A complaint filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission accuses Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is running for re-election, of engaging in a “scheme to subsidize and coordinate” activities between his official campaign and an independent expenditure group working on his reelection.
. Kendall was chief of staff to former Gov. Bill Walker, an independent challenging Dunleavy in the current election. Kendall was also involved in an early effort to recall Dunleavy from office, in the voter-approved ballot measure that resulted in ranked choice voting and other Alaska election reforms, and worked on previous campaigns of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
Dunleavy’s campaign manager is Jordan Shilling, who worked for Dunleavy in an official capacity beginning in December 2018 until the spring of 2022, when he was awarded a no-bid contract with the governor’s office that pays him up to $50,000 in public funds to provide “strategic planning” about renewable energy and the Department of Motor Vehicles. At the same time, he runs Dunleavy’s campaign as a volunteer.
“This is an example of a state entity being used as a platform for a false and misleading complaint,” Huber wrote in an email. Records requests sent on Aug. 25 by the Anchorage Daily News to the governor’s office for invoices and reports submitted by Shilling and Huber as part of their respective contracts with the governor’s office have not been answered.
Veri di Suvero, executive director of AKPIRG, said the organization collaborated with Kendall and the 907 Initiative in filing the complaint because they saw Dunleavy’s campaign practices as “an overall threat to our democracy.” Dunleavy also said at the time that crossover between campaign staff and official staff is common in campaigns for governor and the state Legislature. Kendall said there is a difference between what Dunleavy’s aides are doing and what he and others have done previously. Even if staff members volunteer their free time for a campaign, it is unheard of for a seven-figure campaign by an incumbent to be run almost entirely by volunteers, political consultants have said.
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