Dunleavy continues outreach at White House and media

CNBC, FOX, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND MEETING WITH PRESIDENT

Gov. Michael Dunleavy is once again on an ambassadorial tour for Alaska, and is in Washington, D.C. this week talking to the media and attending meetings with the White House.

On Monday, he spoke to an auditorium of conservatives at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. touching on the familiar themes of how Alaska is a resource state, how spending ballooned for years, and how he’s trying to tamp down spending now that prices have dropped.

The topic of the speech is familiar territory for Alaskans, with no new announcements made.

His speech was announced in advance to the media on Friday, and was posted on social media again on Monday, and was available for Alaskans to watch on livestream, as they often must do when Alaska’s public officials give public addresses.

But the Anchorage Daily News, which fawned on Gov. Bill Walker when he went on tour, characterized it as an unexplained escape from Alaska.

In the ADN report on the speech, Dunleavy was shown as leaving Alaska after filing the state budget last week, and indicates the reporter feels rebuffed that he could not obtain a trip itinerary.

Further, the story leads with an observation that Dunleavy hasn’t made any public appearances in Alaska since Dec. 11, when he delivered the proposed budget to the Legislature; five whole days without a public appearance in Alaska:

“In his first public appearance since releasing his proposed state budget, Gov. Mike Dunleavy spoke Monday morning at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.

“The purpose of the governor’s East Coast trip wasn’t immediately clear, and the governor’s press office did not respond to requests for an itinerary. Dunleavy traveled to the East Coast in October on a national media swing and met with President Donald Trump, who subsequently tweeted his support of the governor against the recall campaign.

“The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, offered a friendly reception for the governor, who left Alaska for his most recent trip after revealing his proposed spending plan on Wednesday.” – Anchorage Daily News

Media critics noted to Must Read Alaska that the story signals frustration on the writer’s part.

After Dunleavy’s remarks, he gave an interview to The Daily Signal, a news website run by the Heritage Foundation. His interview is in a quick-read format at this link.

On Tuesday morning, Dunleavy was a guest on CNBC’s Squawk Box, where he spoke about the upcoming vote on impeachment of the president. He’ll be doing Fox, Bloomberg, and the Wall Street Journal editorial board, as he acts as an ambassador of Alaska.

On Monday, he also attended President Donald Trump’s roundtable on regulatory reform with nine other governors, the president, vice president, the OMB director and several members of the president’s cabinet. The topic was how to make better decisions that help businesses by ensuring that regulations are not onerous. This is Dunleavy’s sixth meeting with the president since winning office in 2018.

DUNLEAVY’S REMARKS AT WHITE HOUSE ROUNDTABLE

GOVERNOR DUNLEAVY:  Mr. President, it’s a pleasure to be here.  I want to thank you for all of things that you’re doing.  Because I don’t think what people realize is that numbers don’t lie; the numbers don’t lie when you’re talking about unemployment, investment, et cetera.

And what you’re doing for the country is, obviously, helping Alaska tremendously.  Kind of far away, tucked up there in the north — but we now have record unemployment in Alaska.  Our GDP is up now two quarters in a row.  Personal income is up higher than it’s been in 10 years.  More personal wealth is being created in Alaska.

I also want to do a shout-out from the troops.  I don’t know if folks know this, but whenever the President flies over to Asia, he lands in Alaska and refuels.  But unlike some others in the past, he gets out of the plane, and he goes and he meets the troops.  And they talk about it all of the time.  All of the time.

THE PRESIDENT:  It’s true.  Every time.  Every time.

GOVERNOR DUNLEAVY:  And I get an opportunity to talk with the President.  And it’s not just a “BS” session, but it’s about: What can we do to help Alaska?  What’s happening in your state?  What do we need to work with?

And I would say, Mr. President — and I’m being honest — I can’t think of a President that’s helped Alaska more than you have, with trying to deregulate a number of the projects that we’ve been working on, helping us gain a leg up again to be one of the top energy-producing states in the country.  And I just want to thank you.

And, in terms of regulation, in terms of helping the military spouses, we’re doing our part.  We’re looking at 239 different regulations to either modify or roll back in over 100 professions.

We have a large indigenous population in the state of Alaska.  About 15 percent of our people are Alaska natives.  And your work on — working on missing indigenous women, your work on public safety, your work on opioids — again, the numbers don’t lie.

You’re doing a tremendous job.  And I want to thank you on behalf of the people of Alaska, because what you’re doing is helping us tremendously as well.

THE PRESIDENT:  And now logging — we did a big thing on logging.

GOVERNOR DUNLEAVY:  Absolutely. 

THE PRESIDENT:  And we did a very big thing on ANWR, which is potentially the biggest in the world.  We’ll see what it is ultimately, but it’s potentially the biggest site in the world.  So it’ll be very interesting to see how that turns out.

Watch the regulatory roundtable here.

Dunleavy also had a meeting with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to discuss how to improve reading and math among Alaska’s schools, and the tribal compact he is focusing on to improve outcomes in rural schools.