Loophole hides campaign treasure of Senate president

14
386
Cathy Giessel

How much has Senate President Cathy Giessel stockpiled for her reelection campaign over the past few months? There’s no way of knowing.

Giessel filed her “Year Start Report” back on June 2, 2019, to go through the Feb. 1, 2020 filing period, but she never filed any amendments to that filing, due on Feb. 18, 2020, and her report shows she has just shy of $10,000 in her campaign account.

Normally, $10,000 would not be enough to hold that seat. That amount of money in a campaign war chest would look like an invitation to a challenge.

But since that timeframe, Giessel has had several fundraisers, and it’s likely that the Senate president has close to $80,000 for her District N re-election. During her last election, she raised $207,159.

It’s just that she never updated her reporting to the Alaska Public Offices Commission for this particular report, and strangely, filed it nine months before it was due and before her actual fundraising season began.

It’s a loophole that Giessel has discovered that allows her to keep her finances out of sight for any possible challengers.

APOC fines candidates $500 a day for every day they miss the Year Start Report deadline, but has no fine on the books for the accuracy of those filings. If they aren’t up to date, there’s nothing APOC can really do about it.

Look to other candidates to follow Giessel’s lead in the future, filing nine months early on this key report, which is designed to create transparency in elections.

14 COMMENTS

  1. What is Cathy Bohms Giessel hiding? This former Fairbanks, Catholic gal from Class of 1970 has something’s she doesn’t want MRAK or her constituents to know.. We will keep digging.

  2. When Giessel filed, she failed to put it all out there in the filing….She had about a half million in her “war chest” at the time of the governor election. Where did it go?

  3. Giessel, Imhoff, Edgemon and the Walker staff, have been running the recall with help from the media and Alaska’s own “deep state” of special interests, bureaucrats, and the most corrupt judiciary in the country. The battle that will be fought will 100% be for the soul of the state. If we are a free people, then we will vote to keep or replace the Gov in 2.5 more years. If we are serfs, subservient to a ruling class of elites, then the recall passes. It may sound dramatic- but that is because it is. This is exactly what this whole thing is about: Who runs Alaska, Us, or them.

  4. 2 AAC 50.855. Penalty assessment procedure

    (a) If, no later than 30 days after the due date, a person responsible for filing a registration, statement, or report required under AS 15.13, AS 24.45, AS 24.60.200 – 24.60.260, or AS 39.50 that is late or INCOMPLETE corrects the deficiency, the commission staff shall assess a penalty. The amount of the penalty must be determined by multiplying the applicable daily maximum penalty set out in AS 15.13.390, AS 24.45.141, AS 24.60.240, or AS 39.50.135 by the number of days the registration, statement, or report was late or INCOMPLETE. The number of late or INCOMPLETE days includes each day following the due date of the registration, statement, or report through the day a registration, statement, or report that substantially complies with the filing requirement is mailed or delivered to the commission.

    (Emphasis added)

    APOC does have the ability to enforce penalties against submitted, yet incomplete forms.

  5. It was so bad at the senator’s house that one member moved to the PH and another to Canada. We like him, though.

Comments are closed.