A version of this column originally appeared in The Alaska Memo.
The primary election results were certified last week, kicking off the final run to the general election. The certification came with about a dozen candidate withdrawals, almost all Republicans, as conservatives look to consolidate their support in crucial races that will determine the balance of power in the Alaska Legislature.
The ultimate goal for conservatives is to dismantle the Senate’s 17-member bipartisan coalition — nine Democrats and eight Republicans — while holding onto their narrow majority in the House, capturing the trifecta that removes any pesky roadblocks to enacting their right-wing agenda. Since Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy first won office in 2018, varying legislative coalitions of Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans have blocked much of his agenda from coming to fruition.
That has included draconian cuts to state spending in his first year, bigger dividends without a clear plan to pay for them and a slate of education “reforms” that largely mirror national conservative trends such as a Florida-style “Don’t Say Gay” bill, limitations on how trans students are allowed to play sports and other changes that would allow state spending to go to private and religious schools.
And as if to put a fine point on what that agenda is, Gov. Mike Dunleavy was surprisingly active this week:
- He vetoed a broadly popular bill to ease access to birth control in Alaska. The measure, House Bill 17 by Fairbanks Democratic Rep. Ashley Carrick, would have required insurance providers to cover up to a year’s supply of prescription birth control at a time. It was a long-sought change that advocates say is much needed in Alaska, where many women living and working in rural and remote areas don’t have regular access to pharmacies. It also passed with overwhelming bipartisan backing — with several Republicans even speaking to their strong support on the floor. Dunleavy, however, couldn’t be bothered to provide a meaningful explanation beyond calling any requirements on insurance companies “bad policy.” It should be noted that the bill’s main opposition came from Republican men, who repeatedly made false statements claiming that it might cover abortion-inducing abortifacients and whined that it was unfair that women would be getting special treatment.
- He vetoed a workers’ rights bill that would have laid out more transparent safety rules for workers in large warehouses, allowing them to request details on productivity quotas and prohibiting restrictions on bathroom breaks. According to ADN’s reporting, House Bill 88 was inspired by the experience of Sutton Republican Rep. George Rauscher’s father, who saw an older man collapse from the summertime heat while working in a warehouse. “It just gives the worker a chance to think about whether or not they’re going to be able to keep up with what’s required of them,” he told the paper. In his veto statement, Dunleavy said the protections are excessive, “thereby thwarting business development and economic opportunities in Alaska.”
And it’s not just this week. The governor’s actions come after years of weird behavior.
It’s important to note the governor’s administration has — probably just coincidentally — employed several men with disturbing attitudes and behavior toward women and deployed policies that are weirdly fixated on what it means to be a woman. He’s had two attorneys general resign — one over harassing a junior state employee and another who is accused of sexually abusing a teen that he coached. His pro-family advisor resigned last year when his misogynistic podcast, in which he said “divorce is worse than rape,” came to light. The governor also vetoed funding for the Alaska Court System because it overturned an anti-abortion law he supported (something it did again this week). He also platformed an anti-trans activist, calling gender-affirming care a “pseudo-science that has lifelong debilitating impacts on children,” while also secretly rolling back anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ Alaskans. Like most of the anti-trans animus, most of it revolves around what a “proper woman” is, and it seems fixated on childbirth.
Weird, right?
We also can’t forget that the governor’s main agenda regarding education — beyond proposing and promptly dropping a Florida-style “Don’t Say Gay” bill — is to allow public education dollars to flow unchecked to private and religious schools, flouting the Alaska Constitution’s abundantly clear prohibition on just that. He notoriously vetoed a broadly popular education funding bill because it lacked his proposal to expand the public charter school system, a significant change that the governor never explained in any meaningful detail. That lack of detail on what he plans on doing with the powers if he gets them has been a running trend in his career.
Much of the governor’s pulled-from-the-national-culture-wars agenda has been stymied by various legislative coalitions of Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans. While the Republican-led House gave new life to right-wing legislation in the last session — highlighted by the full day Republicans spent pushing through a bill limiting how trans girls and women are allowed to play sports at all levels in Alaska — much of that agenda was always dead on arrival with the Senate’s bipartisan coalition.
Alaska is facing big problems that deserve meaningful attention. The combined hard work of reasonable legislators has produced many sensible solutions to Alaska’s challenges and given new life to other issues that were once thought insurmountable.
Many of those solutions are contained in the absurd number of bills the governor has let become law without his signature. This year, the governor has allowed 17 bills to go into effect without the traditional bill-signing celebration. Whether it’s laziness or pettiness, it’s hard to overlook that many of those bills are sponsored by legislators who have refused to stroke his ego. Those bills even included one of his own, House Bill 344, which was amended to include much-needed reforms to the state’s hapless food stamp program that were initially sponsored by Democratic Rep. Genevieve Mina and Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel.
Bipartisan support also saw the public sector pension bill pass the Senate, marking the most progress the measure has made since the state eliminated the system in 2006.
But as is the case with birth control and workers’ rights, many of these issues will likely not see significant progress as long as Dunleavy and his backers have the veto pen and a large enough legislative plurality to ensure those vetoes stick. That extends to things like election reform, e-bike regulations, or, heck, even the oft-vetoed Alaska Long Trail project.
Dunleavy and the conservative movement, as a whole, have shown little interest in compromise and collaboration, instead viewing obstinance as a virtue.
Former Rep. Chuck Kopp, a moderate Republican who trounced conservative GOP Rep. Craig Johnson in the primary, put it well in a recent op-ed.
“Consensus requires a measure of death to personal and partisan ambition, grace towards those who oppose you, and a firm resolve to debate issues on the merits without stooping to misinformation and slander,” he wrote. “The outcome is laws and policies that undergird the next generation.”
In other words, everything that Dunleavy is not.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
