Just when you think Alaska’s “paper of record” cannot get any more unhinged, twisted, and factually off, the Anchorage Daily News’ editorial page has had a “hold my beer moment.”
The most recent editorial, “Should any governor get to wield this much power?” took aim at Gov. Mike Dunleavy. In what can only be described as a convoluted list of grievances riddled with errors, the leaders of the Pulitzer Prize-winning publication went after Dunleavy for, this time, having the audacity to exercise his authority granted by the Alaska Constitution.
Whaa?
Alaska’s governor, unlike almost every other state, has limited authority to issue executive orders. While Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida or President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C. can write out a dictate with the force of law in the form of an executive order, the Alaska Constitution allows that power for only one, specific, purpose: to organize the government’s departments. It is akin to the power to move an organizational chart around in the company.
The constitution in Alaska is pretty clear: A governor can only introduce executive orders at the beginning of a legislative session and only for the chair-arranging purposes earlier described. From there, the order would have the force of law if lawmakers did not sit in a joint session and cancel them out within sixty days.
Dunleavy is in a streamlining mood. There are dozens of boards and commissions that regulate tens of thousands of Alaskans. The past four years during the Covid lockdowns showed how hard it was for people to get their professional licenses. Are you a nurse? Wait for months to get approval. There is a good reason to make sure some people are properly regulated. We don’t need doctors with spotty records operating on our family members.
But do we need the same vetting for doctors, lawyers, and engineers as we do for … barbers? How about massage therapists? Dunleavy thought it was ridiculous, and issued executive orders that proposed eliminating a board of people who would have long wait times to approve licenses and leave it with professionals at the Department of Commerce (you know, the agency responsible for making sure we have jobs and not a black market). There were also some advisory councils to certain state parks that have outlived their usefulness (A for effort, but still advisory), and executive orders were issued to get rid of those.
The way the ADN is writing it, however, there is an assault on the institutions of this wonderful state at work.
The Legislature is often the villain, as far as the press is concerned, but in this instance is the newspaper’s champion. Legislators must charge forward “cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war,” to quote Wiliam Shakespeare. In this case, it’s the dogs of politics.
Where to begin: With the fact that the editorial board could use a fact-checking editor? Time and again, the editorial referred to the executive orders as “administrative orders,” a completely different action that does not have the force of law. Fair enough, everyone makes mistakes, including this author.
But then the editorial really lets the mask drop, suggesting that what should happen is fiddling with the Permanent Fund Corporation’s Board of Directors. Among the changes: Why not make Trustees confirmable by the Legislature?
There may be some logic, except for one pesky thing: That would be blatantly unconstitutional, and a quick reading of the state’s rule book would have helped prevent ADN’s holier-than-thou screed. Article III, Section 26, limits who the governor appoints that must be confirmed by the Legislature; the CliffNotes say it is limited to commissioners of departments and members of regulatory or quasi-judicial agencies.
That makes sense. The Regulatory Commission of Alaska, which sets rates for everything from trash to the landline phones, is a regulator; the Workers Compensation Board decided disputes between workers and employers; the folks sitting in those positions need to be vetted and confirmed.
There was an attempt to make other agencies that manage “significant state assets” confirmable in a ballot initiative over 20 years ago. It failed, and it did not even include the Permanent Fund in the question.
Why does this matter? Aside from the fact that a little bit of superficial research embarrasses the homily given by the institution that purports to report on facts and verified analysis, it reveal the depth of the animus for the governor by the press and is part of the environment in Juneau.
Despite being the first governor re-elected in a generation and only the second Republican to be returned to the Third Floor of the Alaska Capitol, the press cannot fathom that the public actually support what Gov. Dunleavy is putting out. And the ADN’s remedy to this, to get the Legislature involved, contradicts their earlier cries of the heart about nothing being done in the session on anything meaningful.
The one constant of the past 10 years has been the unwillingness of the Legislature to make bold calls when the chips are down. Instead, the state’s savings have dwindled, a dividend is set every year in a stockyard auction manner, and meaningful reforms on education, labor, business, and resource development are strangled in committees run by special interests.
And this is the cavalry the ADN is calling on. No wonder trust in traditional media keeps sinking.
Suzanne Downing is editor of Must Read Alaska.
