Alaska regulators sought disclosure of initiative backers

Last week, Clean Team Alaska suspended its campaign to get voters to approve the proposed law on the August statewide ballot. The group accused state executives of trying to sink the measure by inappropriately tinkering with the summary language that voters would see.

The initiative is opposed by a large coalition that includes labor unions, business groups, school districts and rural villages that say the proposed law is vague and possibly unconstitutional.

This week, Clean Team said state elections regulators were requiring detailed disclosure of its funding.

Clean Team Alaska received the bulk of its money from the Anchorage-based Alaskans for Open Government.

The Anchorage group, in turn, has been financially supported by Americans for Limited Government from Washington, D.C.

Last month, state elections regulators told Alaskans for Open Government it needed to register and disclose its sources of funding. The disclosures are required by law because a key purpose of the group is to fund the initiative campaign, the Alaska Public Offices Commission told the group.

Anchorage attorney Ken Jacobus, deputy treasurer for Alaskans for Open Government, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that this would have required Americans for Limited Government to identify its major contributors.

Jacobus said the Washington group was unwilling to disclose that information.

Dick Randolph, chairman of Clean Team Alaska and a former Fairbanks state representative, quit his post Tuesday, citing a "culture of (state) corruption" that he said his measure sought to help correct.

Jacobus said the prospect of the financial reporting provided the second reason that initiative supporters closed up shop last week. Americans for Limited Government had to date contributed $142,500 to the campaign behind Ballot Measure 1, he said.

Both Randolph and Jacobus said they'll still encourage voters to support the proposition.

In addition to banning the use of public money for lobbying or campaigning, it would also block people and groups affiliated with unions and companies that hold government contracts from making financial contributions.

The measure has been alternately called an "anti-corruption" act by supporters and a "gag measure" by critics.

It would ban campaign contributions from government contractors and their relatives, outlaw publicly funded lobbying or campaigning, and generally bar government contractors from hiring a legislator out of office less than two years.

Violating a provision would amount to a criminal misdemeanor and bring fines and other penalties. For instance, a repeat offender using public funds to lobby or campaign would be banned from public office or a government job for 10 years.