Dunleavy will leave Alaska if Trump offers a top job

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has been fawning over Donald Trump for as long as he’s been governor.

Now he says, he looks forward to working with Trump “to make Alaska great again.”

We’ll soon see whether Dunleavy has said “Trump is the best” enough times and at sufficient volume to qualify for a top job in the second Trump administration.

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Dermot Cole Comments
State shifts PR focus to sell Alaska as home for data centers. This is not a PR problem. It's a leadership problem.

NEW PROPOSALS FOR Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed $9 million public relations campaign aimed at the leaders of resource development companies and investors are due today.

This is not the job of a PR worker. It requires a miracle worker. Without cheap electricity, Alaska is not a prime location for data centers. It doesn’t have cheap electricity. It has talk about cheap electricity.

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Dermot Cole Comments
Dunleavy plans $9 million industry public relations campaign, with $3 million identified to pay for it

The Dunleavy administration is trying for a second time to spend up to $9 million on a public relations campaign aimed at executives and investors in mining, forestry, transportation and other industries, having cancelled the first effort because the state was unhappy with the results.

The request for proposals was first issued August 15, with a requirement that firms be at least 10 years old, have “five years or more experience in providing public relations support for Alaskan issues or entities” and three years of “worldwide” experience.

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Dermot Cole Comments
Trump expands his lies about ANWR, Alaska and oil production

Donald Trump has added new lies to his package of falsehoods about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, claiming that the refuge could have been supplying oil by now to all of Asia, including China and Japan, had he remained in the White House.

He also is now claiming that oil from ANWR would have prevented the war in Ukraine and helped the U.S. provide all the energy that Western Europe requires. He has lied in the past that money from ANWR oil is the key to saving Social Security.

There is no end to the money miracles that would come from ANWR oil, according to Trump, who has been repeating and inflating bubble-brained lies about ANWR since 2017.

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Dermot Cole Comments
Correction: Ex-husband of Dunleavy publicist wants Trump to use military against political opponents

The office of Gov. Mike Dunleavy contacted me today to report a “glaring error” in this blog post and suggest that I take down the post and rewrite it. According to the governor’s spokesman, Russell and Mary Vought ended their long-time marriage in 2023.

Now we know more about the Vought relationship than we do about what Mary is doing for $5,000 a month under a no-bid contract that has been extended time after time since 2020.

Mary Vought is in charge of PR for the Heritage Foundation, which led Project 2025. Russell Vought is a key contributor of Project 2025. They have two children.

“Families comprised of a married mother, father and their children are the foundation of a well-ordered nation and healthy society,” says Project 2025.

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Dermot Cole Comments
Tom Begich, Mark Begich effectively endorse Nick Begich with their silence

I’m sure it is uncomfortable for former Sen. Mark Begich and former Sen. Tom Begich to have their nephew, Nick Begich the Third, espousing ideas that contradict the positions taken by Mark and Tom during their days in office.

But with their deliberate silence about Nick III, they are effectively endorsing him.

Tom Begich submitted a column to the Anchorage Daily News saying he’s fed up with Donald Trump and his “enemy within” threats.

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Dermot Cole Comments