State fines Palmer mayor 'No Recall' group for failing to disclose donors

What you need to know:

• The ballot proposition group No Recall for Palmer MayorSteve.com violated Alaska campaign finance law by failing to list its top three donors on campaign signs and was fined $562.50 by the Alaska Public Offices Commission, according to an order issued July 7.
• Group members said they did not include the disclosure because Palmer Mayor Steve Carrington was the sole donor at the time and that listing the top three donors after the signs were printed would mislead voters. APOC disagreed, saying the signs did not give voters enough information about the group.
• While a portion of the per-day fine was reduced under a measure allowing leniency for inexperienced filers, some days were fined at the full amount because the group knew it might be in violation and did nothing to correct the error, APOC said. The complaint was filed by Jackie Goforth, chair of the Recall Steve Carrington group, which supported the recall effort.

PALMER — A group formed to oppose the recall of Palmer Mayor Steve Carrington violated state campaign finance law by failing to properly disclose its top donors on campaign signs and must pay a fine, state regulators ruled this month.

The ballot proposition group “NO Recall for Palmer MayorSteve.com,” spent $600 in April on 50 campaign signs opposing the recall, according to finance reports filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. The signs included a disclosure stating they were paid for by the group, along with its P.O. Box address.

That disclosure was insufficient under Alaska law, which requires such signs to list the group’s top three contributors and puts the group in violation of state campaign finance rules, APOC said in a July 7 order.

The complaint was filed April 28 by Jackie Goforth, chair of the Recall Steve Carrington special interest group, which supported the recall effort.

Carrington ultimately defeated the recall in a 222-176 vote.

APOC fined the anti-recall group $562.50. That fine represents a 75% reduction from the maximum $50-per-day penalty for the first 17 days after Goforth hand-delivered a notice about the alleged violation to Carrington, and the full daily fine from May 13, when a process server formally delivered the notice, through the May 20 election.

State law allows reduced fines for inexperienced filers, APOC noted in its order. However, regulators applied the full fine for part of the violation period because Carrington was aware of the possible issue and failed to correct it, the order said.

Kim Stone, an APOC disclosure officer, recommended a 50% reduction, arguing the group knowingly failed to comply.

“The evidence does not ‘suggest deliberate nonreporting’ as much as it shouts deliberate nonreporting,” she wrote in a staff report.

Carrington and group treasurer Richard Best, a former Palmer City Council member, told the board they didn’t list donors on the signs because Carrington was the only contributor at the time the signs were ordered.

Best said that adding stickers later in the campaign to bring the signs into compliance would have inaccurately implied multiple donors existed at the time of printing.

Carrington also told the commission that Palmer residents would understand the signs were funded by him.

APOC rejected that argument.

“The signs did not list Mayor Carrington or anyone else as the top donors to the group, nor did they give the name and title of the principal and approving officer,” the order states. “The missing information meant that the signs gave voters only the opaque name of a newly formed group, which told the voters almost nothing about who was financially opposing the recall and supporting the message on the sign.”

Carrington said the group attempted to follow the rules but made mistakes.

“We tried to do our best at it, and apparently we strayed over the line on some technicalities,” he said in an interview Monday.

Best agreed the group violated the letter of the law but said the intent to inform voters was still present.

“I agree; yes, we technically did not have the language of who the top three contributors are,” he said in an interview. “I believe the intent to inform the voters technically was still there.”

Best and Carrington said they were unfamiliar with APOC filing rules because their individual races for city council or mayor are typically exempt from that process. Alaska campaign finance law allows exemptions for municipal races that spend under $5,000.

Goforth, who testified about the infraction at an initial May APOC hearing on the matter, said the lack of full disclosure was a violation of voter trust.

“Transparency isn’t optional in a democracy – it’s the foundation of trust. When one side hides their donors, they’re not just breaking the rules; they’re cheating voters,” Goforth said in a statement following the order. “Failing to follow APOC rules on top donor disclosure gives the rule-breaking side an unfair tactical, financial, visual and perceptual edge, and it puts the compliant side at a disadvantage both in the eyes of the law and the voters.”

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com