Dunleavy wastes time, money on ad campaign promoting Dunleavy
You may have noticed that the three Republican candidates for governor are on the run from the record of Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
They have nothing to say about the shape Alaska is in after nearly eight years of Dunleavy’s watch, except that Alaska is headed in the wrong direction.
They are not competing for his endorsement. They won’t say that Alaska is better off today than before Dunleavy. The only politician making that claim is Dunleavy.
Democrat candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins mentions the incumbent more than the GOP three, always in the context of saying that Dunleavy hasn’t worked well with other people, refuses to listen and has not tried to find solutions and common ground with the Legislature. He’s ignored all of the basics as governor.
“I feel like the last eight years under our current governor have been frankly a failure, kind of a Dumpster fire for Alaska. Just all the indicators feel our state is going in the wrong direction,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.
“I want to put the Dunleavy era in the rearview mirror and turn the page and try to get Alaska back on track,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.
I hope someone in the Legislature can get the numbers on how much money Dunleavy is spending on this self-promotional exercise geared perhaps to him running for the U.S. Senate in 2028 against Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Or maybe he’s still hoping that Trump will add him to the federal payroll.
Dunleavy has set up a new website with state resources and is spending state money to advertise on right-wing websites that Alaska is better now than it was before he was governor.
His name is not mentioned, but the message of “A Better Alaska” is clear that this is all about the 8 years of Dunleavy.
The ad campaign about how much better Alaska is today follow with a lot of highly selective statistical summaries. Missing from the charts is any admission that we are farther away from a state fiscal plan because of a leadership failure by Dunleavy.
State services have declined, the deferred maintenance bill is growing, and the state is still riding the booms and busts of oil prices, rapidly bouncing from deficit to surplus based on world events. Uncertainty and poor planning are the hallmarks of the Dunleavy years, which began with his disastrous budget in 2019.
But everything in Alaska, according to Dunleavy’s website, is better than it was before he became governor at the end of 2018.
The value of the Permanent Fund is up. The amount of cargo at the Anchorage airport is up. We’re getting lots of federal money for roads and ferries. Cruise ship tourism is up.
The only thing that is down is crime.
Even the gasline is looking up. He claims that the Alaska LNG project moved into the “early execution” phase this year and gas will be flowing by 2029. Early execution is a meaningless phrase created to provide the illusion of execution and fool people.
Dunleavy’s website proclaims that the increase in the Base Student Allocation by $700 is an example of what is better about Alaska. But the graphic doesn’t mention it was the result of a Dunleavy veto being overridden by the Legislature.
The truth of the matter is that much of what Dunleavy claims as evidence of “A Better Alaska” since 2018 had little to do with Dunleavy, but to the world economy, the national economy, federal spending and other forces beyond our control.
Some of the things he doesn’t mention—such as the migration of young people to better opportunities Outside and the failure to make more progress on a fix to the Southcentral Alaska energy crisis—can be blamed in part on what he did or did not do while warming the governor’s chair.
The website appears to be the end result of Dunleavy’s complaints in January that he wasn’t getting enough credit for his accomplishments during his two terms as governor.
At a cabinet meeting early this year modeled after Trump’s gatherings where underlings shower the boss with effusive praise, Dunleavy’s underlings listed what they believed were the accomplishments of the Dunleavy era.
Dunleavy complained about unfavorable press coverage, but also said he would use state resources to get a booklet printed about his record.
“Do I have to pay to actually write an honest appraisal of what this administration has done for seven years?” he asked himself during the meeting.
After Labor Commissioner Cathy Munoz recited a series of upbeat statistics, Dunleavy spoke about how the facts about Alaska prosperity would not be conveyed to the public.
“But what I’ve heard was there’s more jobs being created. There’s more wages being created. The GDP is growing. Things appear to be getting economically better. The economy, I don’t know if you mentioned it, is also diversifying. There’s more private sector growth. But I appreciate you reporting it out because I’m sure it’s gonna be reflected in the stories tomorrow.”
“Thank you governor” said Munoz.
Dunleavy then mused about the headline he wanted to see.
“Under Dunleavy jobs grow, wages grow, GDP grows. I mean it’s just a beautiful headline, I’m sure it’ll happen. I’ll give a prize to the paper or the blog that puts that out first.”
He didn’t get his headlines or give prizes, but now he has his website saying life is better.
Missing from “A Better Alaska” is any statistical portrait of Dunleavy’s leading campaign promise in 2018 and 2022, the one that got him elected twice—the pledge that he would pay thousands more in Permanent Fund dividends. He never presented a workable plan to do that to the Legislature, so it never happened.
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The Dunleavy ad campaign about Dunleavy’s accomplishments.
