska ballot fights. AAF’s complaint says it put more than $1 million behind the 2016 automatic voter registration measure. It also says the fund put more than $263,000 in cash and in-kind support into the 2018 Yes for Salmon campaign.
The Alaska Influence Pipeline site has separately traced hundreds of thousands of dollars from New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund to Alaska groups working on environmental advocacy, voter engagement and politics. Sixteen Thirty Fund alone reported grants of $302,500 to Alaska Progressive Donor Table and $200,000 to Alaskans for Posterity.
The concerns are not unique to Alaska. The U.S. House Oversight Committee has been investigating Sixteen Thirty Fund and Arabella Advisors, now known as Sunflower Services, over the network’s Chorus influencer program. Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said Sixteen Thirty Fund had “reportedly attempted to circumvent campaign finance disclosure requirements.” The committee has since subpoenaed the group, saying its earlier responses fell short.
Outside spending runs in both directions. Women Vote, the independent-expenditure arm of EMILY’s List, is putting $2.7 million behind Democratic nominee Mary Peltola. On the other side, President Donald Trump’s super PAC has spent about $3.6 million on ads backing Sullivan since early September. Both are super PACs that disclose their donors.
That is what sets the 907 Initiative case apart. The group can spend heavily without naming its funders, and a pending complaint alleges it crossed federal coordination rules. The FEC has not ruled and, without a quorum, cannot. AAF has now urged the Justice Department to take up the question.
That leaves Alaska voters heading into November with a Senate race drawing tens of millions in outside spending and no clear view of who is behind some of it.
Reprinted with permission from DC Journal.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
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