Senate Bill 5<\/a>, which is ostensibly aimed a political fundraising practice but may end up hitting a political rival.<\/p>\nLast year, Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, created a political action committee and began accepting donations.<\/p>\n
These committees aren\u2019t new. What was new was that it was a committee controlled by a legislator.<\/p>\n
State law tightly regulates campaign contributions to lawmakers. Legislators can\u2019t accept donations during the legislative session, for example, and they can\u2019t take money from lobbyists, unless those lobbyists live in the district they represent.<\/p>\n
Committees are also regulated, but loosely. They can take money during the legislative session. They can take money from almost anyone in the state, including lobbyists.<\/p>\n
If a legislator controls a committee, that sets up a dangerous situation, Meyer said.<\/p>\n
Lobbyists could contribute to a committee run by a lawmaker directly in response to that lawmaker\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the appearance of this type of influence is unacceptable,\u201d Meyer told the Senate State Affairs Committee on Jan. 31.<\/p>\n
While the Alaska Public Offices Commission has ruled that a lawmaker\u2019s committee cannot directly contribute to the lawmaker himself, that doesn\u2019t prevent the lawmaker\u2019s committee from donating to another lawmaker, who could then return the favor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a loophole that we just believe needs to be filled to try to eliminate the appearance of any corruption or appearance of wrongdoing,\u201d Meyer said Friday.<\/p>\n
SB 5, if signed into law as currently written, would prohibit lawmakers\u2019 PACs from accepting money during the session, would prohibit lobbyists from making contributions, and it would prohibit the PAC from spending money during the session.<\/p>\n
He said he would like to prohibit lawmakers from creating PACs altogether, but based on a memo from a lawyer, isn\u2019t sure that\u2019s legal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis bill is trying to mirror the current law that we have for us (individuals),\u201d Meyer told the Senate State Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Alaska Public Offices Commission released the financial records of the only three Legislative PACs that have been set up thus far.<\/p>\n
LeDoux\u2019s \u201cGabby\u2019s Tuesday PAC\u201d reported receiving $26,065.60 between Feb. 1, 2016 and Feb. 1, 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cSustain Alaska Fund,\u201d set up by Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, reported receiving $7,714.05.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlaska Conservative Leadership PAC,\u201d created by Rep. David Eastman, R-Wasilla, recorded $1,435.01 in contributions.<\/p>\n
The committees run by LeDoux and Seaton have not reported any contributions since the Legislature convened Jan. 17, but because the reporting period only runs through Feb. 1, there is limited data for the session.<\/p>\n
Eastman\u2019s PAC has reported a contribution since the session\u2019s start: A $100 gift from a Talkeetna resident on Jan. 27.<\/p>\n
By phone, Eastman said the goal of his committee is \u201cnot to take over the world or create some kind of new partisan spirit,\u201d but to back people who are conservative and interested in office, but afraid of the hurdles put in front of candidates.<\/p>\n
He invited scrutiny of the committee\u2019s contributions and expenses and says he views financial contributions as a form of free speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not really happy with any of the political parties right now,\u201d he said, and he views his PAC as an alternative to the traditional political party system.<\/p>\n
To an extent, that\u2019s true for LeDoux and Seaton as well, which is why Senate Bill 5 is more than just its text.<\/p>\n
LeDoux and Seaton, though Republicans, are moderate members of the coalition majority that controls the House of Representatives. When they joined that coalition, along with Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, state party members voted 56-4 to pull all future support for them.<\/p>\n
Chair of the Alaska Republican Party Tuckerman Babcock, in a letter to the three, said, \u201cWe are deeply offended and astonished that you have stabbed your supporters in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking by phone on Friday, LeDoux said the goal of her PAC is to \u201csupport reasonable people who will do the right thing for the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her PAC has donated $1,000 each to the campaigns of Stutes, Rep. Dan Ortiz, I-Anchorage, and Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham. It attempted to donate to the campaigns of Rep. Jason Grenn, I-Anchorage, and Rep. Colleen Sullivan-Leonard, R-Anchorage, but their campaigns refused the money.<\/p>\n
LeDoux said she doesn\u2019t see her actions as anything different from what political parties already do, and wishes she didn\u2019t have to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was a way to take all of the money out of politics, that would be great, but that\u2019s not the reality right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She called the attention to her PAC a distraction from other issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a diversion so we\u2019re not concentrating on those larger conflicts of interest that really do have an impact on the Legislature,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As SB 5 advances in the Senate, Grenn has \u2014 in the House \u2014 proposed a law that would make it more difficult for a lawmaker with a declared conflict of interest to vote on a bill related to that conflict.<\/p>\n
Right now, it only takes one lawmaker to speak up and allow a commercial fisherman to vote on a fishing bill, or an oil worker to vote on a bill affecting the oil and gas industry. House Bill 44 would require a majority vote instead.<\/p>\n
If SB 5 is seen as targeting LeDoux and her allies, HB 44 is seen as targeting Meyer, who is employed by ConocoPhillips Alaska.<\/p>\n
LeDoux is chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, in charge of deciding which bills reach the House floor for a vote of the full body. Meyer is chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, in charge of doing the same in the Senate.<\/p>\n
LeDoux and Meyer each denied that HB 44 and SB 5 are guns pointed in the opposite direction. Each called their body\u2019s bill a sensible and simple approach to avoid corruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a pretty simple bill. We\u2019re just filling a loophole that was an oversight back in 1996,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not an accurate description,\u201d LeDoux said. \u201cIf you like something, it\u2019s not a loophole. If you don\u2019t like something, it\u2019s not a loophole.\u201d<\/p>\n
She suggested that if Meyer is concerned about corruption, he might consider taking action.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince this is what Sen. Meyer is so concerned about, I wish, I really wish that when Jason Grenn\u2019s bill comes over to the Senate, that he would co-sponsor it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or call 419-7732.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anchorage Republican Sen. Kevin Meyer has a nightmare. It involves credit card machines. \u201cWhat we don\u2019t want is for people to have a Paypal or credit card machine during session and the lobbyist slides their credit card through before coming into the office,\u201d he said. \u201cThey could legally do (that) now.\u201d Meyer is the creator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[34,225],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-12699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-alaska-legislature","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12699"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}