The mystery money behind Ballot Measure 4

Last week, Elizabeth Bluemink of the Anchorage Daily News wrote an article  about where the groups advocating for and against Ballot Measure #4 (which will appear on the August 26 primary election ballot) are getting their funding.

Her article was entitled “Both sides of Pebble fight throw money to lure voters”, but what the story didn't tell you was that Ballot Measure 4 has nothing to do with Pebble Mine. Nowhere in the measure does it specifically point out the Pebble Project or the Bristol Bay region.

The proponents of Ballot Measure 4, which is called “The Clean Water Initiative”, have been focusing on Pebble Mine. But this is a bait and switch. They want you to think it’s about Pebble, but the ballot measure has consequences for the entire mining industry.

In addition, the Pebble project hasn't even been defined and won't be for years.

Any attempt to try and change the state's  environmental standards buy using the initiative process instead of deliberative science is simply poor public policy.

Alaskans for Clean Water, the group supporting Measure 4, raised a little less than $1 million; more than 75% came from one organization outside of Alaska. But it’s not who you think. It’s not Sierra Club or Defenders of Wildlife, both of whom have sponsored anti-mining efforts up here.

The $750,000 came to Alaskans for Clean Water from a group called Americans for Job Security, a 501(c)(6) political group in DC that does lobbying and electioneering behind the scenes. The group has no website and no visable means of identification. There are stories a plenty about how they’ve violated campaign finance laws in other states, and how they’re a stealth group that hides their money.

Americans for Job Security usually runs attack ads against Democrats as independent expenditures to help out Senate and congressional candidates across the country. In a recent letter to potential donors, Americans for Job Security claims to have spent $40 million over the last ten years getting involved in races. The group even states that they do not have to disclose any of their members, contributors or donors.

Americans for Job Security is not new to Alaska politics.

In 2002, Americans for Job Security ran television ads against Tony Knowles and Fran Ulmer when Ulmer was running for governor against Frank Murkowski. They were ultimately fined by the Alaska Public Offices Commission for violating campaign finance laws.

What’s puzzling, is on both May 30 and June 13, 2002, the Anchorage Daily News wrote articles on the attack ads Americans for Job Security did against Knowles and Ulmer, making the front page headlines, and calling them a “Virginia-based association” that’s spending Outside soft money.

In fact back in the summer of 2002, I personally wrote an op/ed in the Anchorage Daily News decrying the groups false statements about blaming Alaska's economic woes on the Knowles administration. But now during the mining initiative debate, the ADN makes only a passing mention of these guys.

It’s becoming obvious that this attempt to influence mining regulations in Alaska is being fought by a shadow campaign to hide the money.

Who is this group they call Americans for Job Security and where are they getting their money?

The vast majority of the money that is involved in advocating Ballot Measure 4 is completely off the table and Alaskans will never know where that money came from. Americans for Job Security contributed $750,000 to Alaskans Clean Water and not one penny is accountable. 

Furthermore, many Alaskans think that Ballot Measure #4 came out of nowhere in the last few months. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The same people who sponsor and support Ballot Measure #4 are those who started this journey back in April 2007 that pushed legislation to shut down mining, and wrote four other initiatives, two of which are currently in the process of gathering signatures (07WIFI & 07FISH), one that was denied by the Lieutenant Governor’s office (07WTR2), and one that was ruled unconstitutional (07WATR) by Alaska’s courts because it would have shut down mining in Alaska.

If were going to change public policy by ad campaigns, Alaskans ought to at least know who is paying for the ads.

In this case, it's coming from groups who don't want Alaskans to know.