A political group formed recently by an Anchorage strategist and city lobbyist appears aimed at tying reconstruction of the city's aging port to the 2016 state elections.

On June 14, Jim Lottsfeldt filed paperwork with the Alaska Public Offices Commission to create a group called "Safe & Secure; Coalition for the Port of Anchorage." In the filing, Lottsfeldt said the political action committee intends to "create support for improvements to the Port of Anchorage."

The city failed to secure additional funding for the port project in Juneau this session. The filing says the group plans to participate in campaign activities for the 2016 primary and general elections.

Beyond that, the group's purpose and plans were a mystery Friday. Lottsfeldt, listed in the filing as the group's treasurer, declined to discuss it.

"We aren't ready to talk about it," Lottsfeldt said in an email.

The chairman of the group was listed as Andre Horton, a photographer at Lottsfeldt Strategies LLC. The email address listed for Horton on the APOC registration was invalid, and he didn't respond to an email addressed to his personal consulting company. The APOC registration listed Lottsfeldt's cellphone number as the contact number for Horton.

The city of Anchorage paid Lottsfeldt $65,000 to work as a lobbyist in Juneau this legislative session, and port funding was one of his main priorities.

Rebuilding the port and its rotting framework has been a top Anchorage priority for years. But those efforts face political headwinds after a botched expansion project in the 2000s squandered tens of millions of dollars and led to multiple lawsuits. The city has more recently rolled out a scaled-back "modernization" project and needs the money to start the second of five phases of construction.

This session, as the city's main legislative priority, Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz wanted lawmakers to put $290 million for the second phase of port construction on a statewide general obligation bond package. But the bond proposal died in the Legislature. Key Republican lawmakers said they weren't interested in adding to the state's bond debt at a time of plunging oil prices and royalties.