Alaska Outdoor Council endorses Adam Crum; Bronson campaign goes on attack, fakes poll date

By SUZANNE DOWNING

June 27, 2026 – The Alaska Outdoor Council has endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Crum, a decision made by its board after months of evaluating candidates and hearing from members across the state.

But within hours of the endorsement announcement, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson’s campaign ignited a controversy by posting what it described as evidence that the board had ignored the wishes of its own membership. The post included a leaked internal member survey, labeled as a “June 2026” poll, and criticized the organization’s leadership for endorsing a candidate who had received only 8.85% support in that survey.

According to former Alaska Outdoor Council Executive Director Caleb Martin, who responded publicly on Facebook, the survey was not conducted in June at all.

“This poll was from February 2026, before the Bronson campaign dropped double digit points in polls,” Martin wrote. “The Bronson campaign added the date at the bottom and as it seems they did the same with the Dittman Research Poll.”

Martin’s comment came after an Alaska Outdoor Council member questioned whether the survey represented a recent vote of the membership.

The survey itself was never intended to be a public opinion poll. According to individuals familiar with the process, it was an internal planning survey conducted before the council’s February gubernatorial candidate forum to help determine which candidates should be invited to participate. It was completed before members had the opportunity to hear candidates answer questions at that forum.

That’s why former Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins was also included, because there was widespread speculation that he intended to enter the governor’s race. Southeast Alaska members reportedly wanted to gauge whether there was sufficient interest to invite him should he formally announce.

The person who leaked the information to the Bronson campaign has formerly worked on the Bronson campaign and told The Alaska Story that the survey, even though conducted before the February forum, is part of the entire endorsement calendar of the organization.

The Alaska Outdoor Council’s board held its endorsement meeting long after the candidate forum. According to those familiar with the vote, board members concluded that Crum’s positions most closely aligned with the organization’s mission and priorities statewide.

One board member was absent from that meeting and later expressed frustration that he had not realized an endorsement vote would occur, despite elections being listed on the meeting agenda. According to sources familiar with the events, that board member subsequently leaked the internal survey to the Bronson campaign.

Rather than contacting Alaska Outdoor Council leadership to discuss the endorsement or the board’s reasoning, the Bronson campaign published the survey online, accompanied by bashing of the organization.

“It is disappointing that the Alaska Outdoor Council board chose to ignore its own members and endorse Adam Crum, who received just 8.85% of the vote,” Bronson wrote. “When an organization’s leadership endorses a candidate who finished a distant fourth among its own membership, it raises serious questions about whose interests are being represented.”

Bronson omitted important context by presenting the February planning survey as though it reflected June member sentiment following the candidate forum and endorsement process.

The episode also recalls an earlier controversy involving Bronson campaign graphics. In May, The Alaska Story reported that a Bronson campaign graphic based on a Dittman Research poll visually distorted candidate support by drawing bars at inconsistent scales, making several candidates appear to have similar levels of support despite differing percentages.

As The Alaska Story noted at the time, the underlying Dittman poll data were not the issue. Rather, the concern was the campaign’s presentation of the information, and the misuse of the Dittman poll as propaganda.

The Alaska Outdoor Council describes itself as being “dedicated to the preservation of outdoor pursuits in Alaska—hunting, fishing, trapping, public access—and conservation of the habitats upon which they depend.”

Its stated vision is “to unite the voices of our membership and member clubs to effectively represent their outdoor interests in all facets of public policy.” The organization represents dozens of member clubs across Alaska and has long been one of the state’s leading advocates for sportsmen, public access, and wildlife habitat.

Board members also said they believed it was important to announce their endorsement before the June 27 candidate withdrawal deadline so that other candidates would know the organization’s decision while they still had time to evaluate the race.

According to those familiar with the process, several candidates who were not endorsed responded graciously, indicating they respected the board’s decision and expressing hope that they might earn the organization’s support if Crum did not advance beyond the primary.

Instead, the endorsement quickly became the subject of a social media dispute after the internal February planning survey surfaced online.

The Bronson campaign has since removed the Facebook post containing the leaked survey. It has not publicly explained how it obtained the document or why it was labeled as a June 2026 survey.