Left-wing Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola built a decades-long career abusing taxpayer-funded per diems, employing questionable reimbursement practices, and cashing in to lobby at least twice, and is running a repeat of the pattern in her campaign for U.S. Senate.
Peltola topped all state lawmakers in total compensation and optional pay as far back as the year 2000, claiming nearly $10,000 in extra per-diem amounts. That continued in subsequent years as well. She was the highest-paid state legislator in 2001, and in 2003, she claimed the highest relocation expenses at an amount nearly five times higher than average. In 2004, she claimed the highest relocation expenses in the legislature and the second-highest total reimbursed expenses.
A 2006 Associated Press story reported that Peltola charged taxpayers $16,965 for legislative work, more than $10,000 above the previous year’s total of $6,760. That year she continued to claim the highest relocation expenses and was one of the top interim session per-diem claimants.
As Breitbart News reported earlier this month, she missed nearly one-in-five votes during her 10 years as state representative yet billed taxpayers for a Hawaiian retreat and saw her total compensation rise to over $77,000 by 2008. She also took office expense money in cash, according to the Juneau Empire.
Breitbart News noted Peltola’s history as a lobbyist:
In 2011, she was elected to the Bethel City Council in western Alaska. Peltola missed more than a third of the city’s official meetings during her time in office. She subsequently became a lobbyist for the city, where she raked in at least $144,999.66 from 2015 to 2017, records from the Alaska Office of Public Commission showed.
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After losing her re-election in 2024, Peltola landed at a lobbying firm seeking to cash out on her short tenure. A federal financial disclosure indicates Peltola received a salary of $342,400.16 from a Washington law firm, with one Alaska outlet writing her “lucrative post-Congress lobbying work raises concerns.”
She justified being the state’s most expensive lawmaker because she was fighting to make sure constituents “got their Permanent Fund Dividends [PFD],” the annual payments to state residents with the interest earned on oil revenue. Peltola told the Peninsula Clarion, “I have a very big district and I also serve a district that doesn’t have very strong municipal government, so in a lot of respects I’m doing double duty.”
The newspaper noted that per-diem amounts to state legislators are optional, and once Peltola became a six-figure lobbyist, she pushed legislation that cut PFD payments in half.
Following her tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she missed 40 percent of votes in the summer of 2024, Peltola cashed in again as she and her chief of staff landed jobs at a Washington lobbying firm.
Follow Matt Mercer on X: @mattmercer.
