'Completely fake church' backing new Sarah Palin cause sued for campaign finance violations

Sarah Palin — a former Alaska governor, rejected 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee, and twice-failed 2022 United States House of Representatives candidate — aligned herself with right-wing groups to end ranked-choice voting in Alaska following her double defeat to Democrat Mary Peltola last year. But according to a report published Thursday by The Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger, the Alaskans for Honest Elections "church" backing Palin's campaign is being sued for multiple allegations of violating campaign finance laws.

"State filings and a recent campaign finance complaint suggest the ballot committee which features Palin as its national spokesperson, has generated a blizzard of potential violations, including attempts to skirt disclosure laws, obscure its finances, manufacture tax breaks for contributors, and line the pockets of its own officials," wrote Sollenberger, noting that the case that the plaintiff's lawyer Scott Kendall is astounded at the nature of the case.

"You turn over one rock and there's more; turn over another and there's more there too," Scott Kendall told him. "With the kind of simple-mindedness involved here, as an attorney it's almost intoxicating."

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Sollenberger explained that "the creation of a new 'church' to fund the whole operation—the absurdly named 'Ranked Choice Education Association'" is what makes the lawsuit unique, adding that "Kendall makes no bones about describing as 'completely fake.'"

Sollenberger learned from court filings that "the man behind these groups is right-wing megachurch minister Dr. Art Mathias, who among other things has openly practiced LGBTQ 'conversion therapy' and has claimed that COVID vaccines cause 'spontaneous abortions' in 80 percent of pregnant women. Mathias has so far sent at least $90,000 in personal contributions to the ballot committee through the RCEA."

Sollenberger said that Mathias' operation has gone to "bizarre lengths" when it comes to "shielding its finances."

Meanwhile, Palin "adopted the abolition of ranked-choice voting as a casus belli, and she's teamed up with Alaskans for Honest Elections to make her case. Palin appeared at the group's CPAC conference booth this year—which AHE scored two months after its inception—and railed against RCV in her speech at the event," Sollenberger continued. "But as the allegations about AHE continue to stack up, Palin's own choice appears increasingly misguided."

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Sollenberger's full report is available at this link (subscription required).