Trump group pledges to spend $7.7 million on Alaska campaigns
“President Trump is finally beginning to tap significantly into his super PAC’s $400 million war chest to help Republicans in the midterms,” the New York Times reports.
The No Going Back PAC has “reserved” $7.7 million to spend in Alaska, the Times reported.
Filings so far show the group is opposing independent Bill Hill and supporting Nick Begich The Third with money for direct mail and postage. The Mary Peltola-Dan Sullivan race is likely to become the major element of Trump spending in Alaska, however.
“Mr. Trump’s political operation is behind a mysterious new super PAC that began reserving at least $47 million in advertisements to aid Republicans in half a dozen key battleground races on Tuesday and Wednesday,” the Times said.
Meanwhile, Sullivan is skipping Trump’s mini-convention in Texas, choosing to campaign in Alaska.
“Many Republicans in close contests have stayed away, trying to put some space between them and a president with low approval ratings,” as the Wall Street Journal put it.
Sullivan will act as if the pending Trump visit to Alaska, supposedly in October, is a thrilling prospect. Sullivan will say he can’t wait to get on the stage with him.
A predictable Trump airing of grievances in Alaska may help Sullivan get the shrinking Trump fanbase in Alaska energized.
But it will certainly hurt Sullivan by drawing attention to the cost of everything from groceries to health care.
Trump will say that gasoline prices will drop fast soon, as he always does, while the gas stations are getting more than $5 a gallon and tens of thousands of Alaskans are facing the largest heating and electric bills they’ve ever seen.
The high fuel prices are entirely due to Trump’s war, backed by the members of Congress he controls, including Sullivan and Begich.
Everyone knows this, including Sullivan and Begich, who have proclaimed this the Golden Age of Alaska.
As Sullivan himself put it, the cost of filling up his F-150 was outrageous when it was only $4.69 a gallon.
“Had it been fully empty it would have been $142 to fill up the tank of one truck. In America. Devastating to working families, but nobody’s being fooled. Nobody’s being fooled,” said Sullivan, appearing with other Republicans equally outraged at the price of gasoline on April 6, 2022.
Trump’s visit will be a reminder not only of gasoline and diesel prices, but also of the president’s priorities—the reflecting pool, the Trump Arch, his name on the Kennedy Center, the Qatari jet bribe and the more than $2 billion Trump has pocketed since he returned to the White House.
Financial disclosure disgrace
Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom have embarrassed themselves again.
What I’ve seen so far indicates that the Dunleavy administration is guilty of gross negligence and has made false claims about lots of lawmakers and candidates.
This is the result of sloppy work done in a rush for a political purpose, led by shadow attorney general Stephen Cox. He is the guy who was rewarded by Dunleavy with the creation of a brand new state job after he was rejected by the Legislature.
The Department of Law report was supposed to show that 91 candidates and officials had made mistakes on their financial disclosure forms. But the state put together this list so rapidly that it made a lot of serious mistakes of its own and failed to check the facts.
I think the ham-handed state officials wanted to show that Tregarrick Taylor shouldn’t have been singled out. The big difference is that Taylor refused to correct his financial disclosure statement and has ignored the law.
Anchorage attorney Scott Kendall said the report “that appears to have been created at the direction of ‘former’ acting AG Cox—is embarrassing in its incompetence & contains potentially libelous allegations. I do feel badly for the Dept of Law attorneys who’ve been pulled into this (likely unwillingly).”
The state report has many claims that something “may” be amiss or that someone by the same name “may” be the candidate in question or that property “may” be owned by a candidate.
I think the people complaining about this are right:
Rep. Andrew Gray: On 9/7, AK dept of Law made public a document that had blatant factual mistakes. In fact, it claimed I managed a company — I’ve never managed a company — in Switzerland — I’ve never been to Switzerland. I’m not the only one. How will @AKDeptOfLaw remedy these inaccuracies?
Fairbanks House candidate Joy Beth Cottle: Just FYI those "discrepancies" - at least the ones claimed on my account are inaccurate. The claim is that I'm linked to a property on Noble Street - a property I sold in 2013 and has since burnt to the ground and changed owners several times. I drove by and took a picture of it - it's a vacant lot.
They also claim I'm not linked to public records for the property and home I live in and own - I have a mortgage and paperwork to the contrary. There's a requirement to file a POFD prior to filing to run for office that covers the prior tax year - I filed at the end of 2025, so naturally have a POFD from the prior year, 2024. As far as I'm aware, there's no requirement for ongoing POFD disclosures until a candidate is elected to public office.
These are all above board and yet somebody - APOC, the Department of Law...whomever... published falsehoods, creating the appearance of wrong-doing by many if not most sitting legislators and candidates.
Republican Dave Bronson: We want to address the issues brought forward today during the Governor’s Presser. Josh and I take our financial disclosure obligations seriously and have made every effort to comply with APOCs POFD requirements. There is an important difference between “substantial non-compliance” under AS 39.50 that was the basis for Lt. Governor Dahlstrom’s original non-certification of 2 candidates, and a technical disclosure question, accidental omission, or information put out by Department of Law that is factually incorrect.
The organizations being discussed in our findings were 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. My service on these boards was entirely voluntary and unpaid. I received no compensation or financial benefit for serving. I served as a volunteer committee member of the Governor’s Prayer Breakfast and resigned before running for office. Josh has never served on his neighborhood HOA board.
The property questions also need to be put into context. Josh sold the first listed property in North Carolina in or around 2016, while he was serving in the Marines. The second property is listed on his POFD as 656 7th Avenue. That property has two known addresses as it spans a city block. It was listed in his POFD.
As for the property associated with my name, I co-signed on a house for my son in 2025. My name was subsequently removed from the property in February. I received no compensation, payment, or other financial benefit from that property and had no financial gain from it.
The same is true of Piper LLC. Piper LLC earns no income and is a sole-asset entity used for estate purposes only. No income was generated for me through Piper LLC..
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