Alaska's Anti-Mining Ads: A Fish Called Gillam

                 
(3/23/09) Last summer a number of political watchers knew something fishy was happening with the anti-mining initiative that was on the August Primary ballot.

While anti-mining groups seemed to have an endless supply of anonymous cash to run advertisements advocating for passage of the ballot measure, many were questioning just where they were getting their money.

All eyes were focused on a wealthy Anchorage businessman, Bob Gillam, who just happened to own a luxury lodge in the same area as the state's designated mining land.

An excerpt from our August 17, 2008 blog:

One of the groups supporting this measure, Americans for job security or AJS has repeatedly ignored requests to identify where all of their money is coming from. This is a group whose corporate address is a mail box at a UPS store outside of Washington D.C. 

Here's my guess where their money is coming from; the cash is being funneled through AJS by a wealthy lodge owner. 

After all, AJS has traditionally been a Republican attack group that goes after Democratic candidates during elections. You have to ask yourself, why in the world would they be involved in a ballot measure dispute unless someone was bankrolling the campaign.

It is no coincidence that some of the same individuals that are on the board of AJS are the same people involved with the advertising and strategy around Ballot Measure 4. This includes Art Hackney, whose ad agency is handling the ad campaign for Ballot Measure 4 and who is listed as the treasurer for AJS.

In an Anchorage Daily News article on Sunday August 17, reporter Elizabeth Bluemink writes that "Hackney claims he doesn't know the identity of the group's members or its source of money for the Measure 4 fight."

Wait a minute....Hackney is the treasurer of the group but yet he doesn't know where the funding is coming from?  

andrewhalcro.com - August 17, 2008 

Today, both Gillam and Hackney are the subject of one of the most damaging campaign finance complaints in Alaska's history.

The complaint, filed by the Pebble Partnership and the Resource Development Council, an Anchorage business group, said Gillam, and three advocacy groups violated state law in an attempt to hide his large donations. Gillam is accused of making nearly $2 million in illegal donations.

Hackney plays an equally serious role in the complaint as several emails submitted as evidence showed him coordinating the illegal donations and directing the checks that Gillam would write to the various groups.

Interestingly, the numerous smoking guns submitted to show Gillam and Hackney worked together to violate state campaign donations laws probably never would have come into the public domain if not for their own arrogance.

Last spring Hackney hired a political fundraising consultant named Robert Kaplan. Then after spending four months of laundering Gillam's money through the anti-mining groups; they ended up stiffing him. 

In September, a month after the anti-mining initiative failed, Kaplan was sent an email saying that his contract was cancelled and his commissions on fundraising would not be paid.

Angry, Kaplan decided to collect his balance by forwarding damaging emails from Gillam and Hackney to the proper authorities.

It's ironic when you think about it; after getting away with secretly making millions in illegal payments, these guys get nailed because they refused to make a legal payment. 

Justice...sweet justice.

ADN Story on the complaint:

http://www.adn.com/money/industries/mining/story/731155.html

To read archived blogs on the anti-mining effort:

http://www.andrewhalcro.com/nana_standing_up_to_the_prop_4_thugs

http://www.andrewhalcro.com/the_mystery_money_behind_ballot_measure_4