Governor isn't even trying anymore to get along

Gov. Mike Dunleavy never seemed to worry much about getting along with his colleagues when he was a state senator. Nothing wrong with being an obstinate contrarian, unless you would rather learn, build consensus, truly govern and get something done.

But that’s not his style. And considering that Dunleavy won election as governor in 2018 and reelection in 2022, I suppose he figures he knows what he’s doing and his critics are wrong.

It works for him, even if not for Alaska.

Just looking at this year, he issued an unconscionable veto of public school funding because he was miffed that a majority of legislators didn’t embrace his pro-charter school, pro-private school, anti-public school teacher attitudes.

Next up on the menu, the governor cooked up in his political kitchen the contrived maneuver of calling legislators back to work in a special session, forcing them to consider overriding his education funding veto. But he added a new ingredient: He asked Republican House members to stay away from the Capitol in an attempt to throw the vote in the governor’s favor.

Dunleavy favored predatory lenders over cash-strapped Alaskans when he vetoed a bill that would have capped interest on payday loans at an annual rate of 36%.

And with that handy veto pen, he deleted from the state budget additional funding for child care services and early intervention services for children with disabilities or developmental delays. He blamed his decision on oil prices, despite continuing to spend millions of state dollars on countless, unproductive resource projects and dreams, and political publicity for his administration.

Whereas Alaskans have long known that oil prices — and state revenues — fluctuate as regularly as the tides, Dunleavy has turned the oil price excuse into the new ketchup: He puts it on everything.

In the latest example of his desire to pick a fight where there was no fight to pick, the governor named an attorney to a seat on the Alaska Judicial Council designated in the state constitution for a non-attorney. The sketchy fact that the appointee — a political supporter of the governor — is a retired attorney, not a practicing-before-the-court working attorney, doesn’t matter. He’s still an attorney sitting in a seat designated for non-attorneys to help select new judges.

Not only is John W. Wood an attorney by education, training and practice, he is a state contractor, earning so far this year more than $132,000 to run hearings and mediations. Sounds like an attorney in paycheck if not in actual name on the door.

The state constitution prohibits members of the Alaska Judicial Council from holding a “position of profit” with the state government. Maybe the governor and his staff missed that provision, though more likely they simply chose to ignore it.

It all adds up to a governor rewarding a friend and supporter, who in this case worked as a staffer for Dunleavy when the future governor was a state senator. It looks like loyalty matters more to Dunleavy than following the law.

I was recently walking to the store when a young man pulled into the crosswalk, blocking my path. He stuck his head out the car window, smiled and said in an apologetic tone: “Sorry, I’d back up, but I have no reverse.”

Sounds a lot like Dunleavy. No backing up, just pushing ahead and getting in the way.

• Larry Persily is the publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel, which first published this article.