Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Jason Brune and University of Alaska Regent Tuckerman Babcock announced on Wednesday that they’d be leaving state service. Brune leaves the job after nearly five years, while Babcock will go after just two months.
Both men have been close allies of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, and it’s unclear what either will be doing next.
While Babcock was a recent appointment to the University of Alaska’s Board of Regents, filling a position left vacant after the Legislature rejected Dunleavy’s first pick of conservative activist Bethany Marcum earlier this year, he has been a significant figure throughout Dunleavy’s time in office.
Babcock was Dunleavy’s first chief of staff and, among many things, orchestrated the illegal loyalty pledge firings when the governor entered office.
A federal court found that the governor and Babcock had violated the First Amendment rights of some state employees by making their employment contingent on signing a pledge that they supported Dunleavy’s agenda. The conduct was so egregious that a judge found both men could be held personally liable for the decision, but the state intervened and settled to spare both from having to pay damages to the employees. Instead, the state has settled for nearly $1 million, with the latest costing Alaska $350,000.
Babcock was also a key figure in the governor’s first-year budget that delivered deep, draconian cuts to almost every corner of state government, with a harsh cut for the University of Alaska. When legislators rejected Marcum earlier this year, they cited her support of the governor’s first-year cuts and argued she couldn’t fairly oversee the future of the University of Alaska. Many legislators suggested Babcock, who was even closer to the cuts, would face the same fate once legislators returned to session.
In a statement, Babcock said he didn’t have enough time to devote to the Board of Regents.
In his statement, Brune said he plans to work in the private sector. The commissioner previously worked for the company seeking the controversial Pebble Mine, which Dunleavy has supported throughout his time in office. Brune signed onto the governor’s recent attempt to directly petition the United States Supreme Court to reverse the EPA’s veto of the mine.
That was far from Brune’s first dust-up with the EPA. As DEC commissioner, he frequently sparred with the federal agency, including with a lurid BDSM-themed letter that compared the relationship between Alaska and the EPA to a kinky sexual relationship with references to whips, handcuffs and safe words. In an interview given after that letter gained attention, Brune defended the approach by saying that the underlying issue—a fight over tribal lands into trust—was getting much-needed attention.
“We’ve written all sorts of letters over the course of the last five years that have been ignored by the EPA, ignored by the media, and until we put a spicy theme like this out there, we don’t get any attention. We don’t get any effort by the media, by the (president’s) administration, by the EPA,” he said, later adding, “Yes, it’s a spicy metaphor, but it’s an appropriate metaphor.”
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.
