GOP gubernatorial candidate Wilson doesn't understand confirmation process for cabinet

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson, who claims her inexperience with government is a big plus, has no clue about the confirmation process created in Alaska’s Constitution.

She went on right-wing radio in Fairbanks Friday to claim at length and with great conviction that legislators had no business in refusing to confirm Stephen Cox as attorney general.

“They need to go back and they need to really study up on the intent of a confirmation vote. The intent of the confirmation vote was never to see if we had your stamp of approval on what, what cases the attorney general was engaging in. Or who the attorney general had hired. That’s a bunch of crap,” said Wilson.

“The reason that we went through that confirmation process was so that if a legislator had a concern, a values concern, that there was an integrity concern, there was the opportunity to put it on the record and to have the public aware of it and knowledgeable of it. It was never meant for you to block the governor from having the cabinet of his choice,” said Wilson.

“And more and more we see them manipulating the confirmation process to attempt to manipulate whom the governor can have as part of their cabinet,” she said.

Wilson is entirely wrong about the confirmation process and the power given to the Legislature as a co-equal branch of government.

The Constitution says that the governor chooses department heads, “subject to confirmation by a majority of the members of the legislature in joint session,” a provision that is not defined by the limitations invented by Wilson. It’s not just about “values.”

It is the single most important check-and-balance included in the Constitution regarding the governor’s authority to run the executive branch and the Legislature’s power to decide whether cabinet appointees should be rejected.

Wilson also misrepresented the range of objections raised by legislators during their debate on Cox, suggesting they were trivial. There were many reasons Cox was rejected on a 31-29 vote, all of them serious.

That every other Dunleavy cabinet nominee has been approved by legislators since 2019 shows just how wrong she is about the Legislature trying to “block the governor from having the cabinet of his choice.”

Cox was not rejected because of Dunleavy, but because of Cox’s limited experience in Alaska law and his actions since his appointment last August. With this one exception, Dunleavy has had the cabinet of his choice.

Wilson went on to claim to the radio audience that legislators are ignorant about the confirmation power and need a class in Alaska history.

“I’ll tell you what. Our legislators ought, it ought to be mandated with before you go and you swear in as a legislator, the moment you get elected, you go take a history class on why and what is that confirmation process supposed to look like? Right. Why is this in place? Why is it that we have the strongest governor in the country? Why, how did we land at that decision? How did we get here? Why is it that the attorney general is appointed by the governor and not elected?”

Wilson didn’t even try to answer those questions. I suspect she doesn’t know the answers.

“You go back to the foundation of our state. There were reasons for that. We came in as the 49th state. When we crafted our state Constitution, we had the ability and the time. People much smarter quite frankly than any of us,” she said.

“There was a lot of wisdom in the power that we gave to the governor. Why our attorney general is nominated. Why the governor, you know, has, gets to pick their cabinet. It’s not dictated by the Legislature. What was the purpose of the confirmation process? These legislators have zero clue or appreciation for the history and the wisdom that went into those decisions. And in the lack of that understanding, they have manipulated and sold their manipulation to Alaskans as though they know better and they’re just genuinely concerned. It’s a bunch of crap,” she said.

Wilson doesn’t know what she is talking about.

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