Alaska’s 17 governor candidates have raised nearly $9 million. This chart shows who gave it.

Alaska’s gubernatorial campaigns have raised nearly $9 million. We broke down where it came from.

By Will Koeppen

Anchorage Press

Money isn’t everything.

But in politics, it sure helps. Candidates, generally, can’t run effective campaigns without it, and those who raise the most are far more likely to win.

Donors’ identities can also tell the public about which constituencies and stakeholders are supporting particular candidates, and they also can hint at which special interests a winning candidate might favor once in office.

In Alaska’s gubernatorial race, scrutinizing donors is especially helpful in understanding and assessing the field of candidates because of its huge size: No fewer than 17 people are vying to be the next head of the state’s executive branch.

Alaska currently has no individual limits on direct giving to campaigns, and with large donors stepping in to support their preferred candidates, the campaigns have collectively raised nearly $9 million. After an Aug. 18 primary, the field will be narrowed to four candidates and their lieutenant governor running mates.

Political campaigns in Alaska are required by state law to disclose their donors — and in fact, any anonymous cash a campaign receives must be forfeited to the state.

A recent round of fundraising disclosures filed last week offers new hints about the state of the race. This interactive chart, produced by data scientist and graphics developer Will Koeppen for the Anchorage Press, steps through campaign contributions, progressively adding categories of income until it shows the total raised by each candidate since they entered the race.

Note that independent Destry Payne Sr. and Republicans James William Parkin IV, Hank Kroll and Michael Gilbert aren’t shown, as each has raised less than $5,000.

Campaigns often tout small-dollar donors as indicating broad support. Democrats Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich had the most small-dollar contributors from Alaska.

Republican Bernadette Wilson also had many small-dollar contributors, but only about one in five of them listed an address in Alaska.

Republican Adam Crum stood out in early fundraising by harnessing a multitude of mid-size donors, notably from his extended family, but other candidates have now outstripped him.

A small number of large-dollar donors, meanwhile, are playing an outsize role in election fundraising. Treg Taylor, a Republican and former Alaska attorney general, got an early boost from large, in-state donations that moved him into the top four fundraisers.

Major contributors — those who gave at least $10,000 — have donated to nearly every candidate. (Tap or hover over the blocks to see the names and locations of individual donors.)

In particular, Kreiss-Tomkins has raised a total of over $1 million from 38 Outside contributors. Of those, nearly $400,000 came from just six employees of the AI company Anthropic — a firm that’s positioned itself as aggressive on matters of AI safety but whose employees’ donations are nonetheless inviting scrutiny of Kreiss-Tomkins’ positions.

Meanwhile, just two in-state donors have given Tom Begich a total of more than $650,000: oil and investment heir Justin Weaver and Robin Brena, an attorney who’s long advocated for higher taxes on Alaska’s big oil companies.

Taylor, the former attorney general, received $100,000 from John Morris, an anesthesiologist who once worked in homelessness prevention for former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson — one of the other Republican candidates in the race.

Republican Click Bishop collected $90,000 from construction magnate John Ellsworth, Jr., an oil and gas contracting company executive, and $77,000 from Jim Jansen, chairman of the Lynden transportation business and a longtime opponent of raising oil taxes. Wilson took in $50,000 from Florida resident Kevin Gavin.

Aspiring lieutenant governors have also kicked in funds to their shared campaigns. Independent Meda DeWitt received some $55,000 from her running mate, independent Christopher Steere, who works as a private tutor following a career in the military. Blake Gettys and his wife April gave $61,000 to Republican Shelley Hughes, Bob Craig kicked in $25,000 to Crum, and Randy Hoffbeck gave $25,000 to independent Bill Walker.

Direct donations from labor unions and other organized groups are limited to $1,000 per candidate per year, making them nearly invisible compared to the limitless individual contributions. But by the numbers, nearly all of that union money went to Bishop, a moderate Republican with close ties to organized labor.

Republicans Treg Taylor, Adam Crum, and Shelley Hughes gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to their own campaigns. And podiatrist Matt Heilala has invested more than $1.25 million into his bid for governor, making him the second best-funded candidate after Kreiss-Tomkins.

The total income reported one month before the primary shows Kreiss-Tomkins crossing the $1.8 million mark, but large individual donors from non-Alaskans dominate his funding pool. Heilala is largely self-funded, while Tom Begich is relying on two major in-state donors for nearly half of his campaign financing.

Bishop has a total that is misleadingly middling on this chart. That’s because unions have put $425,000 into an allied independent expenditure group, "Pick Click and Greta for Alaska" — which, if it were included in the chart, would put Bishop about equal with Taylor in total fundraising.

The next round of financial disclosures for Alaska’s state elections are due on Aug. 11, seven days before the primary election.

Methodology

Raw financial disclosure data was downloaded from the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC), the state’s campaign finance regulator. We grouped individual contributions by donor, matching records that likely belong to the same person — a process that isn’t always exact. Totals raised were checked against summaries provided by APOC.

• Will Koeppen is a data scientist and graphics developer with deep Alaska ties. This story was originally published by the Anchorage Press.