Murkowski World has far more financial resources to work with than Tshibaka World in this election season. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has her own campaign fundraising prowess, and at least two outside groups serving her up to voters and ready to define her opponent, Kelly Tshibaka.
Murkowski’s quarterly report with the Federal Election Commission shows she has raised a total of $7,527,972 for her reelection campaign, while her Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka has raised $2,500,335.
Murkowski, who has served since 2002 in a seat that has been occupied by a Murkowski since 1981, has significantly more cash on hand — over $5 million, while Tshibaka has just under $1 million in cash on hand in her campaign, as the race heats up toward the Aug. 16 primary.
Murkowski also has backing from political action committee coordinated by people like Scott Kendall, the liberal lawyer who birthed Ballot Measure 2, a unique voting system with a jungle primary and a ranked choice voting general election, designed to ensure that Murkowski wins in 2022.
The political action committee “Alaskans for Lisa” raised $1.3 million since it formed in December. In addition to Kendall, through his law firm Cashion Gilmore & Lindemuth, longtime-Murkowski operative Jim Lottsfeldt, and lobbyists Jerry Mackie and Mike Pawlowski through their firm Strategies North are behind the group. But other than that, there aren’t any Alaskans who have put money in — only those who are billing the PAC.
The PAC’s biggest contributor by far is John Arnold of Houston, a former Enron trader and now a major player in progressive philanthropy. He gave the Alaskans for Lisa PAC $500,000. Arnold was also a major force to push Ballot Measure 2 on voters in 2020, which created a system that would allow Murkowski to win. Arnold gave Alaskans for Better Elections $3 million of its over $7 million campaign to convince Alaskans to toss out regular ballots and move to a hybrid system that has never been tried anywhere.
John Rowe, an energy investor who lives in Florida, gave the Murkowski PAC $250,000. The American Unity Fund, which advances LGBTQ causes, gave $150,000, and Jeffrey Hildebrand, the chair of Hilcorp Energy Co., also chipped in $75,000. The list of donors is at this link.
Tshibaka has raised more money from Alaskans than Murkowski, and has the support of the Alaska Republican Party, which Murkowski doesn’t have. The Alaska Republicans have censured her and have gone so far as to ask her to not run as a Republican.
Murkowski also has the support of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has started raising money for her through the pot of money controlled by Sen. Mitch McConnell. The NRSC’s pitch in a recent letter is that Murkowski has been fighting the Democrats “EVERY SINGLE DAY,” which is actually opposite of her strategy of staying as close to them as humanly possible and still get reelected.
The letter, signed by Sen. Rick Scott, says that Alaska’s Senate race has been targeted by Democrats, which it has not. The only Democrat to file for the seat dropped out after a month.
“Right now, our primary objective is to support our Party’s efforts to capture control of the U.S. Senate. As you may know, Alaska has a nationally targeted Senate Race next year. With the national Democrats, their radical allies, and the liberal mainstream media desperate to keep total control of our government so they can force their Socialist agenda on all Americans, it is vital that we stand united in support of our candidates. And with Alaska’s seat currently held by a Republican, we want to make absolutely sure we have the resources to keep the seat it in the GOP column,” Scott wrote.
Elvi Gray-Jackson, who was the Democrat in the race for less than a month, reported raising $161,518. She has zeroed out her account. Libertarian Sean Thorne raised $3,566 and had spent all but $256.
