The sentiment to recall Dunleavy is strong in this community for one simple reason, the Alaska Marine Highway System. We are all outraged that we no longer have our ferry. Many of us blame Dunleavy, since he was the one, after all, who started cutting their budget! We are upset and rightfully so!
The law clearly states that an elected official needs to commit one of the following to be recalled: lack of fitness, incompetence, negligence of duty or corruption. Those are all legal terms. The organization, Recall Dunleavy, recognizes that they cannot list the AMHS as one of the reasons for recalling the governor, because it is a policy disagreement and does not meet the legal definition of any of the aforementioned requirements for recall.
What does it say when we recall a governor, or any other elected officer, because we disagree with them on a policy issue? It is a dangerous precedent. We have a representative government for a reason. We elect representatives and governors to lead our state and to make wise decisions for us. They must commit one of the violations above to be removed, not simply disagree with us on an issue of importance. We have regular elections for that. They happen every two or four years, depending on the position.
Removing Dunleavy, because of the ferry, will lead to recalls for any reason under the sun. An organization would find some minute “violation” that would be the official reason and then run ads targeting them for the real reason, in this case, the ferry. To be clear, the organization Recall Dunleavy is not urging us to remove him for their listed reasons. They want us to remove him because he has cut the ferry. That is not something to consider when voting on this matter. If it is considered, you will be voting to remove him from office because of a policy disagreement, which is not a legal reason to remove him.
William Deaton
Cordova