Alaska Commissioner of Revenue Adam Crum joined 25 other state financial officers this week in a pointed letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, warning that major asset managers are straying from traditional fiduciary responsibilities in pursuit of political and social agendas.
Crum, who recently submitted his resignation from the Dunleavy administration and is expected to file for governor in 2026, signed on to the letter as part of a broader push by conservative-leaning state officials to clamp down on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategies.
Crum is the national vice chairman of the State Financial Officers Foundation, which sent the letter, and speaks at the group’s events.
“As financial officers entrusted with safeguarding our states’ public funds, we write to express our deep concern about the erosion of traditional fiduciary duty in American capital markets,” the letter begins. It argues that large financial firms—BlackRock chief among them—have increasingly used passive investment vehicles like index funds to engage in corporate activism that strays beyond “materiality and positive financial return.”
The letter cites a January 2025 federal court ruling in Spence v. American Airlines, which found that the airline violated its fiduciary duty by allowing BlackRock to vote proxies in favor of ESG priorities. “The very occurrence of this case illustrates just how far fiduciary standards have splintered,” the officers wrote.
The multi-state coalition is urging BlackRock and similar firms to adopt five specific reforms:
- Stop using deterministic assumptions, such as fake inevitable climate catastrophe, to justify activist corporate engagement.
- Refrain from using passive investment funds as proxy activism, arguing that such vehicles are designed for low-cost market exposure, not ideological influence.
- Avoid inflicting international globalist political agendas into investment strategies, including net-zero mandates or EU regulatory frameworks.
- Publish clear and shareholder-value-focused proxy voting guidelines, free from environmental or social targets.
- Disclose all affiliations with coalitions like Climate Action 100+, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), or the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), which may steer firms toward ideological goals.
“Fiduciary duty has long been a critical safeguard that facilitated efficient capital allocation grounded in financial merit rather than political ideology,” the officials wrote, calling for a return to traditional standards and warning against speculative, politically motivated investment strategies.
Crum’s participation in the letter comes as he transitions out of public office. Crum has served as Commissioner of Revenue since 2022, following his term as Commissioner of Health and Social Services.
The letter requests a formal response from BlackRock by Sept. 1, 2025, and invites further dialogue between the firm and state financial officers. It concludes with a warning: “Our public servants, retirees, and taxpayers deserve nothing less” than a financial system rooted in “financial integrity, not political advocacy.”
Whether BlackRock will respond, of course, is questionable. BlackRock is the world’s largest asset management company, with $11.5 trillion in assets under management as of 2024. That is its total value of investments it manages for clients, including institutional, intermediary, and individual investors across various asset classes like equity, fixed income, multi-assets, alternatives, and cash management. The company, which operates in 30 countries with 70 offices and serves clients in 100 countries, has a portfolio is roughly equivalent to half the Gross Domestic Product of the United States (2024 U.S. GDP was around $25.5 trillion) and significantly larger than the GDP of almost all other countries.
In 2022, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor, also now on the verge of announcing his run for govern, joined a 21-state coalition to file a formal complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission about its proposed rule requiring ESG influence in investing decisions.
In other words how dare you use science to make investment strategies, you should do as we want. Meanwhile the Insurance Companies are denying claims, running out of money, and claiming whatever they can to deny people’s claims. Even the oil companies have papers that show the effects of climate change coming from their industry. The GOP just ignores it and hope it all goes away as they make their fortunes.
Because too many times “science” has been proven to be bogus and the “scientists” have been motivated by greed and/or power. For every study that shows some catastrophic end of the world scenario, there are many others that show it differently. But if you are promulgating a scientific idea or theory, it behooves you to go along with the party line or you lose your financial backing. How this whole thing became a partisan issue is a little mysterious until you dig a little deeper.
AFF your comments baffle the brain, Black rock is so huge it’s become an evil weapon, $14 trillion in value at last count, Larry fink is a real fink. On your bizarre change of direction on climate change let me tell you the United States is 333 million people that for the most part live very cleanly compared to 2 billion Chinese and 2.5 billion Indians who have no environmental regulations whatsoever, The US isn’t a drop in the bucket on the climate change issue, if you have a way to control Asia and their filth I would suggest you get with it as for maiming America you can stick it. Americans have always advanced as fast as technology allowed. In fact on the electric car situation we advanced to fast as there is no way to recycle the millions of tons of batteries as of yet. I have faith that some smart people will figure that out before long. The climate on this planet has been volatile since the day it was created in 50 years you and I will be dust I would not worry about it much.
AFF, Yes, Science… like Fauci and all of the lying goons that push anthropogenic climate change? That Science?
Are you talking about Investment strategies rooted in government subsidies and fake research? I thought so!
You are clearly a person of incredible faith
But they aren’t using science. They are using very unscientific hysteria and political agenda. It’s the proverbial ‘structure the experiment to achieve the desired outcome’ which is not empirical. Engineered climate hysteria is a tool of the left. Power and control.
We now have some very educated, intelligent candidates running on the Republican ticket for Governor. The uneducated, lazy ones, including RINOs, will be eaten alive and pushed aside by the aforementioned smart ones.
A great field is emerging.
Private investors direct capital for the greatest return taking “fake” climate change and “Woke” into consideration, not what bureaucrats with agendas ask for.
You have to wonder what ever happened to the Federal trade commission?? $14 trillion businesses are a danger. A big danger.
Great for Mr Crum. Whatever your political leaning might be, Black Rock has drunk the Kool Aid and it isn’t sitting well.
Crum, the Peoples’ Populist, aren’t you and your mob the poster children for decades of “straying from traditional fiduciary responsibilities in pursuit of political and social agendas”?
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What have you actually done that didn’t involve “straying from traditional fiduciary responsibilities in pursuit of political and social agendas”?
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Are you not satisfied, Crum, that Alaska’s now considered a purple state because your lot got so good at “straying from traditional fiduciary responsibilities in pursuit of political and social agendas”?
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You and your mob can’t even get a budget together, salvage the education industry, restore election-system integrity, restore judicial-system integrity, commission an outside forensic audit of state finances, or restore public-health system credibility, all of which rather proves you’ve no clue what fiduciary responsibility means.
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Such a track record sprinkled with a generous dash of arrogance and stupidity qualifies you to lecture BlackRock, a major investor who could buy and sell toy soldiers like you, about fiduciary responsibility?
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Won’t you be doing the idiot dance, Crum, when Larry Fink says mind your own damned Dark Money business and get back to me when you “adopt” the Five Commandments where you work.
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Yeah, you’ll make a fine blue-state governor, Crum.
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Forgive us for hoping you do it somewhere else.
A Response to Commissioner Crum’s ESG Letter—and His Larger Hypocrisy
Commissioner Crum,
Thank you for your July 30, 2025 letter warning BlackRock and other financial giants about the erosion of traditional fiduciary duty through ESG-driven proxy activism. Your invitation to dialogue—and the demand for publicly focused reform—is respectable
New York Post
+10
Must Read Alaska
+10
Ground News
+10
But your recent message rings hollow in light of a pattern of inconsistency, selective scrutiny, and personal contradiction.
1. Criticizing ESG—While Launching a Private Fund Using Public Office
You lambast Wall Street giants for mixing fiduciary responsibilities with political activism. Yet, earlier in your tenure, you facilitated or publicly endorsed the creation of a private investment fund tied to APFC leadership and Prospr Aligned—whose executives engage in lobbying. Despite denying formal involvement, your use of the Revenue Commissioner title in marketing materials effectively mixed public office with private financial ventures. That undermines the very fiduciary purity you now profess.
2. Selective Enforcement: Outrage at BlackRock, Silence on Your Own Conflicts
You assert that passive funds used for proxy activism stray beyond “materiality and positive financial return”
Must Read Alaska
. However, your support of changing APFC bylaws to eliminate bonding requirements and oversight—just weeks after you were appointed Vice Chair—raises questions about whether your allegiance lies with accountability or convenience.
3. Fiduciary Duty vs. Personal Benefit
Your ESG coalition calls for clarity and transparency in proxy voting policies. Yet your past actions show a willingness to dismantle protections for public accountability. Voting out bond requirements for APFC trustees, even as no proof of bond insurance existed for your own service, suggests that your concern is less for the public and more for the insiders—the exact problem you call out in institutional investors.
Why These Contradictions Should Disqualify Crum as Governor
Claim Reality Check
Champion of fiduciary responsibility Co-led institutional change that weakened bonding safeguards
Opponent of private-public mixing in finance Promoted a private fund using public title and office
Advocate for transparency and accountability Supported internal governance shifts that reduced oversight
Final Thoughts
Crum’s letter to BlackRock portrays him as a crusader for public integrity. Yet, the record shows him facilitating private benefit while stripping away institutional accountability. That’s not a champion for taxpayers—it’s an insider who plays both sides for influence and ambition.
Alaskans deserve leaders who are consistent—who call out powerful firms only after cleaning house at home. Until that standard is met, Crum’s rhetoric on ESG investment remains hollow. He lacks the credibility to be governor.
Sincerely, Liberty Ed Martin Jr
A Concerned Alaskan
Kenai, Alaska
To the Editor, Suzanne Downing
Must Read Alaska
July 30, 2025
OP-ED: Adam Crum’s ESG Letter Rings Hollow—Alaska Needs Leadership, Not Hypocrisy
By Edward D. Martin Jr.
Kenai, Alaska
Adam Crum’s recent letter to BlackRock and other major ESG investment firms, as reported by Must Read Alaska, certainly reads like a strong defense of Alaska’s economic sovereignty. He denounces the corrosive influence of political activism embedded in corporate proxy votes and calls for a realignment with fiduciary duty and financial return. On the surface, many Alaskans would agree with this stance.
But the problem is this: Mr. Crum’s letter is steeped in hypocrisy. While his rhetoric may sound principled, his record shows otherwise. We Alaskans have seen firsthand how he has wielded public office for personal positioning, not public protection.
As Revenue Commissioner and Vice Chair of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC), Mr. Crum helped eliminate key financial accountability protections—including supporting a 2023 vote to remove the APFC bylaws that required trustees and executives to be bonded under Alaska law. He did so without ever publicly disclosing his own compliance with bonding statutes, despite a clear requirement under AS 43.05.140 for the Revenue Commissioner to post a $200,000 bond.
Then came his promotion of a private investment fund—the Frontier Economic Fund—formed by APFC Chief Investment Officer Marcus Frampton and Prospr Aligned, a group with active lobbying ties. Crum denied formal affiliation but appeared in promotional materials for the fund while holding public office. Using the Commissioner title in connection with a private financial venture is the very sort of ethics breach he now criticizes in global financial giants.
He cannot have it both ways. You cannot champion fiduciary purity while undermining it from within.
If Crum was truly concerned about fiduciary integrity, he would have demanded the restoration—not the removal—of bonding protections for Alaska’s public funds. He would have insisted that every public trustee, including himself, comply with state bonding statutes. Instead, he stood by and enabled the dismantling of safeguards that protected the people’s trust in the Permanent Fund.
Now, on the eve of what appears to be a run for Governor, he seeks to recast himself as a populist reformer. But his record reveals a different truth: a man who cozied up to insiders, stripped away accountability, and blurred the lines between public duty and personal advancement.
Suzanne, I appreciate that Must Read Alaska provides space for strong voices and courageous debate. But let’s ensure that when we talk about leadership, we start with honesty. Adam Crum has forfeited the public’s trust by his actions. Alaska does not need another carefully crafted campaign—it needs public servants who abide by their oath and the law.
For these reasons, Adam Crum should never be Governor of the State of Alaska.
Sincerely,
Edward D. Martin Jr.
702 Lawton Dr.
Kenai, Alaska 99669
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” —2 Corinthians 3:17
Can’t say I disagree with anything here, but as a fact check, Frampton had nothing to do with the “Frontier Economic Fund.”
If Frampton advocated for it he had something to do with it ! That is like no lobbyist exist in Juneau, come’on man! Are you one of the 62 employees that work at the APFC that on average make $329,000.00 a year? Or are you an investment firm & Frampton’s ie ?
This loser is the one who falsified his state leave request. Them, allegedly told DOR employees to not follow state law.
I am a Blackrock investor and most of their funds have done very well for me. I don’t want some government pinhead trying to insert himself into the decisions my companies make. Its not the government’s business.
How quickly we forget. Adam Crum was Dunleavy’s HHS Commissioner in his first term. 2020. DO NOT FORGET THAT ADAM CRUM. He has a lot to answer for, as does Dunleavy.