Month: August 2026

In the days leading up to Alaska’s primary election, two super PACs have poured nearly $2 million into the U.S. Senate race.

The twist: Alaska’s unusual election format is likely to negate the spending campaigns’ efforts to tear support away from the front-runners.

With Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan and Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola comfortably leading in both fundraising and polls ahead of the Aug. 18 primary, outside groups are directing much of their cash toward secondary candidates in an apparent attempt to manipulate Alaska’s top-four ranked-choice system before the general election in November.

“People are kind of trying to pull the wool over their eyes,” said Deb Otis, the senior director of research and policy at FairVote, a nonprofit that advocates for ranked-choice voting and proportional representation.

Outside groups have become “pretty sophisticated” in the level of “gamesmanship” they deploy, she said. While those tactics often work in states with conventional election formats, Alaska’s system is built differently and may be harder to exploit.

“In most elections around the country, it really is effective,” Otis told OpenSecrets. “If you can prop up a lesser known candidate, they really can take away votes and deny the election to a front-runner. But with ranked-choice voting, when voters get a backup choice, the possibility to alter the outcomes is much narrower, so I think they’ll be disappointed with the impact here.”

All of the spending by the two super PACs took place in July and August, after the Federal Election Commission’s pre-primary reporting cutoff. And because Alaska’s anti-dark-money law doesn’t apply to federal races, voters won’t learn the original sources of most of that money until well after ballots are cast – if ever.

Fair Deal Alaska formed July 28 and within days began spending, dumping more than $768,000 into the race through Aug. 8. Most was spent in support of two frequent candidates from out of state: the Green Party’s Richard Grayson – who told OpenSecrets that running for public office is merely a “hobby” – and Democrat Carol Hafner.

Another super PAC, Right For Alaska, poured $1.2 million into the race between July 30 and Aug. 7, with much of it backing two other minor candidates.

“I think it’s a waste of money,” said Grayson, the beneficiary of more than $300,000 in outside spending by Fair Deal Alaska. Citing rules that prevent super PACs and candidates from coordinating, he added, “I can’t call them and tell them to stop it.”

In a clear sign of their broader strategic motives, Fair Deal Alaska also spent nearly $152,000 on negative ads opposing Peltola while Right For Alaska spent nearly $574,000 to oppose Sullivan. The race, which Democrats view as central to their aim of claiming control of the Senate, is rated as a toss-up by the Cook Political Report.

“I wonder if these tactics are just being carried over from organizations that have worked in other states, where this is a more well-established tactic,” Otis said.

None of the candidates supported by those super PACs reported any significant fundraising activity to the FEC. That leaves the money race dominated by the two heavyweights: Peltola raised $18.5 million and held $4.6 million in cash on hand, while Sullivan took in $11.7 million with a war chest of nearly $7.3 million, according to pre-primary filings through July 29.

How top-four voting complicates super PAC strategy

Alaska operates under a nonpartisan top-four system, placing all primary candidates on a single ballot regardless of party affiliation. The top four advance to the general election, which uses ranked-choice voting. In that system, voters rank candidates by preference. If no candidate earns an immediate majority, the lowest-performing candidate is eliminated and that person’s votes are redistributed to the voters’ next choice until a candidate clears the majority threshold.

The super PAC surge is intended to foster strategic vote-splitting. The more candidates on the ballot who appeal to the same ideological base, the greater the potential to dilute a front-runner’s support.

“The Republicans – I don’t guess, I know – they would like to see Sen. Sullivan on the ballot with Mary Peltola and two Democrats or two liberals,” Grayson said.

Such a maneuver typically doesn’t work as well in a ranked-choice system, Otis said.

“If one of these lesser-known candidates makes it into the top-four candidates and goes on to the general election, it looks like the hope here is that those lesser-known candidates will siphon votes away from one of the front-runners,” she said.

But, Otis continued, voters who place an underdog No. 1 on their ballots tend to favor a more prominent candidate as a second or third choice.

“Even if you do get your candidate into the general election, and you get some substantial share of voters to vote for them, most of those voters will rank a front-runner as a backup choice,” she added. “You’re not taking votes away in the same way that gamers can do in other states.”

Late spending keeps donors hidden

That hasn’t stopped the super PACs from pouring in big bucks in a relatively short period of time: During the 10-day window between July 30 and Aug. 8, Fair Deal Alaska and Right For Alaska combined to spend nearly $2 million.

Fair Deal Alaska began its spending spree two days after it formed as a quarterly filer with the Federal Election Commission. That timeline matters. Under FEC rules, quarterly filers must submit a pre-primary report covering spending through the 20th day before the primary that wasn’t included in the previous quarterly report.

For the Aug. 18 Alaska primary, the 20-day cutoff was July 29 – the day before the group’s first expenditure. While the super PAC must file 24-hour reports for its independent expenditures that aggregate $1,000 or more after that day, it will not have to identify its funders until well after the election.

And while state law requires disclosure of the “true source” of contributions greater than $2,000 within 24 hours, that requirement does not apply to federal races, which operate under FEC rules.

“It certainly is [timed] so they don’t have to release their donors ahead of the election,” Otis said.

Fair Deal Alaska is headquartered in a Wasilla office building that also houses a gun shop and two medical training facilities. A sign in a window visible on Google Street View advertises virtual office and mail services. OpenSecrets reached out to the super PAC’s treasurer and custodian of records, Sam Praytor, but did not immediately receive a response.

A bit more information exists about the money behind the other super PAC spending heavily on the race’s underdogs: Right For Alaska formed March 23 and is based in Hudson, Wisconsin. Its only disclosed contribution so far is a $100,000 donation on March 30 from William Harris, a retiree in Lexington, Mass. The address Harris listed in FEC records matches one used by the William H. Harris Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports higher education and medical research and disbursed $3.6 million in 2024, IRS filings show. OpenSecrets reached out to the super PAC’s treasurer, Thomas Datwyler, and to the email address listed in the foundation’s IRS filing for comment but did not immediately receive responses from either. Datwyler has served in a similar role for numerous other political entities, has been fined thousands of dollars for breaking FEC rules and was accused of being the “shadow treasurer” for the re-election bid for former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.). FEC records also show a Thomas Datwyler of Hudson, Wisconsin, as a frequent donor to Republican-aligned groups.

Of Right For Alaska’s $1.2 million in spending through Aug. 7, nearly $574,000 went to oppose Sullivan with $410,000 backing Republican Gerald Heikes and nearly $219,000 to support Earl “Skip” Southworth of the Alaskan Party – the successor to the right-leaning Alaskan Independence Party. An Earl Southworth of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, donated to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in 2024 and to Democratic state Sen. Forrest Dunbar a decade earlier, FEC records show. OpenSecrets reached out to Heikes and Southworth but did not immediately receive responses from either.

Fair Deal Alaska started spending on July 30, pouring roughly $17,000 into mailers supporting Grayson and Hafner along with $34,000 into those opposing Peltola. Its largest expenditures came the next day: a $275,000 investment in media placement and production that consisted of $137,500 to back both Grayson and Hafner. In a statement to OpenSecrets, Hafner said she was “totally unaware” of any super PAC interest in her candidacy prior to the spending, adding that she has no involvement in its messaging, which she hypothesized was taken from her website without her knowledge.

Grayson said he has fielded calls from residents blaming him for mailers sent by Fair Deal Alaska, with one leaving a voicemail demanding removal from his mailing list “because my postcard has lies in it.”

He also shared a video ad to YouTube produced by the group that includes an image of him with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) alongside text saying he “will stand with Bernie and AOC” followed by an image of a red X covering President Donald Trump’s face. He characterized it as a “bizarre AI video ad” from a “mysterious” super PAC.

“There’s no false claims in it,” Grayson said. “The ad was not false advertising. I guess it’s the kind of advertising I would put if I were a serious candidate and had money.”

This article was originally published by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics. View the original article.

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