Dunbar campaign files complaint alleging over $170,000 in campaign finance violations by Bronson

Anchorage - The Forrest Dunbar for Mayor campaign today filed a multi-part APOC complaint against opponent Dave Bronson. The complaint raises allegations of sloppy and inaccurate accounting, deliberate obfuscation of campaign activity, and potentially tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions.

Most concerningly: 2 weeks ago the Bronson campaign ran an ad that cited the results of three different polls conducted in recent months. However, the Bronson campaign has reported zero dollars in polling activity in any of their APOC reports. The Recall Rivera IE group has reported a polling expenditure to one of the polling firms cited in Bronson's ad (Recall Rivera to WPA Intel), but we can find no record of any of the 3 polls Bronson cited as being published. It seems likely that Bronson may have accidentally incriminated his campaign as having received tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions through the backdoor network that connects the Recall Rivera campaign and the dark-money Save Anchorage group.

The full complaint is available via email attachment on request. Key components of the complaint include:

• $1,400 in contributions above the maximum limit from 5 different individuals.

• Failure to properly report approximately $18,000 in debt to radio stations, with some disclosures overdue by more than 4 months.

• $2,665.63 in improper contributions towards fundraising venue fees and event catering across 9 separate donations.

• $104,185 in campaign “marketing” expenditures laundered through political consultants, with the actual advertising expenses and targets hidden from the public.

• Hundreds of dollars in unreported Facebook advertising, with indications that a much larger amount of digital advertising may have been underreported.

• The under-the-table polling contributions explained above.

All told, Bronson's campaign has over $170,000 in non-compliant financial activity across more than 20 problematic donations and expenditures.

Read more: https://www.anchoragepress.com/dunbar-campaign-files-complaint-alleging-over-170-000-in-campaign-finance-violations-by-bronson/article_131a3468-9bda-11eb-b04f-33fbbeb063f3.html