The Alaska Current reports:

Within a nine-day period last spring, executives tied to a data center utility investor with major public projects in the Arctic dumped more than $50,000 into Alaska’s tightly contested US Senate race between Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola. The money flowed to Sullivan shortly after he successfully pushed the military to open up Alaskan Air Force bases to data center developers.

Federal Elections Commission filings show the donations occurred between April 23 and May 1. The investor, Peter Corsell, maxed out his contribution to Sullivan’s candidate committee in both the primary and general elections at $3,500 each and gave the same amounts, on the same day, to Sullivan’s joint-fundraising committee, Sullivan Victory. All told, Corsell contributed $14,000 in support of Sullivan’s reelection bid. Three executives with ties to Corsell also maxed out to his candidate committee in the primary and matched to the joint committee, totaling $7,000 each. A fifth donor matched Corsell’s $14,000 total spend, and a sixth contributed to both committees in lower amounts.

On May 15, another executive with ties to Corsell also contributed $3,500 to each committee, bringing the total contributions from this network to $58,000.

Corsell’s firm, Twenty First Century Utilities (TFC), has a lot on the line: a change in party control of Alaska’s Senate seat and of the US Senate itself could complicate their no-bid contract to build a multibillion dollar mega utility in partnership with the North Slope Borough, the county-level government of the northernmost part of the state.

In May, the Alaska Current reported on apparent conflicts of interest with three firms — Twenty First Century, Saige Consulting, and I Squared Capital — tied to Corsell and more than $90 million in state contracts awarded by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s former revenue commissioner. In October, we detailed how TFC executives pumped money into the successful re-election campaign of North Slope Borough Mayor Josiah Patkotak in the month after he awarded them a no-bid, million-dollar contract.

A similar pattern emerged last spring between executives tied to those same three firms and Sen. Sullivan’s re-election campaign. At Sullivan’s “strong urging,” the Air Force announced in April that it would open military bases in Alaska to data center developers. [Continue reading…]