Gov. Mike Dunleavy never seemed to worry much about getting along with his colleagues when he was a state senator. Nothing wrong with being an obstinate contrarian, unless you would rather learn, build consensus, truly govern and get something done.
But that’s not his style. And considering that Dunleavy won election as governor in 2018 and reelection in 2022, I suppose he figures he knows what he’s doing and his critics are wrong.
It works for him, even if it’s not good for Alaska.
Just looking at this year, he issued an unconscionable veto of public school funding because he was miffed that a majority of legislators didn’t embrace enough his pro-charter school, pro-private school, anti-public school attitudes.
Next up on the menu, the governor cooked up in his political kitchen the contrived maneuver of calling legislators back to work in a special session, forcing them to consider overriding his education funding veto. But he added a spicy ingredient: He asked Republican House members to stay away from the Capitol in an attempt to throw the vote in the governor’s favor.
Dunleavy favored predatory lenders over cash-strapped Alaskans when he vetoed a bill that would have capped interest on payday loans at an annual rate of 36%.
And with that overused veto pen, he deleted from the state budget additional funding for child care services and early intervention services for children with disabilities or developmental delays. He blamed his decision on oil prices, despite continuing to spend millions of state dollars on countless unproductive resource projects and dreams, and political publicity for his administration.
On July 16, he vetoed a bill that passed the House and Senate by a combined 59-1 vote that would have taken $3.69 million from a defunct state loan fund and made the money available for loans to commercial fishers.
His excuse was as stinky as a rotting salmon. Dunleavy cited “limited revenues,” even though the bill had nothing to do with revenues and everything to do with making better use of unused money to help the fishing fleet.
Whereas Alaskans have long known that oil prices — and state revenues — fluctuate as regularly as the tides, the governor has turned the oil price excuse into the new ketchup: He puts it on everything.
In another example of his desire to pick a fight where there was no fight to pick, the governor named an attorney to an Alaska Judicial Council seat designated in the state constitution for a non-attorney. The sketchy fact that the appointee — a political supporter of the governor — is a retired attorney, not a practicing-before-the-court working attorney, doesn’t matter. He’s still an attorney sitting in a seat designated for non-attorneys to help select new judges.
Not only is John W. Wood an attorney by education, training and past practice, he is a state contractor, earning so far this year more than $132,000 to run hearings and mediations. Sounds like an attorney in paycheck if not in actual name on the door.
The state constitution prohibits members of the Alaska Judicial Council from holding a “position of profit” with the state government. Maybe the governor and his staff missed that provision, though more likely they simply chose to ignore it.
It adds up to a governor profitably rewarding a friend and supporter, where loyalty matters more than following the law. That’s no way to steer state government.
I was recently walking to the store when a young man pulled into the crosswalk, blocking my path. He stuck his head out the car window, smiled and said in an apologetic tone: “Sorry, I’d back up, but I have no reverse.”
Sounds a lot like Dunleavy. No backing up, just pushing ahead, stuck in his favorite gear.
Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.
