 Calls on Future Legislature to Enact Meaningful Regulation of "Soft" Money June 20, 2002
"At issue here is the influence of so-called 'soft money'-difficult to trace and rarely disclosed funds which are contributed by special interest groups under the radar of conventional campaign finance laws," Knowles said. "Soft money has had an insidious impact on political campaigns across America. Fortunately - at least until this year - Alaska has been largely immune from such soft money negative campaigns." According to the news release from the Governor's office, in the spirit of Alaska's tough 1996 campaign finance law, SB 363 could have constituted genuine political reform. Early versions of the bill adopted strict language from a Ninth Circuit Court decision which said that when read as a whole, advertisements that would reasonably be interpreted as urging a vote for or against a particular candidate were subject to regulation. "Instead of that strong language, the bill was diluted in the House Rules Committee on May 13, one day before the regular adjournment," Knowles said. "The watered-down language stated that soft money ads are subject to regulation only if they explicitly advocate election or defeat of a candidate. That's a loophole you can filter a lot of unaccounted for campaign cash through." The news release stated that shortly after the watered-down bill passed the Legislature, an out-of-state group called "Americans for Job Security," generously funded with unaccounted-for money, launched an onslaught of negative television advertising across Alaska which conveniently would not have been subject to regulation under SB 363. "I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a single Alaskan who doesn't believe these ads are designed to influence the outcome of this year's governor's race," Knowles said. "In their gutless and inaccurate way targeting the Knowles-Ulmer administration, these ads are clearly designed to promote one candidate over another." "I say gutless because the people and money behind the ads are secret," Knowles said. "There has been good reporting suggesting national insurance and timber industry money is behind them. But Alaskans don't know for sure. I say inaccurate because the ads are flat out wrong. They portray an Alaska economy headed downward, when the facts show a far different situation." Alaska's economy is in its 15th consecutive year of growth, the Governor noted. "We've got the fourth fastest income growth per person in the entire country. Our median household income is fifth in the nation, up from 7th eight years ago. We have record low unemployment, a record high number of jobs and the most diversified economy ever. The list goes on." In 1996, forced by a public initiative, Alaska adopted the most progressive and by some accounts the strictest and the best campaign finance law in the country. Ever since then, the legislative majority and the Alaska Republican Party has tried to whittle away at that law to create loopholes for its own political advantage. "By vetoing this bill, the message I want to send is that Alaskans are offended by the nasty, inaccurate soft money ads now blanketing our airwaves. We don't want to make it any easier for the Outsiders running these campaigns by watering down our current campaign finance law," Knowles said. "I also join the chorus of Alaskans who have called on candidate Frank Murkowski to come clean about this gutless and inaccurate ad campaign. Join with us in telling these faceless, unaccountable groups that they are not welcome in our Alaska." "The
22nd Alaska Legislature had an opportunity to set high Alaska
standards for Alaska political campaigns. It failed, so by vetoing
this bill, I am giving a future Legislature the opportunity to
do it right," Knowles concluded. Source of News Release & Digital Photo:
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