Legislators have sparred with Gov. Mike Dunleavy throughout his time in office — especially when it comes to his picks for the state’s boards and commissions, where his refusal to appoint anyone who signed the 2019 recall petition against him has yielded some particularly odious appointees, including a holocaust denier and a ghost hunter — but they had never outright rejected his cabinet picks.
At least until Attorney General Stephen Cox.
Well, former Attorney General and now Counsel to the Governor Stephen Cox.
Cox, a longtime Texas attorney picked to run the Department of Law by Dunleavy ostensibly for his zealous commitment to of-the-moment conservative causes rather than his knowledge of the Alaska Constitution’s strong privacy provisions, which he told lawmakers he’s still “learning about,” became the first cabinet-level appointment rejected by legislators since Gov. Sarah Palin.
His nomination was sunk on a 31N-29Y vote during Thursday’s joint session, as legislators essentially called Cox a partisan stooge who has little knowledge of Alaska’s legal system or its values and is more focused on right-wing causes nationally.
They pointed to more than 100 amicus briefs that Cox had signed on to since taking over the Department of Law in August, many of which have nothing to do with Alaska or actually run contrary to established Alaska law, such as one brief that refused to stand up for the state’s mail-in voting system in a case seeking to effectively end mail-in voting altogether. He also lent Alaska’s name to support the case seeking to overturn birthright citizenship. His confirmation hearings before the House and Senate judiciary committees went poorly, as he demonstrated laughably poor knowledge of state laws.
“When it comes to defending Alaska against federal overreach, protecting our privacy rights and serving as Alaska’s top law officer, this appointee is sufficiently underqualified,” said Anchorage Democratic Sen. Löki Tobin during the debate. “For the past year, Mr. Cox has refused to defend Alaska against unconstitutional seizures of federal dollars for our public universities. He has not stopped the freezing of federal dollars for Alaska’s nonprofits, nor has he stopped the withholding of Title I funds for our public education system. Instead, as he shared in the Senate Judiciary, he has spent the last year fighting Lower 48 culture wars.”
And while that vote would have ended his time in state service, Dunleavy announced about two hours later that Cox already had a new job: The newly created position of legal counsel to the governor.
According to an announcement released shortly after the vote, Dunleavy said Cox would be joining his office to advise him on “a wide range of legal, regulatory and constitutional matters.” While the release offers effusive praise for Cox, it notes in passing that career state attorney Cori Mills will serve as acting Attorney General for the remainder of Dunleavy’s term.
The announcement also says Cox Will continue working with the Department of Law and other departments to advise, direct and advance the governor’s policies during his last year in office. So, not a lot will be changing.
It was at Cox’s direction that the Division of Elections turned over the state’s confidential voter list to the Trump Department of Justice — making Alaska one of the only states to fully comply with the patently illegal demands — ignoring concerns that it violated the state’s constitution. Advocates have warned that the Trump administration could use the information, which includes the addresses of people who’ve opted to keep them private, for a wide array of purposes, including feeding into the violent ICE crackdowns.
For his part, Cox conceded he has a still-basic understanding of Alaska law.
“I will concede I am learning about the right to privacy. And the Legislature has far better expertise on the right to privacy,” Cox said. “And the law department’s position is that that statute is a valid statute and that it is not unconstitutional.”
That said, he stuck to his guns and said he would do it all again. After all, he’s predisposed to complying with the feds.
“And I will be candid with you,” he told lawmakers. “I have a disposition of cooperating with law enforcement.”
According to the announcement, Cox is already on the job for Dunleavy.
The vote
Yeas: Reps. Allard, Bynum, Coulombe, Elam, Johnson, Kopp, McCabe, Moore, D.Nelson, G.Nelson, Prax, Ruffridge, Saddler, Schwanke, St. Clair, Stapp, Tomaszewski, Underwood, Vance, and Sens. Bjorkman, Cronk, Hoffman, Kaufman, Merrick, Myers, Rauscher, Stedman, Tilton and Yundt
Nays: Carrick, Costello, Dibert, Edgmon, Eischeid, Fields, Foster, Frier, Galvin, Gray, Hall, Hannan, Himschoot, Holland, Jimmie, Josephson, Mears, Mina, Schrage, Story, Stutes, Claman, Dunbar, Giessel, Gray-Jackson, Kawasaki, Kiehl, Olson, Stevens, Tobin, Wielechowski
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 Bluesky.
