The Recall Dunleavy campaign is planning to release the number of signatures gathered on Thursday but its promoters are enthusiastic about the results so far.
“We’re making history at this point,” campaign spokeswoman Meda Dewitt said by phone Tuesday. She said that many of her campaign colleagues who had worked on political campaigns in the past have said they’ve never seen a turnout like this. “None of them have seen this level of signature gathering,” she said.
Dewitt said that the campaign had held over 40 events statewide with another 20 planned. That was not counting door-to-door canvassing or ad hoc events, but events scheduled to the campaign’s website.
In the city of Cordova with a population of roughly 2,300, Dewitt said that the campaign there had already collected 560 signatures.
“Little communities are really coming out in force because rural Alaska is going to be hit hardest by Dunleavy’s cuts,” Dewitt said.
Juneau, she said, collected over 2,000 signatures on the first day of signing. Both Anchorage and Fairbanks had each had collected over 3,000, Dewitt said.
Michael Penn | Juneau Empire Monika Kunat (left) signs an application petition to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Thursday with others at the Planet Alaska Gallery in Juneau.
In Juneau, Vivian Mork, one of the owners of the Planet Alaska store on Ferry Way where Juneau’s initial signing event was held, said that people could come to the store to sign the application if they had missed previous events.
Pat Race, owner of Alaska Robotics Gallery said that he will be hosting signing events on Wednesday, Aug. 7, from 3-6 p.m. and Friday, Aug. 9 from 3-8 p.m.
Race also suggested that if people were unable to travel and wanted to sign from home, they could have a signature collector volunteer packet sent to their home. They could sign and send the paperwork back. Signing others up was not a requirement.
Dewitt said that in some communities, volunteers have been organizing efforts to travel to rural areas and to people who have requested help, but that those efforts were different for each community.
The Recall Dunleavy campaign has posted all of its events on its website, as well as information for volunteers.
The campaign has enumerated a number of legal reasons for recalling the governor, which can be found online.
The Empire reached out to the governor’s office Tuesday, but at the end of the business day, had not received a comment.
Dewitt said that the number of total signatures should be released by the end of the day Thursday. “Everybody’s very excited about it,” she said.
On Tuesday, the campaign’s website claimed that over 10,000 signatures had been collected — 35% of the 28,501 needed to submit an application.
• Contact reporter Peter Segall at 523-2228 or psegall@juneauempire.com.
