Hip-hop Martinez gets scolding by Assembly for flagrant use of campaign funds for personal trip

By SUZANNE DOWNING

July 23, 2026 – The Anchorage Assembly formally censured East Anchorage Assembly member George Martinez, Anchorage’s hip-hop Assemblyman for improperly using campaign funds for a personal round-trip flight to Florida and related expenses.

The Assembly on Tuesday voted 8-3 to approve the resolution, placing the body’s formal condemnation of Martinez into the municipal record. The measure stops far short of removing him from office, an option some Assembly members have said should remain under consideration.

Anchorage Assembly delays action on wayward member George Martinez until July 21, as travel review continue

The censure follows a final order from the Alaska Public Offices Commission finding that Martinez spent campaign money on expenses that were not legitimate campaign expenditures and that personally benefited him.

Martinez, who came to Anchorage from New York City, used $1,255 from his reelection campaign to purchase an Alaska Airlines ticket from Anchorage to Fort Lauderdale in December. He returned to Anchorage approximately one hour after landing in Florida. He also spent $1,000 in campaign funds on carbon-offset credits connected to air travel.

Martinez, formerly an activist with Occupy Wall Street, claimed the roughly 8,000-mile journey was a campaign planning retreat that gave him uninterrupted time to work while flying and waiting in airports. APOC commissioners rejected that explanation.

The commission found that the expenditures personally benefited Martinez, including through his personal airline rewards account and elite status. It also found his sworn testimony was not credible, describing his responses as “formulaic and evasive” and citing his “persistent refusal to directly answer simple questions.”

APOC ordered Martinez to reimburse his campaign and imposed the maximum civil penalty available. His combined repayment and penalty totaled $5,305.70.

In plain terms, the state’s campaign-finance watchdog found that Martinez diverted campaign money to expenses that benefited him personally, then failed to give commissioners credible answers about what he had done.

In more frank terms, this means he misdirected the dollars that were donated to him, which can be considered a form of theft. Then he obfuscated and dodged questions from the watchdog agency.

The censure resolution was sponsored by Assembly members Erin Baldwin Day, Sydney Scout and Keith McCormick.

“Censure is a formal, on-the-record expression of a legislative body’s disapproval,” the resolution states, explaining it as the appropriate way for the Assembly to signal that it does not condone a member’s actions while still “respecting the will of the voters who elected that member.”

Martinez was reelected in April for his East Anchorage district. Martinez won over Cody Anderson with 58.5% of the vote — 5,359 to 3,799. Martinez was backed by the Democratic Party, which formally endorsed him. He also had the backing of The Alaska Center (for the Environment), which endorsed him and helped finance his victory alongside Assembly candidates Sydney Scout, Anna Brawley, and Janice Park. He was endorsed and financially supported by the Anchorage Education Association.

Martinez’s campaign received financial backing from former Assemblyman Chris Constant and current Assemblyman Daniel Volland. Unions and labor PACs were his largest financial backers, including: PACE/NEA, APDEA (Anchorage Police Department Employees Association), ASEA/AFSCME Local 52, Teamsters Local 959, APEA/AFT.

The censure resolution states that the Assembly intends the censure to be its final response to the conduct addressed by APOC.

But broader questions about Martinez’s use of actual public dollars for personal travel remain unresolved.

Assembly members Jared Goecker and Donald Handeland have sought an investigation into whether Martinez misused municipal resources during official travel, including whether taxpayers covered per diem or other expenses on days when he was not conducting Assembly business. They have raised questions about a taxpayer-funded trip to Puerto Rico that extended beyond the length of the conference Martinez attended.

That investigation could potentially provide the basis for further proceedings to remove Martinez from office. The Assembly, however, was unable to complete its debate before Tuesday’s regular meeting reached its midnight deadline and is a leftist-dominated organization unlikely to take action against one of its own.