Nowlin files for Juneau Assembly, receives APOC exemption

Juneau Assembly candidate Paul Nowlin says he won’t raise or spend more than $5,000 on his campaign.

Nowlin on Monday submitted paperwork to the Alaska Public Offices Commission agreeing to the spending limit, thus exempting his campaign from APOC’s reporting requirements. He also turned in his nominating petition to the city clerk’s office, making his candidacy official.

Nowlin says he made the decision early on not to spend a lot of money to get elected.

“I’m trying to do this as cheap as possible,” he says. “Not trying to run a big campaign and spend a bunch of money doing it. Maybe that’s a foolish thing. I don’t know I’ll see.”

The APOC exemption means Nowlin doesn’t have to report income or expenditures related to his campaign. He says he hasn’t spent anything to date, and has only received about a thousand dollars in donations — mostly from friends and family.

At this point, his only competition for the Assembly District 1 seat is Loren Jones, who says he won’t seek an exemption. Jones spent nearly $10,000 running for assembly last year — a race he narrowly lost to Carlton Smith.

He says the money helped pay for things like radio and print ads.

“A lot of the places where the debates took place, where candidates could talk to each other, or groups could hear from both candidates, were pretty much public events,” Jones says. “So, I guess the advantage is that it’s just a little bit more money to get your name out there and get better name recognition.”

Merrill Sanford and Jerry Nankervis — candidates for mayor and Assembly District 2 respectively — also have not filed for APOC exemptions.

But the only declared school board candidate, Andi Story, will have one.

Candidates have until next Monday to file nominating petitions with the city clerk’s office for the October 2nd municipal election.

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