Former Alaska House member Liz Snyder, a Democrat who represented a portion of midtown Anchorage from 2021 until 2022, and then moved back to her home state of Florida, has some explaining to do to the Alaska Public Offices Commission about why she used campaign money to pay her husband a “thank you gift” for services rendered on her campaign.
According to a formal complaint filed by civic activist Jay McDonald, Snyder and her husband, Sam Snyder, converted campaign contributions into personal income during her first run for office in 2018, eight years after she moved to the state and began her political activism. She also fudged the reporting requirements for campaign debts that she owed.
In the 2018 campaign cycle, Snyder used her husband Sam as her campaign treasurer. Sam is an environmental activist who worked for a salmon-focused nonprofit while in Alaska, and is a director at True Blue Strategies, a political consultancy. Upon filing her first campaign registration on April 4, 2018, Liz indicated her Sam as the treasurer, and he remained so until the end of the 2018 cycle.
Liz Snyder narrowly lost in 2018, to Republican Rep. Lance Pruitt, (and she narrowly won by 11 votes against him in 2020 and served part of one term before moving back to Florida.)
Liz Snyder’s first 30-day campaign disclosure covering the reporting period from Feb. 2 through July 20, 2018 indicates that the report was filed by herself.
Liz’s first 7-day campaign disclosure, covering the reporting period from July 20 through Aug. 11, 2018 indicates that it was filed by Samuel Snyder.” There was no payment to Sam logged on this report, nor was there a debt to Sam logged on this report. This became an important point in the complaint.
Liz Snyder’s next two campaign disclosures covering the reporting period from Aug. 12 2018 through Oct. 27, 2018, filed by Liz Snyder, again with no payment or debt to Sam, her husband and treasurer.
Liz Snyder’s final “year end” campaign disclosure covering the reporting period from Oct. 28, 2018 through Feb. 1, 2019 indicates that it was filed by Samuel Snyder.
In that report, on Dec. 4, 2018, check #157 for $2,000 was listed as an expenditure for “Sam Snyder (APOC Consulting), NA.” The explanation for the expenditure was, “Thank You Gift for APOC Support.”
It’s important to note that this expenditure is logged as a check to Samuel Snyder, and not a check to “SDS Consulting” which is the corporation owned by Sam.
Around this same period of time, an independent expenditure group named “[Mark] Begich for Alaska” was created, and it used SDS Consulting. In its first filing, the group recorded a debt of $5,500 on Aug. 29, 2018 to “SDS Consulting (Sam Snyder)” for “APOC Compliance and Filing Support.”
This group’s later filings show that the debt of $5,500 to “SDS Consulting (Samuel Snyder)” was paid in full on Nov. 5, 2018 with check #90 along with the description “APOC Filing Support – Clears debt from 9/24.”
This shows that Sam Snyder was providing these kinds of services for a fee.
According to Alaska Administrative code 2AAC 50.321. (a)(6), there are reporting requirements for “expenditures that are incurred but not paid.” At the time that an expenditure is incurred it becomes mandatory to report it.
Subsequent APOC rulings have further clarified that even if a candidate does not know what the debt amount is going to be, the candidate is required to report the estimated debt amount and tie it to the initial date it was incurred.
The way that Jay McDonald sees it, if Liz Snyder hired Samuel Snyder for the purpose of APOC Consulting and filing, she is required by 2AAC 50.321. (a)(6) to report the terms of that agreement at the date that agreement began.
Because Sam Snyder began filing her APOC reports on July 21, 2018, McDonald says it is reasonable to assume that their agreement began at some undisclosed point in that period and the agreed upon or projected debt should have been reported at that time.
But instead, no debts or payments were recorded to Samuel Snyder until the final year end report.
McDonald said that he cited reports filed by “[Mark] Begich for Alaska” in his complaint document because it proves that Sam Snyder provided this service professionally, that he knew that the requirement to report the debt for his service exists, and that he filed this debt correctly in that instance with Mark Begich’s group.
“If Samuel Snyder provided a legitimate and legal service to Liz Snyder it was never disclosed as a debt and Liz Snyder is in violation of 2AAC 50.321. (a)(6),” McDonald wrote in his complaint.
One of the problems McDonald pointed out is that Liz Snyder appeared to be actually paying Sam Snyder, but calling it a “thank you gift,” something that is not an approved expenditure to a close family member who shares the same household.
Statute “very clearly and in plain terms states that ‘campaign contributions held by a candidate or group may not be converted to personal income of the candidate.’ If Liz Snyder and Samuel Snyder filed their 2018 taxes jointly as a married couple, then Liz Snyder claimed $2,000 from her campaign as personal income. There is no exemption to this statute that invalidates this statute which applies to how Liz Snyder converted her campaign funds into personal income. Liz Snyder violated AS Sec 15.13.112(b)(2) even if she were paying Samuel Snyder for services rendered,” McDonald said in his complaint.
“Statements that Liz Snyder made in public further complicate matters. In public posts she made to Facebook Liz Snyder claims that she paid Samuel Snyder $7 per hour. $2,000 divided by $7 per hour comes out to 285.7142857 hours of labor from Samuel Snyder. The year end report that the check to Samuel Snyder was paid on began 10/28/2018 and the payment to Samuel Snyder was on 12/04/2018, 38 days later. That would come out to just over 7.5 hours of paid labor every single day with no breaks in that period, which is unlikely,” McDonald said.
“Furthermore, 2 AAC 50.384(a) required that Liz Snyder disbursed all campaign funds no later than 02/01/2019. According to the year end report filed by Liz Snyder, her final campaign funds were not disbursed until 07/19/2019, which is 5 months and 18 days past the statutory deadline,” he wrote in his complaint.
The Snyders have since left the state. In August of 2022, while Liz Snyder was still taking a check from the state government as a legislator, Sam Snyder bought a home in St. Augustine, Fla., for $575,000. Liz did not run for reelection, but ended up back where she came from, still taking a check from the State of Alaska. Her term actually ended in January, 2022.
McDonald paid a process server to serve the Snyders at their home close to the beach in St. Augustine, Fla.
McDonald earlier this year filed a complaint against another newcomer-lawmaker, the radical Democrat Rep. Jennie Armstrong. in that complaint, Armstrong started trying to raise money to pay down her debt to campaign lawyer Scott Kendall, although she had never disclosed the debt personally or in her campaign reports.
The estimated fine for the Armstrong could be as high as $385,000, according to calculations assessed by APOC staff.
