Alaska's campaign ethics commission has fined the embattled backers of an anti-ranked choice voting ballot initiative nearly $157,000 on the heels of previous fines totaling around $90,000.

The Alaska Public Offices Commission order, issued Monday, is the latest development in a monthslong effort to require the backers of the ballot initiative to adhere to the state's campaign fundraising requirements.

At the center of the complaint, which was filed last year by proponents of Alaska's voting system, are several groups and individuals who spearheaded a ballot initiative in last year's election to repeal Alaska's voting system, including open primaries and ranked choice general elections. The ballot measure narrowly failed.

The commission imposed the maximum allowed fines on the respondents, stating that they have "proven themselves shockingly poor at complying with their reporting obligations throughout their campaign."

The backers of the initiative were fined more than $94,000 last January after the public offices commission found that they had illegally funneled their spending through a tax-exempt church and failed to report their donations and spending as required under state law.

The fines were levied against Art Mathias, an Anchorage insurance broker who gave the repeal campaign around $90,000, and against campaign groups led by Mathias and Phillip Izon, a Wasilla resident who ran the repeal campaign. Izon has since vowed to put forward other election-related ballot initiatives ahead of the 2026 election.

Izon declined to answer questions. Mathias was not immediately available to comment.

Mathias and Izon were behind a campaign group called Alaskans for Honest Elections and an organization called the Ranked Choice Education Association, which formed as a church in Washington state, allowing its donors to receive tax deductions for their contributions.

Even after the backers were fined last year and ordered to comply with the law, they failed to do so, according to the order issued this week by the commission — whose members are appointed by the governor.

Mathias and some of the campaign groups had appealed the commission's initial fines to the Superior Court, which upheld much of the order last year. Mathias then appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court in August. The court has yet to rule on the appeal.

Following a hearing earlier this month, the commission found that Mathias and the groups leading the repeal effort had throughout their repeal campaign violated state laws by filing late and inaccurate reports.

Mathias and the campaign groups are represented by former Attorney General Kevin Clarkson. He alleged that the groups don't owe the previously imposed fines because the groups have since been dissolved or soon will be, leaving no one to pay the fines. The commission disagreed, stating that enforcing the campaign finance and disclosure laws is meant "to maintain the integrity of elections and inform the electorate," regardless of whether the groups had been dissolved.

"None of the respondents provided reports anywhere close to accurate about the amounts and sources for their campaign spending before the election," the commission wrote in its decision, calling the extent of the violations "egregious and widespread."

The respondents have 30 days to pay the fines and comply with the order, or 15 days to submit a request for reconsideration.

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