The first campaign finance reports for gubernatorial and legislative candidates came out last week. With 17 candidates in the race for governor, many political observers were waiting to see who the top fundraisers are to gauge who may be rising to the top of the field. 

The large field in the race for governor is due to Governor Mike Dunleavy (R – Alaska) being termed out. This is the first time there has not been an incumbent governor in Alaska since 2002, when former Governor Knowles was termed out. 

Of the 17 candidates who have so far filed to run for governor (12 Republicans, 3 Democrats, 2 independents), 13 filed year-start campaign finance reports, though only nine reported raising more than $200,000. Candidates collectively reported raising $4.3 million.

Three of the reports stood out because of comments and social media posts made by the candidates. Republican candidates Treg Taylor, Bernadette Wilson, and Crooked Adam Crum would lead you to believe that they all have huge grassroots support. But a more careful inspection of their campaign finance reports paints a very different picture. 

Treg Taylor

Treg Taylor, who previously served as Governor Dunleavy’s attorney general, reported raising $880,000 – an impressive number at first glance.

Taylor posted a tearful video to his Facebook page thanking all of the people who donated to his campaign. Taylor exclaimed that 89% of his donations came from Alaskans, “Teachers, roofers, heavy equipment operators, you name it, we had so much support!” 

But Taylor left out a few important details. Taylor wrote a check to his campaign for $250,000, plus another $37,000 he spent on campaign items such as food and travel. This $287,000 represents 32% of his campaign income. 

Taylor also had four megadonors who contributed large amounts: 

• Dr. John Morris ($100,000)
• Lucy Bauer ($40,000)
• Dmitry Kudryn ($25,000)
• Kyle Bates ($25,000)

These donations, totaling $190,000, represent 21.6% of Taylor’s campaign income. John Morris’ donation alone is 11.2% of Taylor’s campaign income. These donations, combined with the $287,000 Taylor put into his campaign, represents 53.5% of his total campaign income. 

Eleven people donated $10,000 or more to Taylor’s campaign: 

• Former Representative Jesse Sumner ($20,820)
• Broc Brimhall ($15,000)
• Robert Hall ($14,500)
• Trenitie Yundt, wife of Senator Ron Yundt (R – Wasilla) ($13,000)
• Jared Murdock ($10,400)
• Utah resident Nathan Morris ($10,400)
• Tennessee resident Andy Miller ($10,000)
• Bryan Haughom ($10,000)
• Emma Campbell ($10,000)
• Walter Campbell ($10,000)
• Virginia resident Reginald Brown ($10,000)

These donations, totaling $134,120, represent 15% of Taylor’s campaign income. These donations combined with the $287,000 he put into his campaign, plus that of the four megadonors, represents 69.4% of his income

Twenty-six people donated between $5,000 and $7,500 to Taylor, totaling another $139,000. These donations account for 15.9% of his donations. 

This means Taylor’s own money, plus the donations of of just 41 people, accounts for nearly 85% of his campaign income. 

Bernadette Wilson

Bernadette Wilson’s report is one of the strangest campaign finance reports I have ever seen. It’s so convoluted it took nearly as much time to decipher her report than all the others combined.  

Wilson reported raising $305,000, but $35,700 of that, or 11.7%, came from in-kind contributions. Some examples include $13,500 from Stephanie Williams for a variety of campaign services, $5,000 from Jonathan Quick for “work on website,” and $5,000 to Portia Erickson for “web development management.”

Florida resident Kevin Gavin donated $50,000, representing 16.3% of her campaign income.

Wilson posted a video to her Facebook page featuring the 1995 song “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan. The 15-second video has a graphic atop prominently displaying “nearly 1500 individual donors” and scrolls through the donation section of her report at a high speed, making it appear she has massive grassroots support. 

Her smaller donations are where it gets weird. A deeper inspection of her report shows something very unusual.

Wilson lists 1,066 donations of $50 or less. Of these 1,066 donations, 894 of them, or 83.9%, are from out-of-state. 

Wilson lists 584 donations of $15 or less. All of these are from out-of-state.

Of Wilson’s $268,000 in cash donations, 40% comes from out-of-state. 

Wilson’s report shows an expense of $30,245 to WinRed, a popular Republican fundraising platform for credit card donations. Her report claims the WinRed expense is for, “Credit card processing fees for this reporting cycle.” But WinRed charges a standard processing fee of 3.94% for most donations. Wilson would have needed to raise $780,000 from just credit card donations to justify the $30,245 WinRed fee. 

Wilson appears to be using WinRed to solicit hundreds of small donations to make it appear she has a large grassroots support. But the vast majority of these small donations are from out-of-state, something Wilson left out of her “This Is How We Do It” video. 

Adam Crum

Crooked Adam Crum, who previously served as Governor Dunleavy’s Revenue commissioner and Health commissioner, reported raising $347,000.

Unlike Taylor and Wilson, Crooked Crum did not post a video of him in tears or a video featuring a popular 90s song. But he did send out a press release and shared a propaganda laced article.

Crum’s press release and Facebook post would lead you to believe he has had an “outpouring of support.” His press release claims “209 individual donors contributed during the reporting period, with over 60% of donations coming from Alaska.”

But like Taylor and Wilson, that is misleading. 

Crum donated $60,000 to his campaign, representing 17.3% of his campaign income. But Crooked Crum also had a lot of help from his family. Crum’s family members contributed a whopping $101,000 to his campaign. 

• Florida resident Charles McGarrity, a rich uncle of Crum’s wife ($40,000)
• Krista Gonder, Crum’s sister ($10,000)
• Einar Gonder, Crum’s sister’s husband ($10,000)
• Darcee Crum ($10,000)
• Cody Crum ($9,700)
• Richard Crum ($8,200)
• Joe Crum ($3,600)
• Christine Crum ($2,500)
• Chris Crum ($2,500)
• Erin Crum ($2,500)
• Laura Crum ($2,000)

These family donations account for 29% of Crooked Crum’s campaign income. Combined with the $60,000 he gave himself, 46.4% of Crooked Crum’s campaign income came from himself and his family. 

Eleven others donated between $5,000 and $10,000 to Crooked Crum’s campaign: 

• Michael Montano ($9,900)
• Hans Antonsen ($5,100)
• Illinois resident Stacy Fitzgerald ($5,100)
• Hannah Thompson ($5,000)
• Education Commissioner Deena Bishop ($5,000)
• Todd Wheeler ($5,000)
• Nicholas McDaniel ($5,000)
• Texas resident Kevin Thompson ($5,000)
• Texas resident Dary Stone ($5,000)
• Illinois resident Stephen Wilson ($5,000)
• Wayne Perales ($5,000)

These donations, totaling $60,100, represent 17.3% of Crooked Crum’s campaign income. These donations combined with the $60,000 he put into his campaign, plus that of his family, represents 63.7% of his total campaign income.