The Dunleavy shadow campaign for governor in Alaska is a big-time example of how rich people can use their wealth to buy political power.
Read MoreThe Trump administration has moved to block an action by the Obama administration that cleared the way for some Native lands in Alaska to be taken into trust by the federal government, a means of allowing those lands to become the legal equivalent of a Lower 48 reservation.
His voice was calm, never hurried and it always seemed he was speaking to friends. "Thank you for being such good company," he would say.
Read MoreIt doesn't matter to Trump that McCain is dying. The president has made it a standard part of his stand-up act to ridicule McCain for his vote a year ago on the Obamacare repeal vote, complete with the thumbs-down gesture.
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One thing to say about SB 21 is that Sen. John Coghill and other proponents oversold it as a miracle cure for Alaska's financial situation. They are still overselling it with a fiscal dream that oil-will-fix-everything that the Permanent Fund doesn't.
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Sen. Lisa Murkowski reacted like a human being, aware that the lock-em-up policy had turned into an international disaster. Sen. Dan Sullivan reacted like a politician who wanted to keep on good terms with Trump.
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Alaska political and business leaders should be alarmed, even if it means calling on Trump to develop a coherent strategy to replace the carnival barker act.
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Had the White House under President Obama done such damage to Alaska, Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young would have seen it as part of the unprecedented "war on Alaska" that the three of them made up in 2015.
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Oil production in Alaska is lower now than it was when SB 21 was approved five years ago. Oil prices are nowhere near $100 and the idea of a sustainable budget of $6.7 billion is a distant memory.
Former Sen. Mike Dunleavy, through the shadow campaign bankrolled by his brother and a few others, is all but claiming the blessing of the late Gov. Jay Hammond from beyond the grave.