Dunleavy acts as if the red pen stunt is a grassroots campaign

“Thank you to all of the Alaskans who have been sending me red pens urging me to line-item veto excess spending,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy says on Facebook, pretending that the stunt is evidence of a groundswell.

Anchorage advertising man and radio host Mike Porcaro is promoting the red pen campaign on the KENI radio website.

The photo used by the governor on Facebook and Twitter shows at least a couple of people may have responded to Porcaro’s pitch to “click the picture” and buy 100 red pens from Amazon.com for $19.99 and have them sent to Dunleavy.

And there are people who are copying the two-sentence form letters Porcaro wrote to cheer on the governor.

Porcaro is CEO of Porcaro Communications, the company that made ads and bought ads for the Dunleavy for Alaska shadow campaign, which was bankrolled early on by Francis Dunleavy and Bob Penney.

According to the Alaska Public Offices Commission reports, Porcaro’s company received $87,000 on Jan. 29, 2018, $38,000 on Feb. 7, $10,000 on July 31, $5,000 on Aug. 2 and $100,000 on Oct. 23, most of that to buy ads.

More than one reporter has mentioned that the governor wore a red pen in his jacket pocket this week so that reporters could see it during a press conference. The role of Porcaro Communications in creating this marketing message and the company’s involvement in the election are more significant.