One candidate for a South Anchorage seat in the Alaska House wants to be a legislator so badly that he's put nearly two years worth of his hoped-for salary into his own campaign.
Ross Bieling, a Republican and an entrepreneur, donated $95,560 to his campaign between February and July, according to a report he filed Monday with state campaign finance regulators. Alaska legislators are elected to two-year terms at a $50,400 annual salary.
Bieling reported just six other contributors — including Anchorage Republican Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux — who gave a total of $1,600.
Bieling's report was among dozens filed by legislative candidates in advance of a Monday deadline. The contributions he made to his own committee were the largest of any candidate, but they were by no means the only ones: more than a dozen reported investing at least $5,000 in their own political futures.
"How could I ask somebody for money if I'm not putting my own money in at the same time?" said Forrest McDonald, 29, a Democrat running for the Anchorage Senate seat currently held by Republican Lesil McGuire, who is not seeking re-election. "It's just about getting things going and letting people know this is a serious race."
Candidate contributions from supporters are capped at $500 under state law, and are similarly limited at $2,700 at the federal level. But there's no limit on how much money candidates can spend on their own campaigns in local, state or congressional races, giving a potential advantage to wealthy politicians willing to open their wallets.
McDonald, the Anchorage Senate candidate, donated $10,500 to his own campaign between February and July, or more than half the $16,400 he reported raising.
That contribution, however, is dwarfed by Bieling's, which came in six separate installments since April — most recently, with a $40,000 check received by his campaign Friday.
Bieling didn't respond to a phone message Monday. But Art Hackney, a political consultant who's working with Bieling, suggested the big donation reflected Bieling's commitment to his own campaign.
"He just feels very, very, very deeply that Alaska's in a bad place in terms of how it's being guided and that it needs strong leadership," Hackney said in a phone interview.
Bieling is running against former Anchorage Assemblywoman Jennifer Johnston in the Aug. 16 Republican primary; the winner of that race will face Democrat Shirley Cote, a former Soldotna police chief who used to lead the state agency that oversees alcohol-related businesses.
The $95,000 Bieling is putting toward his own campaign is less than half of what he loaned his campaign six years ago, when he ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in Florida. In that race — in which he placed fifth of seven GOP primary candidates, with 3.5 percent of the votes — Bieling loaned himself $200,000, according to federal campaign finance reports.
In his current candidate financial disclosure, Bieling reported between $50,000 and $100,000 in income last year, with all of it coming from his medical products sales company.
His campaign spent $41,500 between February and July, including more than $3,000 on yard signs. And he's currently running a 60-second, "Ghostbusters"-themed advertisement on radio stations that attacks Johnston for her "transgender activism."
Johnston said Bieling's big donations to his own campaign show he lacks broad-based support.
"To self-fund a campaign means that you don't have any supporters," she said in a phone interview.
Other state legislative candidates who donated money to themselves include Rep. Bob Herron, D-Bethel, who contributed $15,000 and was his campaign's sole donor between February and July.
And about $11,000 of the $18,000 raised by Homer Republican Beth Wythe, who's challenging incumbent Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, came from Wythe herself.
Ivan Moore, a liberal-leaning political consultant, said candidates can help show they have "skin in the game" by putting money into their own campaigns.
"You're not going to stick your money into doing something stupid," Moore said. Contributing to a candidate's own campaign, he added, "communicates to people that their money's going to be well-spent."
The $97,000 raised by Bieling was the largest haul disclosed by any candidate in the recent campaign finance reports, with Natasha Von Imhof, a Republican running for McGuire's seat, raising the next-highest amount at $61,500. Von Imhof faces Rep. Craig Johnson and Jeff Landfield in the Republican primary.
Other significant reports include the $43,300 raised by Luke Hopkins, the former Fairbanks North Star Borough mayor who's running as a Democrat against incumbent North Pole Republican Sen. John Coghill, who reported raising $22,700.
George Rauscher, a Republican who's challenging incumbent Rep. Jim Colver, R-Palmer, raised $31,600 to Colver's $31,800 in a race that's also expected to draw independent spending campaigns from labor and business.