Inflation smacks drivers in the wallet when they fill up the tank, punches shoppers in the stomach when they load up a grocery cart, and brings travelers down to Earth when they want to buy an airline ticket.
The public complains loudly about rising prices that escalate without limits.
Why then so quiet about unlimited contributions to political campaigns — it’s just as harmful to democracy as inflation. Maybe even more so. Inflation eventually will come down. Campaign donation limits will only come back when the Legislature and governor take action.
Ever since a federal court last year ruled that many of Alaska’s campaign donation limits were unconstitutional, the open floodgates have allowed money to flow faster than an ATM can spit out cash. The numbers are astonishing, with donations from wealthy individuals to candidates and campaign committees overpowering anything the general public could give.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, seeking reelection, received $200,000 from his brother in Texas; $100,000 from Alaska developer and Kenai River sportfishing advocate Bob Penney; and $100,000 from Minnesota real estate developer Armand Brachman.
Dunleavy’s campaign described Brachman as “a hunting and fishing buddy.” Everyone should have such a generous fishing buddy. Most Alaskans only know friends who will share their net, gaff hook and maybe, if they’re really good friends, some herring bait.
Those three big contributions comprise nearly half of the money Dunleavy raised in the most recent campaign finance reporting period.
Former Gov. Bill Walker, who wants his old job back and is running again as an independent, also cashed in on big donors in the February-through-July reporting period. Walker received three $100,000 donations from contributors outside Alaska: Jason Carroll, of Hudson River Trading, in New York City (a software company); Kathy Murdoch, of New York City; and Greg Orman, who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate and governor in Kansas as an independent.
Orman has supported candidates running as alternatives to the Democratic-Republican lock on power. Murdoch is of a similar political vein. She is the daughter-in-law of Rupert Murdoch, who runs a media empire that includes Fox News. Unlike the elder Murdoch, Kathy Murdoch support efforts to reduce political polarization.
No six-figure checks for former Anchorage Rep. Les Gara, the only Democrat in the field of 10 candidates. His largest donor this past reporting period was Anchorage attorney Robin Brena, who contributed $16,500 to Gara’s campaign. But Brena gave even more — $25,000 — to Walker, his longtime law partner.
Brena was behind the lawsuit that succeeded in getting Alaska’s campaign limits tossed out. Good for him to practice what he pleaded in the court case.
And though Gara missed out on the $100,000 checks, he reported the most individual contributions and the most from within Alaska of the three leading candidates.
All three of the candidates have benefited from the court decision which eliminated many of Alaska’s limits on political donations.
Voters approved those limits 73% to 27% in 2006, and some legislators — but not enough — have tried to write a new set of campaign contribution limits that would survive a legal challenge. There is nothing good about unlimited money flowing to candidates. Wealthy people should be allowed to spend their money most anyway they want, but not when it’s so much as to drown out all other donors. The large checks may not buy influence, but it can’t help but influence attitudes and policies.
When lawmakers return to work in January, they need to stop spitting over the size of the Permanent Fund dividend long enough to find a compromise on campaign limits.
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