MPP Loses Case Against Drug Czar in Alaska
Superior Court Judge Peter A. Michalski of the Third Judicial District in Anchorage granted the State of Alaska's motion for summary judgment and denied MPP's motion on February 9, 2007. In coming to its decision, the court stated that the federal government does not fall naturally within the definitions for people and organizations that must report their campaign expenditures. The court said the statutes apply to "the state, its agencies, and its corporations." In essence, if the Alaska legislature had intended to include various agencies of the federal government, it would have.
MPP filed the original complaint with APOC on February 23, 2005, alleging that in October 2004 Burns campaigned in Alaska against Measure 2, a ballot initiative that would have allowed the state to tax and regulate marijuana, but failed to file campaign expenditure reports that state law requires.
On June 22, 2005, APOC upheld an earlier dismissal of MPP's complaint by commission staff. (Brooke Miles, executive director of the Alaska Public Offices Commission, dismissed MPP's complaint on March 3.)
On July 14, 2005, MPP filed for a declaratory judgment in Alaska Superior Court, seeking judicial review of APOC´s dismissal of our complaint. MPP is alleging that state officials dismissed the complaint based on an erroneous conclusion of law. The filing can be viewed on our "Official Complaints" page.
