Anchorage House districts dominate political fundraising in Alaska legislative races – Anchorage Daily News
JUNEAU — A few races in Anchorage that could determine the power structure of the Alaska House of Representatives attracted top political spending among legislative races during the most recent reporting period.
The spending comes ahead of the Nov. 3 general election, with 50 of 60 seats in the state Legislature on the ballot alongside races for governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House.
August’s primary results suggest that bipartisan control of the Legislature may likely continue into 2027. Candidates who have indicated they would join a bipartisan coalition led in several key races, both at the ballot box and in personal campaign fundraising.
In campaign finance filings released last week, 30 days ahead of the November election, Anchorage Democrats Denny Wells and Danni Hall brought in a haul of roughly $50,000 each in their respective bids to challenge incumbents who currently caucus with the Republican-led minority.
Fundraising for former Department of Natural Resources Commissioner John Boyle and Rep. Ky Holland, an independent one-term legislator in the bipartisan majority caucus, followed close behind with each candidate bringing in roughly $41,000 during the same period.
All three races could prove pivotal to the political makeup of the state House, where the bipartisan majority caucus currently holds a slim 21-member majority.
As of last week, campaign finance filings show that independent expenditure groups have also spent nearly $1 million on legislative candidates, with much of the money concentrated in races for seats in Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak and near Fairbanks.
The biggest spender on more moderate candidates is Putting Alaskans First, a group funded largely by Alaska labor organizations.
On the conservative side, Moving Alaska Forward, funded by a Wasilla-based construction company owner, and Families of the Last Frontier, which receives much of its funding from the Alaska Republican Party, have spent heavily on candidates in competitive races who have not raised as much money as their competitors through direct campaign fundraising.
Money raised by a candidate’s campaign is spent by the campaign itself. Independent expenditures, by contrast, are spent by political groups. Those independent groups are not permitted to coordinate directly with campaigns, but play a big role in political advertising.
A pair Democrats challenging minority caucus Republicans in Anchorage are far outraising their opponents due to support from labor groups.
In the district encompassing Sand Lake and Campbell Lake, Democrat Denny Wells raised $52,076 during the latest reporting period, bringing his total fundraising to nearly $75,000. By comparison, incumbent Republican Rep. Mia Costello, lagged behind with $18,800 in contributions since August, bringing in about $42,600 overall.
Wells narrowly led Costello in the primary, receiving 52.7% of the vote to Costello’s 47.3%, a margin of 244 votes. This is Wells’ third attempt to unseat Costello in the House.
Wells has received roughly $10,000 since August from labor unions and their political spending organizations, including groups representing firefighters and teachers. Costello’s largest donor during the same period was the Alaska Republican Party, which contributed $7,000.
In a district covering parts of South Anchorage and the Lower Hillside, Democrat Danni Hall has raised nearly $50,000 since August, compared with about $16,000 for incumbent Republican Rep. Julie Coulombe during the same period. The two candidates’ overall fundraising hauls for 2026 are closer, with Hall raising about $68,500 and Coulombe about $55,400, which includes $1,500 Coulombe started the year with in her campaign account.
Coulombe led Hall in the primary by 55 votes, receiving 50.6% of the vote to Hall’s 49.4%.
Hall has received support from labor organizations, including the state firefighters association, public school employees and public-sector unions. Much of Hall’s individual contributions have come from smaller, Anchorage-based donations, but she also received $5,000 from the Alaska Democratic Campaign Committee in recent months.
Coulombe’s fundraising has relied more heavily on larger donors, including business and industry interests. Those supporting her include the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce, and political spending committees associated with the Alaska Miners Association and Marathon Petroleum’s Alaska operations. The Alaska Republican Party was her largest single donor since August, contributing nearly $10,000.
In another district covering South Anchorage, Girdwood and Whittier, donors are spending tens of thousands on both candidates in a race to determine who will represent one of Alaska’s wealthiest districts.
Independent Rep. Ky Holland’s win in the district two years ago proved instrumental to a bipartisan majority taking control of the House. Now, he is fending off a challenge from Republican John Boyle, a former appointee of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, in an attempt to flip the seat back to Republican control.
The contest has topped fundraising charts among state legislative races, and the two candidates remain neck-and-neck in financial firepower in fundraising since August. In the most recent reporting period, Holland brought in $41,759, bringing his fundraising total to about $110,000 including previous fundraising.
Boyle, a former state Department of Natural Resources commissioner, raised $42,702 during the same period, bringing his total to about $73,300.
Holland comfortably led Boyle in the August primary, receiving 59.9% of the vote to Boyle’s 40.1%.
A fourth legislative race in Anchorage is also seeing some of the highest fundraising. In a district covering Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Government Hill and part of Muldoon, former Democratic Rep. Cliff Groh has raised nearly $190,000 for his campaign for an open House seat, including about $37,600 during the latest reporting period alone.
Republican Dan Sager, his opponent, has raised about $22,200 overall, including $9,500 since August.
Groh has also spent more than $100,000 on his campaign since launching it, dwarfing the $4,750 spent by Sager so far.
In the August primary, Groh handily beat Sager with 67.2% of the vote to Sager’s 32.8%, a margin of 325 votes. Groh narrowly lost the seat in 2024 by 22 votes to Republican Rep. David Nelson, who did not run for a second term, leaving an open seat.
Independent expenditure groups have spent more than $900,000 on legislative candidates, according to recent campaign finance filings, with much of the money concentrated in a few competitive House races.
Groups backing more moderate candidates have spent roughly $630,000, compared with $280,000 by groups backing more conservative Republicans. The spending reflects the stakes of the November election, in which several close contests could affect the balance of power in the state House.
Putting Alaskans First is the largest spender backing more moderate candidates, with more than $580,000 in spending on state legislative races in 2026. The group is funded largely by labor organizations, including the Alaska AFL-CIO; NEA-Alaska, the state’s largest education labor union; and ASEA/AFSCME, which represents state and municipal employees.
The group has invested heavily in several races where its preferred candidates trailed in the August primary.
In a district covering parts of Eagle River, Chugiak and Eklutna, Putting Alaskans First spent about $80,000 on advertisements supporting Republican Gina Wall in September. Wall received 33.8% of the vote in the August primary, trailing Republican Ken McCarty, who received 46.8%.
The group also spent about $60,000 supporting Republican Ruby Jones, who finished third in a four-way primary against incumbent Rep. Jamie Allard. Allard received 39.8% of the vote, while Jones received 13.9%.
In Anchorage, Putting Alaskans First spent about $40,000 supporting Wells, part of roughly $54,000 in outside spending backing the Democrat’s bid to unseat Costello. Moving Alaska Forward, a conservative group, spent nearly $20,000 supporting Costello, with another $3,000 coming from other political groups.
In South Anchorage, conservative groups like Moving Alaska Forward spent about $30,000 supporting Coulombe to help her fend off the challenge from Hall. That spending fell short of the $54,000 spent supporting Hall so far, most of it from Putting Alaskans First.
Moving Alaska Forward has been the largest single independent expenditure group backing conservative Republicans, spending about $109,000 across six legislative races, including on paid canvassing.
The group is chaired and funded by John Carr, who owns a contracting company in Wasilla. Carr has also spent $10,000 on advertisements opposing gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson, citing concerns about her record of unpaid bills to vendors.
The race to represent Kodiak, Seward and Cordova has drawn the most independent expenditure spending of any House contest, with more than $170,000 in advertising supporting the two candidates.
Independent groups have spent about $102,000 on advertisements supporting Republican Sheldon Prout, including roughly $80,000 from Families of the Last Frontier, which receives much of its funding from the Alaska Republican Party. Political groups have spent about $81,000 supporting independent Kathy Simpler, with most of that money coming from labor organizations.
The steep independent spending comes as Simpler has outraised Prout five to one in personal campaign fundraising.
Political groups are also spending big on the southern Kenai Peninsula in the district including Seldovia, Homer and Ninilchik. In the August primary, independent Brent Johnson led Republican Rep. Sarah Vance by nearly 900 votes, receiving 56.9% of the vote to Vance’s 43.1%. Putting Alaskans First spent about $46,000 supporting Johnson and another $5,000 opposing Vance.
Moving Alaska Forward and Americans for Prosperity Action, a national conservative advocacy group, countered that spending with a combined $31,000 supporting Vance.
Near Fairbanks, Putting Alaskans First spent roughly $56,000 supporting independent Joy Beth Cottle and another $30,000 in attack ads opposing Republican Harmony Tomaszewski. Americans for Prosperity Action spent about $14,000 supporting Tomaszewski.
The race, which has an open seat after Tomaszewski’s husband, Rep. Frank Tomaszewski, announced he would run for Senate in June, has also attracted top fundraising totals during the campaign. Both candidates raised more than $30,000 in the most recent reporting period, with Cottle clearing more than $90,000 total raised including funds left over from her first run against Frank Tomaszewski in 2024.
Cottle edged out Harmony Tomaszewski with 53% of the vote to Tomaszewski’s 47% in the August primary.
[Correction: The story has been updated to reflect that Denny Wells finished the August primary 244 votes ahead of Rep. Mia Costello. The previous version incorrectly referred to earlier vote totals.]
Mari Kanagy is a Juneau-based reporter for the Anchorage Daily News.
1
2
3
4
5
Anchorage Daily News
300 W. 31st Ave.
Anchorage, Alaska, 99503
