Nick Begich III is one of the frontrunners in the race for U.S. House, but so far he is running a largely self-funded campaign.
That’s one of the revelations in the latest batch of Federal Election Commission reports, which provide a glimpse into how Alaska’s congressional candidates stack up in the race for contributions. Reports covering the first three months of 2022 were due Friday night, but many of the candidates don’t have to file yet because their campaigns are so new.
Begich reports receipts of $740,000 so far this year. Two-thirds of that is from Begich himself, in the form of a loan to his campaign. Since the campaign’s inception last year, it’s brought in more than $1 million, and about 65% of that is from Begich.
His personal financial disclosure shows he made between $1 million and $5 million last year from his majority stake in FarShore Partners LLC, a software development company he founded that has offices in Anchorage, Nevada, Croatia and India.
The report also says Begich had personal income last year of between $100,000 and $1 million from a 17% stake in Earthpulse Press, an Anchorage-based company that publishes his father’s books.
The candidate running the next largest campaign in the first quarter is Democrat Chris Constant, an Anchorage Assemblyman. He has raised $108,000 so far this year.
The first quarter filings to the FEC also reveal that U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka raised $670,000 so far this year. That’s less than half of the total Sen. Lisa Murkowski raised.
“Kelly will have the resources she needs to beat Lisa Murkowski,” Tshibaka campaign advisor Mary Anne Pruitt said by email.
A separate group called “Alaskans for Lisa” reports it has raised $1.3 million to help Murkowski stay in office.
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Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her atlruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Lizhere.
