She said APOC found no evidence that Paine had intended to mislead anybody on his forms. Rovell also claims that APOC commissioner James Adams made errors in his own conflict of interest form by failing to list the commission as a source of income. Rovell is right and wrong. Adams did not list APOC as an income source, but did include the state of Alaska, of which APOC is a part. He also listed his post as commissioner under offices held or sought.
Critics say filing a civil rights suit against a public disclosure agency is ridiculous.
This is a desperate attempt by Lindauer s lawyers that will just occupy court time, said Gerald McBeath, a University of Alaska, Fairbanks political science professor and an expert on state politics. McBeath said APOC didn t single out Lindauer. He is not the only one who has come up against these laws, he added. Ed Bender, research director at the National Institute on Money in State Politics, says the case is just the latest example of APOC doing its job and then being criticized for doing so. Bender says repeated budget cuts by Alaska s politicians have made it harder for APOC to investigate cases.