Kenai Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce has filed for governor. He faxed in his letter of intent to the Alaska Public Offices Commission today.
He said he is sick and tired of waiting for the Alaska economy to come back around and just as he has run the Kenai Borough like a business, he’s ready to run the state of Alaska like a business, something he sees not being done now.
“Opportunities abound and we’re not taking advantage of those opportunities right now, he said. “I love this state. It’s my home, and I will do whatever it takes” so the state can have better outcomes.
Pierce was first elected to the borough mayor’s office in 2017, and was on the Assembly before that. A Republican, he ran on not raising the borough mill rate and will end his term in 2022 having done that and leaving money in the borough treasury.
He is challenging Gov. Mike Dunleavy, also a Republican, and a handful of other contenders, including former Gov. Bill Walker, and former State Rep. Les Gara. Rep. Chris Kurka filed in December to run.
Will support Charlie next time around, Dunleavy is our choice in the upcoming election.
Dunleavy was our choice in the last election and you see how that has turned out. He is feckless and I believe he lacks the wherewithal to be effective. Don’t know how he “stands tall” with a jellyfish spine.
Walker and the Dems are loving this. This was the thing they were hoping for. Recall didn’t work so they can always count on us to do this to ourselves. Charlie will lose, but he has now given these guys an opening. Kurka looks like even more of an amateur at this point. Serves legitimately no purpose other than to siphon points from Dunleavy and help the Dems. I get it, you wanted the Gov to pound his fist more. Somehow that would have made people like Revak and Von Imhoff and Coghill and Giesel and all the other turncoats do the right thing? Of course not. But you would have felt better. And for that “feeling” you are going to hand it over to Walker and the left? Makes sense.
I will be voting price .1 Dunleavy .2 and that other Republican from Wasilla .3 if he makes it out of the jungle and that tiny man from downtown with a goatee at the .4
Hopefully Winnie the Pooh Xi will call in and tell Bill Walker he is no longer needed as an useful idiot for the CCP.
The top four in the jungle primary make the rank vote, this drops Kurka out of the top four.
And the top 4 does not include Walker the PFD Thief..and the 1K pfd..
The governor is to republican, not aggressive enough and willing to compromise. We can’t trust our election system and he did absolutely nothing about it. Anchorage is a complete mess and corrupt as Chicago. We need a DeSantis type of governor, not a spineless republican.
Mayor Charlie Pierce “RESULTS NOT RHETORIC”
Sorry, Charlie. Not a chance. You should have filed for Lt. Governor and tried that method, rather than playing spoiler.
Yay. Charlie is a candidate that real conservatives can vote for. There is hope!
Probably a better choice than Von Imhoff to duke it out in the RCV instant runoff.
We need him down here as borough mayor, but what a FAAAAARRRRR better governor he would be than Dunleavy.
I like Charlie Pierce, but our current Governor needs to get a spine
Pierce gets my vote in the primary.
The problem with being a governor is that you have to work with a lot of different people and groups to get the work done. Those who assume that you can just tell everyone who does not view things the same way you do where to go and how to get there just doesn’t know anything about politics. When you can work through a 4 year vendetta from your predecessor and still get some things accomplished, your are not spineless, but putting all of Alaska first, even if you would rather have told them all where to go. Incidentally, in his January 20 presser, Dunleavy told the press if they can’t do a better job on real reporting, he will begin to call them out Far from being spineless, he is just trying to get the work done, as a professional executive should. Go Big Mike!
That’s the big problem isn’t it? It seems like most of the people calling Dunleavy a RINO or spineless aren’t aware that there is a do-nothing legislature and a left-wing Court system. Getting an agenda through that quagmire isn’t something you can accomplish just by banging your fist on the table. Kurka, Pierce, or whomever is going to have a rude awakening on day 1 if they do get in.
Stop bearding for this loser.
You are correct the Cowardly Lion can’t force votes. But your accuracy ends there.
Dunleavy’s non forced screw ups
1-He gave back money to the UA system. The one victory he did have.
2-He caved in Wasilla. His governorship died right there.
3-He hid behind Ben Stevens for weeks and said nothing, repeat nothing while the Democrats ravaged the state.
4-He never used the bully pulpit to call out the left. Especially Ethan’s communist takeover of small businesses in Anchorage.
5-He kept calling endless, useless special sessions of the legislature knowing they would not show. That cost us all real money.
6-He never demanded the state release whatever it knew about Byron Malotte.
7-After getting spanked by Giessel and co he never again tried to reign in state government. See hiding behind Ben Stevens.
8-He never once issued furloughs to state workers while the rest of us were suffering.
It’s not that he fought and lost. He never bothered to try.
Vote Dunleavy if you want. But don’t be surprised when the legislature uses lame duck him worse than a rental car in Nome.
1. The UA system had already had nearly a quarter of its budget slashed. What was restored was largely for deferred maintenance and upgrades.
2. Not his call. The legislature wouldn’t convene anywhere but Juneau, and no one can actually force them to go elsewhere.
3. Not sure what you’re referring to here.
4. Sure he can shout and scream, but the office of the governor doesn’t have power over the city government. And that’s a good thing! Would you want Governor Gara to be able to tell Wasilla, Palmer, Kenai, Fairbanks and North Pole what they can and can’t do?
5. This goes back to my original point: A governor can’t enact his agenda alone. The legislature needs to cooperate. Do you honestly think they will lay down for your guys?
6. All that can be has been released. Any more would violate confidentiality, which is a very slippery slope to go down.
7. He line item vetoed countless barrels of pork. But the legislature can override that. And they would.
8. Sadly, this is a heavily unionized state so laying them off would just result in costly litigation- on top of back pay.
I would remind you as well that we never had a mask or vaccine mandate. Hardly a guy who didn’t fight. Here’s the bottom line: there is no candidate who can do the things you want. If Pierce or Kurka wins, they’re going to be your new cowardly lion.
Exactly, very well put. Governor Dunleavy haven’t accomplished much if any of his campaign promise but he’s been good at keeping Alaska as a state free from much of the mandates required in other state during these last two years. Yes most of us don’t trust Anne Zink and he still let’s her make all of the medical decisions regarding Alaskans. But to your original point Governor Dunleavy have the state legislators to work with and when Alaskans blames him for failing we all forget to blame the other 60 members who apparently yields more power at making things happen in Alaska than the Governor can alone. I think this is the reason why some legislators who would be great as our Governor don’t run. They see they have more power as a state legislators than being the Governor.
I’m in for Charlie, right on!
Wondering if we could get several in the top four and drop Walker out from the get go?
Would be hilarious if we can ice the liberals out of the general election using the new voting scheme they wanted.
Unfortunately almost every leftist will vote for Walker, so he will have a guaranteed 30-40% out of the gate. Splitting the conservative vote makes it less likely a given conservative gets through the primary
Wow… run it like a business.
What a concept.
Now it’s being a run like a nonprofit
I don’t know much about Charlie Pierce. Does he have the fire in the belly needed to stand up for conservatives? Will he finally end the muzzling of children in schools? If so, I might rank him alongside Kurka
He’s the Kenai Mayor, in Aug that supported the use of Ivermectin and Hydrochloriquin when all Anchorage ++ was protesting and allowing people to die. He also probably(?) supported the Anchorage conference with Dr. Farr.
He also supported no masks in Kenai, and kept their businesses opened in Kenai this two summer.
Lakreesha is so right. Kurka is our man. I don’t think I will rank anyone else beyond him. We won’t settle for anything less than pro-life, pro-freedom, pro-Bible, pro-family, and pro-small business. An upright man with a backbone, a brain, and a beard is what Alaska needs. – the Mrs.
Yeah, I would rather have Charlie as KPB mayor. I shudder to think who might replace him. Hopefully someone like Kurka would replace him and do more good instead of it going to someone who will undo the good Charlie did.
Who to vote for? Let’s see – we have Dunleavy -( school teacher ), Walker ( slick lawyer), Gara ( another lawyer ) & Kurka ( citizen ) & now Pierce ( private sector executive ). We’ve got nothing to lose by putting Pierce & Kurka at number 1 & 2!
… and leave all of the other RINOs and communists off!
The only question for Charlie is who are you going to support? Cook inlet commfish? Or the quarter million sportfish license holders? Inquiring minds want to know. Cheers –
I don’t care if he pours 10 million gallons of Clorox in Kachemak Bay if he can actually cut the out of control state government.
There are far bigger issues facing Alaska than sports fishing. If we drift much further left, sport fishing will be the least of our concerns.
The fishing wars are an indicator. Been a long, long time since anyone on the Peninsula sided with anyone other than commfish. Consider it a test of whether or not he can count – a couple thousand permit holders v a quarter million sportfish licensees. And if you can’t (or won’t) count, left / right makes little difference. Cheers –
I have known Charlie long before he got into Politics. Charlie is a good man.
With ranked choice voting I am concerned that Charlie will be a spoiler.
Between Tuckerman, the China Flu, and RINO’s, I say give Mike four more years.
No worries. Both your choices will likely make the top 4 in the primary. Then in the general election put them as your first and second choice. Do not fill in the third and fourth choice if you are opposed to other candidates.
Just remember that ranked choice is not an addition problem. Rather, it is a subtraction problem, where totals between first and second choice are added together and divided by the total number of REMAINING votes for those who did not make the instant runoff. Cheers –
There is no primary with ranked choice!
It takes $1 million to run for Governor of Alaska, much less than in most other states. The real election season begins in late spring. If Mr. Pierce has a major part of $1 million by then we can probably expect him to do pretty well, possibly win. Dunleavy has been much more honest than his predecessor but no more successful. He attempted to make some very small reductions in the annual cost of government but quickly lost his enthusiasm for that. The Alaska economy has languished but all we hear is rhetoric. Not one mine, not one factory, and not one industry is further ahead today than it was the day Walker was trounced and banished. As reported here in MustReadAlaska, one-third of Alaskans are now on Medicaid! State government spending is rising. Yes, giving Mr. Pierce a fair chance is recommended; but if he can’t get his hands on $1 million then it’s just a dream.
Who would have thought? Mike has never had a job outside of the public sector, runs on Government bad and can’t keep his administration out of a winnable lawsuit.
Government isn’t a business. It’s not designed to reap incredible profits. Funny how runaway capitalism gave us the empty store shelves they warned would happen under socialism.
Cheers
Nothing against Mr. Pierce (I’d vote for him if he makes it to the general) but I really don’t see any reason to vote for him over Dunleavy or Kurka. I worry that it’s getting a little too crowded in here. The more candidates there are, the more possible it becomes that Walker or God forbit, Gara can slip through and win this pointlessly complicated RCV voting system we have. And that’s not far-fetched: I bet a ton of voters aren’t going to bother to rank all four candidates and will just pick their favorite, with maybe a second.
Pierce + Kurka = Victory = Dunleavy is Cooked
Rep. Kurka for Gov and Mayor Pierce for Lt Gov.? That works.
I think dog catcher is the appropriate office, except I’m against cruelty to animals. People, on the other hand…?
I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to Mayor Charlie roast the libs and advocate freedom. That being said, he was doing so from the heavily common-sense conservative Kenai Peninsula with an assembly that was on his side. I worry that I’d be setting myself up for disappointment by hoping he gets elected governor. Will he be able to actually get anything done in Juneau with a bunch of lazy slobs who are determined to ruin the state?
I voted for him when he ran for Mayor. He has done a good job in that Office until recently in my opinion. I once thought that he cared for the citizens of the Kenai Peninsula Borough and made decisions based on what is right and what is wrong. On New Year’s Eve, I was having a Bonfire on my 13-acre property which is a gated property since being Burglarized in 2009. Soon after installing the gate, I alerted the Emergency Dispatcher office and gave them a Gate Code for First Responders to use in case of an emergency. Long story short, a passerby called in to report a fire after driving by and the Fire Department responded accordingly, but instead of using the access code they forcibly opened the gate causing significant damage which they will not repair, telling me to use my homeowner’s insurance policy. This is not the right thing to do since they had access to the Gate Code but did not use it. I will not be voting for him again!
Comments are closed.