IN DEFENSE OF APOC

John Wayne Glotfelty
North Pole, AK
March 2, 2003

In 1974, we the people of Alaska in response to non-responding politicians did form by initiative the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC). From that day forward politicians from the major political parties have sought to discredit, under fund and in any other manner do away with APOC. With their finances out in the open for the public to examine it proved more and more difficult for special interests to buy them without a hue and cry from the people. The smoke filled back rooms got smaller and smaller.

Fast forward to 2003. The Governor and I quote from his letter of transmittal to the Senate reference SB119, "APOC and campaign finance laws were generally established to accomplish three major goals: to restrict financial contributions to campaigns, to provide information to the general public as to who is contributing to whom, and enforce those laws. Under the current campaign finance model, APOC, has ultimately failed in all three areas." This statement is blatantly untrue and totally misleading. The APOC system does restrict we the people from donating to the people of our choice, since once that is common knowledge we all know what happens if you support a non-winner. Regular folks fear the response from the high and mighty and rightly so, sadly. Only special interest donate for the large majority of donations can be traced directly to them. How you ask? The second point, APOC does in fact post the submissions of the candidates in a timely manner. Electronic filings were posted in less than two working days, those mailed took longer because the limited staff had to enter each and every page manually. I chose the mail simply to keep elephants and donkeys in the dark as long as possible in the heat of battle. The last item on investigations is due solely to the politicians both under funding APOC, and stonewalling the investigator as long as possible, for sure until after the election cycle. One massive complex complaint will take a good investigator months to resolve. Our one investigator received 26 complaints in the last cycle. Small wonder with the stonewalling and shear volume that it takes time to wade through that mountain of paperwork and there are delays.

Our politicians on both sides of the isle have a history of gutting, diluting, and repealing voter initiatives. Your choice is clear, return to the dark ages or fight back so at least there is one neutral place in the entire election process dedicated for we the people. No political party should be vested with these responsibilities including my own. All political parties have a vested conflict of interest, which cannot be denied.

REMEMBER the same political party that forced closed primaries on Alaska now says they are unbiased and will sit in sole judgement of the political finance laws and violations enforcement. If you believe that, we are doomed already in my opinion.