Dunleavy creates new job for Cox after Legislature rejects him as AG

An embarrassed Gov. Mike Dunleay wasted no time Thursday creating an unnecessary new state job for Stephen Cox after the Legislature voted 31-29 to reject Cox as attorney general.

By inventing an expensive new position as temporary “counsel to the governor,” a superfluous job that the state doesn’t need, Dunleavy is using state money to give Cox time to find another job. This is what people mean by waste, fraud and abuse.

The state doesn’t have the money to do a lot of things, but Dunleavy, who claims to be a fiscal conservative, never fails to find ways to reward friends with public money.

The instantaneous creation of a new job after the vote makes me wonder if Dunleavy’s plan is to have Cox continue as the shadow attorney general in which he would instruct Cori Mills, chosen by Dunleavy as the new acting AG, about what to do.

A state press release quoted Cox as saying “I am honored to serve Governor Dunleavy and the people of Alaska in this new role.”

Shocked Dunleavy apologist Suzanne Downing, who said that creating a new state job was Dunleavy playing “hardball,” claims this Legislature may be the “worst governing body in Alaska’s history,” but there is no reason to believe her twaddle.

There is plenty of evidence, however, that Dunleavy is the worst governor in Alaska history.

The decision by the Legislature to reject a cabinet member, an action that has happened only once before in state history, according to news accounts, was a sensible one. Cox was the wrong man for the job. He proved it over and over again.

In 2009, the Legislature rejected Sarah Palin’s AG pick, Wayne Anthony Ross, known as WAR, who was accurately labeled a “rhetorical agitator” by the Anchorage Daily News. The vote was 35-23.

In the 31-29 tally against Cox, Anchorage Sen. Matt Claman voted with the majority and against confirmation. He had faced a good deal of political pressure in the last day or so and abandoned his plan to vote to confirm Cox, an issue that I wrote about last night.

The attorney general should be an Alaska lawyer with real experience in Alaska. The AG should also be focused on Alaska, not on the culture war and GOP politics Outside. Cox should never have been placed in that job by Dunleavy.

Dunleavy has compounded his faulty judgment by inventing a new job for Cox, who also displayed bad judgment by accepting a job that should never have been created.

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