Alaska Republican candidate for governor appears to massively violate a donation limit

Under state law, primary election candidates cannot give or loan their campaigns more than $5,000 after July 17. 

In a campaign finance disclosure report due Tuesday, Taylor says he donated $260,000 to his campaign on Aug. 3. He also reported buying plane tickets worth more than $3,400 with his own money. 

English and her husband, Stanley, reported donating $100,000 to the campaign on July 28, according to the same report.

Evan Lee, Taylor’s campaign manager, did not return emails on Thursday or Friday asking if the report was accurate and whether Taylor intended to return the contribution. Lee also did not return a text message or a call to his cellphone on Friday.

A separate disclosure report showed Taylor donated another $40,000 to his own campaign on Monday, for a total of $300,000 in cash contributions past the deadline in state law. 

Heather Hebdon is the executive director of the Alaska Public Offices Commission, which regulates campaign financial disclosures. She said on Friday that she was unaware of any complaints against the Taylor-English campaign and had not reviewed their filing herself.

In an article published Thursday by the Anchorage Daily News, Lee said Taylor views the donation limit as unconstitutional.

Neither state nor federal court records show any lawsuit by Taylor challenging the law in question. 

In 2021, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned Alaska’s limits on donations by non-candidates to candidates, but that decision did not touch the limit on donations by candidates to their own campaigns.

This week’s report by Taylor shows he has raised more than $1.58 million during his campaign to become one of the four finalists in the race to replace incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy. 

Dunleavy is term-limited and cannot run again this year.

Among the 17 candidates vying to replace Dunleavy, Taylor’s campaign is one of the best-funded. Among Republicans, only Matt Heilala has raised more — $1.59 million, according to this week’s filings. Most of Heilala’s campaign has been self-funded.

Among Democrats, former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins has raised almost $2.3 million and former state Sen. Tom Begich has raised more than $1.2 million. 

Under Alaska’s current elections system, the top four vote-getters for a particular office — regardless of political party — advance from the primary to the general election.

Alaska’s primary election is Aug. 18, and final results are expected Aug. 28. The deadline for any of the top finishers to withdraw is Aug. 31.

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX.