In shakeup, disqualified governor candidate's running mate — and his wife — step up to run

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In a last-minute shakeup, Republican gubernatorial candidate Treg Taylor's running mate, Candi English, has filed to fill his place on the ballot after state elections officials disqualified Taylor for noncompliance with Alaska's financial disclosure law.

Taylor's wife, Jodi, meanwhile, filed to run as English's new lieutenant governor running mate — though her own financial disclosure omitted the same information that served as the basis for her husband's disqualification.

English and Jodi Taylor made the move just a few hours after Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees Alaska elections, disqualified Treg Taylor, a former attorney general under Gov. Mike Dunleavy, from appearing on the general election ballot. 

Dahlstrom, concurring with Alaska's campaign finance regulators, found that Taylor had not disclosed the identities of tenants at a building he owns, as required by law. Treg Taylor originally filed his gubernatorial candidate financial disclosure with no tenant information, then, later, filed it with first names and initials but without tenants' "complete names," regulators ruled.

Less than an hour before Monday's 5 p.m. candidate withdrawal deadline, English and Jodi Taylor arrived at the Anchorage office of the Alaska Division of Elections to shake up the ballot.

"I'm stepping up to governor," English told employees at the office. She then told another visitor to the office: “It’s all for the good of the state. The state needs the right people in place. We can’t get it wrong.”

Later Monday, Treg Taylor issued a defiant statement saying that the decision by the state's campaign finance agency, the Alaska Public Offices Commission, "represents the worst of the unelected bureaucracy: massive authority with no accountability."

"Today, I was robbed of the ability to decide for myself whether to move forward in this race or stand down in an effort to put Alaska first," Taylor said in the statement.

Officials at the elections division in Anchorage accepted English's and Jodi Taylor's filing documents but declined to immediately confirm whether their candidacies would be formally accepted.

Quincy Azimi-Tabrizi, a daughter of the Taylors who was acting as a campaign spokesperson, said that Jodi Taylor's disclosure contained the same level of detail as Treg's.

"We are processing paperwork and will sort through it all tomorrow," Dahlstrom said in a text message late Monday.

In a brief interview after filing, before Azimi-Tabrizi ushered her out of the office, English said: "We do not need Californians dictating Alaska."

"We need an Alaskan, and our commitment to our lifestyle, to determine our government. And JKT is just not what we need," English said. That was a reference to leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, who's raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from California residents.

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“I absolutely should have seen this coming,” said Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins.

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Kreiss-Tomkins, in a statement, said: "We are proud that more Alaskans have donated to our campaign than the other three governor campaigns combined."

"What Alaskans do not want is a third term of Mike Dunleavy’s politics," Kreiss-Tomkins said. "Our campaign is going to turn the page on the Dunleavy era and get Alaska back on track."

The Taylors' last-minute switch Monday stunned political observers. After arriving at the elections office and learning of the move, Jeff Landfield, the Alaska political blogger, summed up many insiders' reactions: "What the hell is happening?"

November's general election ballot, by law, includes the top four finishers in this month’s nonpartisan primary.

Treg Taylor finished fifth, but the second-placed primary candidate, Democrat Tom Begich, withdrew over the weekend and endorsed Kreiss-Tomkins. That made room for Taylor on the ballot — until his disqualification Monday.

The last two candidates on the general election ballot are also both Republicans, longtime party activist Bernadette Wilson and former Anchorage mayor Dave Bronson.