ANCHORAGE, Alaska—
The August primary is just around the corner, and the Alaska Public Offices Commission is looking into two matters. One deals with what some argue is a campaign ad, while another concerns a penalty against backers of a controversial ballot measure. The first situation involves three radio ads created by the anti-Pebble Mine group Alaska Wild Salmon Protection. The ads discuss the effects Pebble can have on alaska fisheries, and urge voters to elect unnamed anti-Pebble candidates -- but the question is whether they're campaign or issue ads.
Truth About Pebble, the organization that filed that complaint, believes those words target the election and thus the spots qualify as campaign ads -- and because of that, Alaska Wild Salmon Protection should have to disclose who's paying for them. But Tim McKeever, the group’s attorney, says they're not required to follow campaign disclosure laws.
“They don’t mention names of any candidate, and therefore not required to comply to disclosure requirements of APOC statutes,” McKeever said.
“If they find that these folks are not affecting the election, then there's no teeth in our ethics law -- and there's no justification for having an ethics law if you're not going to uphold it,” said Truth About Pebble’s president, Gail Phillips.
In addition to investigating the anti-Pebble ads, APOC is assessing a fine against the main backers of Ballot Measure 1, the controversial initiative that bans the use of public funds to lobby or campaign, for failing to register as a group and not filing timely spending statements. Alaskans for Open Government says it will try to reduce the $339,000 penalty.
AOG has given thousands of dollars to Clean Team Alaska, the group that's spearheading the measure. The group’s Ken Jacobus says its contributions were filed through Clean Team Alaska.
“The law doesn't require us to disclose this, we don't believe we should disclose this because we believe we didn't have to,” Jacobus said. “But if we have to disclose, we have no problem doing that -- and here they are.”
AOG has a 30-day window to appeal the fine.
Contact Christine Kim at ckim@ktuu.com
