Breaking: APOC staff recommends Treg Taylor be denied certification over incomplete financial disclosure

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Aug. 28 2026 – Alaska Public Offices Commission staff is recommending that former Attorney General Treg Taylor face disqualification from the 2026 governor’s election because he failed to file a complete financial disclosure by the statutory deadline.

The recommendation could prevent Taylor, a Republican candidate for governor, from advancing to the November general election if a position becomes available among the four primary finalists.

Taylor currently sits just outside the top four. If one of the four qualifying candidates withdraws before Monday’s deadline, Taylor could otherwise move onto the November ballot.

In an Aug. 12 memorandum, APOC Executive Director Heather Hebdon asked the commission to determine whether Taylor’s disclosure was so incomplete that the lieutenant governor should be advised not to certify his nomination.

Under state regulations, APOC staff must identify candidates who have not filed complete Public Official Financial Disclosure statements. If the commission finds that a candidate failed to disclose a significant source of income, real estate interest, business interest, loan or trust, it may recommend that the lieutenant governor refuse to certify that candidate.

At issue is Taylor’s rental-property income, which he reported as “$1,000,000 or more.” According to APOC staff, that represents more than half of all the income Taylor disclosed.

Taylor filed his candidate disclosure on June 1, but did not include the required information identifying his tenants as sources of rental income.

His filing said he had received an error message while attempting to upload the rental information and that he would email it directly to APOC. Staff said it never received that email.

On June 17, Hebdon emailed Taylor and his campaign, explained that APOC had developed a system for importing rental information, attached the necessary template and offered assistance. According to the staff memorandum, Taylor did not respond and did not amend the filing at that time.

APOC issued a formal notice of deficiency July 21. Two days later, Taylor’s campaign emailed a list of tenants to the agency, but staff told the campaign that the list had to be uploaded into the public filing system.

Taylor amended his disclosure July 27, but APOC staff said the submission remained incomplete. Some tenants were listed by first name and a last initial, while others were identified only by a first name.

For example, the memorandum said a hypothetical tenant named “John Doe” would be reported merely as “John D” or “John.”

That does not appear to satisfy the legal requirement to identify sources of income, staff concluded.

Taylor also did not submit the information by the June 1 deadline or during the 30-day statutory grace period. As of the date of the memorandum, APOC staff said he still had not provided the complete names of the tenants.

“Staff believes the question before the Commission is whether filing a disclosure without required information for a significant source of income, constituting more than 50% of Mr. Taylor’s reported income, constitutes substantial compliance for avoiding the forfeiture remedy,” Hebdon wrote.

The Alaska Supreme Court has held that “substantial compliance” is the appropriate standard when deciding whether to impose the severe penalty of disqualifying a candidate.

Staff noted that Taylor is not an inexperienced filer. He has submitted annual financial disclosures since 2019 and previously sought special treatment concerning disclosure of his rental income.

In March 2025, while serving as attorney general, Taylor requested an exemption because APOC’s electronic system did not allow him to upload a rental-income file. APOC ultimately permitted him to provide tenant information through an alternative method while the agency developed an import function.

That import capability became available in October 2025, months before Taylor filed his candidate disclosure.

Taylor could have requested another exemption allowing him to withhold full tenant names, according to APOC staff, but he did not do so.

Taylor and his wife, Jodi Taylor, have previously said their concern was protecting tenants and property managers from possible harassment. The disclosure law, however, requires candidates to identify people who paid them more than $1,000 during the preceding year unless APOC grants an exemption.

The history of how this publication, The Alaska Story, was born and ties into this controversy

The controversy also has a history for this publication. It was born as a result of bringing this to light.

In September 2025, this writer reported on Taylor’s exemption request while serving as contract editor of Must Read Alaska, the conservative publication I founded in 2015 and sold in 2023. I continued running the publication for the new owner for approximately 18 months — a year longer than required under the original contract.

When the owner directed me to remove or substantially change the Taylor story about this issue, I resigned immediately rather than surrender editorial control.

At the time, I told Alaska Public Media that a request by Alaska’s top law-enforcement official for a special accommodation from an agency under state government was a legitimate matter of public interest.

“I’m not going to allow people to take down my stories because they just simply don’t want them up,” I said then.

Nearly one year later after my resignation for an honest report on this issue, the  controversy has moved from a dispute over an exemption to a potentially decisive question about whether Taylor complied with the law in time to remain eligible for the 2026 election.

APOC staff acknowledged that the situation is unusual. The agency has not, in recent memory, compiled a list of candidates with incomplete disclosures under the regulation now being invoked.

“It is unclear whether this is the first time there have been obvious deficiencies or rather, if it is the first time the issue has garnered public scrutiny and been brought forward,” staff wrote.

The final decision does not belong to APOC staff. The commission must decide whether Taylor substantially complied with the disclosure law and whether to recommend that the lieutenant governor refuse to certify him.

The Division of Elections is scheduled to certify the primary results Monday, Aug. 31. Candidates who qualified for the general election also have until the end of that day to withdraw, making the timing of the APOC dispute especially consequential.

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