Moderate candidates have a large fundraising advantage in state House and Senate races key to control of the Alaska Legislature, according to a new round of campaign finance data reported a month ahead of Election Day.
“Moderate to progressive people have figured out fundraising better than their Republican counterparts,” political consultant Jim Lottsfeldt, who has worked with centrist and left-leaning candidates, said in an interview.
Democrats, independents and Republicans open to a bipartisan caucus have raised a combined total of more than $2.5 million, according to an analysis of campaign finance data. Republicans who would only join Republican-led coalitions have raised about half that.
Moderate and left-leaning candidates have an especially large advantage in Anchorage-area races. Midtown Rep. Andy Josephson, a Democrat, is outraising Republican challenger Heather Gottshall by a more than four-to-one margin with nearly $140,000 in contributions. Democratic Sen. Matt Claman of West Anchorage has raised $190,000 to Republican Liz Vazquez’s roughly $11,000. Rep. Craig Johnson of South Anchorage, a senior member of the conservative Republican House majority, has raised $28,000, roughly half the funding of his more moderate Republican challenger, former Rep. Chuck Kopp.
In northeast Anchorage, Democrat Ted Eischeid has raised more than four times the total of Republican incumbent Rep. Stanley Wright. Eischeid chalked his lead up to the strength of his message.
“I think my three priorities of education, public safety and infrastructure really resonates with donors,” he said. Wright did not respond to an interview request.
In another closely watched Senate race, Kenai Peninsula Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, has raised $131,000, roughly twice as much as challenger Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, who is challenging him from the right. Savannah Fletcher, an independent candidate for the open Senate District R seat covering much of the Interior, has raised $120,000; Rep. Mike Cronk, R-Tok, the conservative candidate for the seat currently occupied by outgoing Sen. Click Bishop, R-Fairbanks, has raised $95,000.
But in another Fairbanks race, the dynamic is reversed: a Republican challenger is outraising a Democratic incumbent in the race for a state Senate seat. Leslie Hajdukovich, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, challenging Sen. Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks, a member of the current 17-member bipartisan majority, has raised more than $196,000.
In an interview, Hajdukovich cast herself as more moderate than many Republican candidates. She said she would have voted to overturn Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a bipartisan education bill and said she’d be open to joining the Senate’s bipartisan coalition, which currently features nine Democrats and eight Republicans.
“I am a Republican, and I would hope for a Republican majority, but either way, the leadership in the Senate is going to be bipartisan the way the makeup is,” she said. “I would not join a Democrat-led coalition, but I would be open to a Republican-led coalition.” She said she saw the current Senate majority as a “slight[ly] Republican-led coalition.”
However, she opposes a return to a pension plan for state employees and told the Alaska Beacon she supports a bill proposed by Republicans last session that would ban transgender girls from girls’ sports. She said she is “personally pro-life.”
Hajdukovich has some notable major donors, including the CEO of Hilcorp, Luke Saugier, who donated more than $1,500 and Diane Bundrant, the wife of the late co-founder and majority owner of Trident Seafoods, who chipped in $2,500. Her largest single contribution, $4,435, comes from the Capital City Republicans in Juneau.
Just over half of Hajdukovich’s nearly 600 contributors list a Fairbanks address, according to campaign finance records, and 8% of her contributions come from out of state. Her average donation so far has been $336.14. Hajdukovich has spent nearly $160,000 as of this week.
Kawasaki, meanwhile, has raised roughly $166,000 and spent just $33,000, according to campaign finance records.
Like many Democrats and independents who support a return to a defined benefit retirement plan for state employees, Kawasaki has strong support from organized labor groups, including the AFL-CIO, the Alaska State Employees Association, the National Education Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
“We need to be competitive to keep teachers here in Alaska,” he said. “There is a high cost of living, and one of the ways that we can keep teachers is with a good public pension system like we used to have.”
Roughly a third of his contributions come from Fairbanks addresses, and about half are from donors with Anchorage addresses, including $11,000 from attorney Robin Brena and $7,000 from relatively new political contributor Justin Weaver. Brena has spent more than $80,000 on campaigns this cycle, and Weaver has contributed more than $100,000 to Democrats and moderate candidates.
Candidates for state House and Senate have raked in some $4.5 million in total contributions. But that amount is dwarfed by the war chests amassed by some independent expenditure groups: No On 2, opposing the repeal of ranked choice voting and open primaries, has raised $12.3 million and spent nearly $8 million. Yes On 2, supporting the repeal, has raised just over $100,000 as of late September. Two groups supporting Ballot Measure 1, which would increase the minimum wage from $11.73 to $15 an hour by 2027 and provide workers with sick leave, have raised $3.8 million.
Left-leaning and centrist independent expenditure groups also appear to have an edge in spending. Putting Alaskans First Committee, funded largely by union members, has spent more than $500,000 supporting left-leaning and moderate Republican legislative candidates. The American Leadership Committee, funded by the party-affiliated Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, has outlaid nearly $140,000 supporting Democratic candidates. Americans for Prosperity has spent nearly $160,000 in support of conservative candidates, and Families of the Last Frontier, a Republican Party-affiliated group, has spent more than $326,000.
Matt Shuckerow, a political consultant who has worked extensively with conservative candidates, said voters should look closely at who donates to campaigns and consider their motives. But at the same time, he noted, spending does not always translate into electoral success.
“Fundraising is just one measure of the success of a campaign. Ultimately, it’s how you spend those resources,” he said.
Eric Stone covers state government, tracking the Alaska Legislature, state policy and its impact on all Alaskans. Reach him at estone@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @eriwinsto. Read more about Eric here.
