Four candidates, including an incumbent and a former governor, are now vying to be Alaska’s next governor in an election in which the winner will be chosen by ranked choice voting.
Contenders include Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican; former Gov. Bill Walker, an independent; former legislator Les Gara, a Democrat; and Billy Toien, a Libertarian.
The new election rules state that only the top four candidates will be on the ballot for the general election in November 2022, but so far there are only four.
Dunleavy, who is pushing to put a new Alaska Permanent Fund dividend formula into the state’s constitution, faced opposition in the Legislature with his initial budget proposal of over $1 billion in cuts to state programs and benefits.
His newest revenue boosting proposals for legislators to consider in the August special session range from reducing credits paid to oil producers, which could keep $166 million in state coffers over the next fiscal year, to expanding legalized gaming in Alaska from bingo and pull tabs to lotteries and casinos, with legislative approval.
Both Walker and Gara said they are running to bring back real leadership to the state and to restore the economy, which has been severely impacted by low oil prices, the pandemic and rising prices over.
Dunleavy issued a written statement after Walker announced his candidacy, saying he looks forward to discussion and debate and that as always the people of Alaska will decide. He has not commented on Toien’s candidacy.
“There is a lack of trust in Alaska, a serious break in trust,” Walker said. “When you bring stability, you allow businesses to invest or reinvest. I don’t think we do enough in mariculture. Fisheries are a critical piece (of the economy). Crab fisheries in Prince William Sound were a success. There is more of an opportunity for the crab fishery in Prince William Sound.”
Walker also favors reestablishing the mariculture task force initiated in 2016 under his administration and disbanded when Dunleavy took office and looking at a number of ways to bring down the cost of energy significantly in rural Alaska.
“There is alternative energy available,” he said. “We have so much pent-up opportunity not being developed.”
Walker also praised what he called the “can-do attitude” of coastal communities like Cordova, which are connected not by roads, but “in spirit and attitude. I would call many coastal communities imaginers because they do figure it out” when there’s an issue to be resolved, he said.
Gara said, in a statement announcing he had filed for governor, that under his leadership the state “can create thousands of good paying jobs with real leadership. That’s one major reason I’m running.”
“Alaskans deserve better than a governor who’s attacked our schools, damaged our university and emptied $17 billion in state savings as a state senator and governor,” he said. “I want an Alaska people can believe in again, where we create good paying jobs and provide good job training instead of taking it away. As a fisherman I want to protect our wild salmon and trout rom the toxic Pebble mine. Governor Dunleavy has sided with foreign mine owners instead of our own commercial, sport and subsistence fishermen and women.”
By continuing a decimated construction budget, the governor has killed over 6,000 well-paying jobs in construction and other fields, Gara said. “People should have jobs working on more than $2 billion in delayed projects on the state and university’s deferred maintenance lists,” he said. “Crumbling infrastructure isn’t a plan.”
As a legislator from Anchorage in 2017, Gara voted with House members to eliminate company subsidies and for a modest 25% tax on oil company profits to address the state deficit, but the effort was blocked by Senate Republicans.
Gara also noted that he has voted for oil development, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, lobbied the Obama administration to allow ConocoPhllips’ CD-5 oil development and supported existing mines in Alaska.
“I support responsible development but believe we should get a fair share for our oil,” he said. “And we can’t endanger the greatest fishing in the world, and a way of life in Bristol Bay, with the toxic Pebble mine.”
