CHRISTIAN COALITION FINED FOR ELECTION MISSTEP

The Alaska Public Offices Commission on Tuesday hit the Christian Coalition
and its Alaska affiliate with a $1,850 fine for campaigning against the
medical marijuana initiative last year without complying with campaign
disclosure laws.

The groups printed and distributed a "voter guide" last year listing Alaska
candidates and their positions on issues such as abortion, affirmative
action and capital punishment. If that were all the pamphlet did, the
groups would not have had to register or report its expenditures to APOC,
because the brochure would have been deemed educational, the commission
staff concluded. But the voter guide also contained statements about the
medical marijuana initiative:

"Vote NO on Measure 8. (Legalizes Drug Use)" and "A NO VOTE WILL KEEP THIS
DANGEROUS PRECEDENT FROM BECOMING LAW."

Anchorage attorney Jim Kentch, who worked on the campaign for the marijuana
initiative, complained to APOC that the Christian Coalition should have
filed reports with the commission because it was trying to influence the
outcome of the election.

An attorney representing the Virginia-based Christian Coalition and the
Christian Coalition of Alaska acknowledged a mistake.

"Because the Coalition's voter guides, generally, are not subject to
regulation under federal and state election laws, when the messages
concerning ballot measures were inserted in the Alaska voter guide, it did
not occur to anyone that this portion of the voter guide might be subject
to reporting requirements," attorney Frank Northam wrote in response to the
complaint.

The group printed 100,000 copies of its Alaska voter guide. They were
distributed to its members and in churches.

The commission staff recommended that no fine be imposed, saying the
violation was inadvertent and the Christian Coalition cooperated with its
investigation.

But the commission, a bipartisan panel of five citizens, decided Tuesday
that the groups should be fined.

"There seemed to be a consensus that this was an experienced political
group that should have known that adopting a position opposed to a ballot
measure was an undertaking that would trigger reporting requirements under
law," said APOC commissioner Phil Volland, speaking of the national
organization.

Deborah Luper, the former director of the Christian Coalition of Alaska,
said the state affiliate is inactive these days.

Voters overwhelmingly adopted the medical marijuana initiative a year ago.