With nine days to go until ballots re in the mail, not all of the 48 candidates for Congress had to file quarterly reports with the Federal Election Commission. Not all are showing how much they raised and how much they spent during the first three months of the year. That’s because most of the candidates didn’t file until after Congressman Don Young died. They waited until April 1, avoiding the reporting requirement.
Nick Begich, the Republican who filed in late October for Congress, has receipts of about $1,045,100 and has spent $160,000, leaving him with about $885,153 cash on hand for his bid to fill the seat left vacant by Congressman Don Young.
Chris Constant, a Democrat contender who filed in mid-February, raised a respectable $107,816 and has burned through $12,723. He had $95,092 cash on had at the end of the March 31 reporting period.
Gregg Brelsford, a candidate who has no party affiliation but leans left, raised $43,476, spend 28,262, and has $15,214 cash on hand. Randy Purham raised $1,524, spent over $5,486, and has no cash on hand.
The remainder of the field — including well-known names Sarah Palin, Al Gross, and Tara Sweeney — have no financial reports due because of their late filing strategy.
Ballots for the special election primary will be mailed on April 27 by the Division of Elections. For this primary, the ballots will be mail-in style and must be postmarked by June 11. There will be 48 names on the special election primary ballot, but because of the awkwardness of the timing of this elections, campaign analysts won’t know the strength of most of the candidates in terms of their ability to raise money and spend it effectively. Most will not raise or spend enough to be required to report.
The late Congressman Don Young had raised a modest amount of cash for his reelection campaign before he passed. In the five quarters since January of 2021, he had raised $665,724, $203,571 of that from political action committees.
Federal regulations limit contributions to a candidate’s campaign to for U.S. Senate or House of Representatives to $2,900 per election.
That Palin and Gross have cleverly avoided having to report how much money they have raised, and who it came from, should make anyone considering voting for them, think twice.
One suspects that both are being funded mostly by money from outside, while Begich is gaining a ton of support from people who live in Alaska.
Both instances speak volumes about the respective candidates….
Until or unless I learn something bad about him, Begich has my vote.
I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever consider voting for a Begich, but we are.
I agree but we better make sure he’s the one because look how hard it is to fix a wrong with Lisa.
So far, Nick-B represents the best choice for Alaska.
Gregg Brelsford has out raised Constant! He is a Independent.
What happens to Don Young’s campaign funds?
The money is why constantly whining is running. Just another way to line his pockets
Please Alaska do not get hung up on campaign donations from our of state, big bank rolls just means some special intrusts have a lot of pull with the recipient, keep in sight the best person for the job. Do not be fooled by Palin’s BS she will make us look like fools again.
“Chris Constant”.
.
Make me laugh!
(and gag)
We need Nick to win! Sarah will be a disaster and embarrassment for the state of Alaska.
If Assemblyman Constant raises money for this run at Representative but does not spend it all, can he then use that money later for a Muni reelection bid?
Well Al Gross is using campaign funds from his last senate campaign so I assume Chris Constant will do the same. Constant is not serious about winning but is trying to get statewide name recognition for a future run, probably either for mayor or governor.
Begich loaned his campaign $650,000.
The more you know ….
Jim Wilke, yes, the more you know… The fact that Begich like Wally Hickel before him has the ability to fund his own campaign is important! It means two things, one, that young Nick has been successful in life which proves that he is capable of Managing Money, (a good thing) and secondly it means that he isn’t beholding to some lobby group from outside Alaska that will call in favors when he is elected. I bet Nick sleeps well knowing that he put his $ where his mouth is and does not owe somebody. Yes, thanks for pointing this out, if true it makes me like young Nick even more.
BTW, you are a Palin guy, right? Where is she getting her $? Care to venture a guess? She hasn’t filed any reports as of yet. Maybe Bill Walker? Just saying…
Good for NB3. Financing his own campaign will bring him lots of Independent votes.
Is the headline wrong? Raised $1.04m according to the article.
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