When going door-to-door in Palmer-Wasilla, open collar and tennis shoes are good, jeans are standard, but it’s best not to wear your official Matu-Su Borough vest with the borough’s logo on it, at least not while campaigning for state Senate.
Randall Kowalke, running for Senate District E, was photographed by a home security system wearing the Mat-Su Borough’s seal, holding his campaign literature. The homeowner was not amused the he had also walked past her “No trespassing” signs.
Candidates are deep in door-to-door season and security cameras are on duty, keeping a close eye on them, although actual criminals are the real concern here. The vest is likely a borough ethics violation, but not an actual property crime.
Kowalke was Gov. Bill Walker’s first pick for Senate Seat E, vacated by Sen. Mike Dunleavy so he could be free to run for governor.
But Kowalke, a moderate Republican, was rejected by the right-leaning district and also by the State Senate, which signaled to the governor they would not confirm him. His name was withdrawn.
WHAT TO WEAR IN DISTRICT E
Sen. Mike Shower
Sen. Mike Shower, speaking in the Mat-Su to a group recently, was dressed in khaki shorts and polo shirt on a warm summer day. While Must Read Alaska is not sure government officials ought to have a sidearm while talking to constituents, everyone else in the room likely had one, so this is just Valley style. We judge it “on point.”
Read this Valley Frontiersman profile of Shower, the man running for the seat to which he was reluctantly appointed by Walker after District E Republicans got into a dogfight over the Randall Kowalke nomination.
We tip our hat to publisher Dennis Anderson for the “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer” reference to a sketch from an old Saturday Night Live series.
Yet more virtue signaling is coming from our friends on the left, this time a proposed plastic bag ban in Anchorage.
Wasilla and Palmer City Councils voted earlier this year to ban single-use plastic bags.
The rationale was similar to that of Alaska cities Homer, Bethel, Cordova and Hooper Bay: They pose a risk to wildlife and are an unsightly blight on the landscape (non-biodegradable). Homer rescinded its ban.
Green mouthpiece Rep. Andy Josephson-D, District 17, proposed HB 264 for last session which would tax disposable shopping bags (paper and plastic) 20 cents per bag. There’s nothing like being small-business friendly, is it?
It is always difficult to top virtue signaling with actual facts in the persuasion game, but let me try:
Plastic bag bans will make your life more dangerous.
Here’s why.
Reusable bags are not sanitary. They are difficult to wash and otherwise clean, so people don’t clean them.
Over time, they pick up bacteria carried by produce and raw meats purchased in stores. This in turn, increases your exposure to bacteria like e-coli, coliform and MRSA, molds and yeast, all of which increase bacterial skin infections, allergic reactions, asthma attacks, and ear infections.
64 percent of reusable bags contain bacteria. 30 percent of them have higher bacteria counts that what is considered safe for drinking water. 40 percent of them had yeast / mold. Many people used reusable bags for other purposes like carrying dirty diapers and gym clothing.
A 2012 Institute for Law and Economics paper entitled “Grocery Bag Bans and Foodborne Illness” found striking correlations between San Francisco’s plastic bag ban and increased deaths and emergency room visits related to foodborne bacteria.
Single use bags have none of these health issues. Neither do reusable bags at the first use. Subsequent uses are another thing entirely.
The expected environmental positives of these bans are not supported by data. For instance:
Paper lasts longer in landfills. Biodegradable plastic may be an option, though never discussed when these bans are imposed.
Plastic’s carbon footprint is smaller.
Bans trigger a move to other disposable plastic bags for the same use (trash bags, garbage bags, trash can liners)
Reusable bags must be purchased by the shopper, increasing their shopping costs
Reusable bags are not reused. In Austin, there are almost as many reusable bags at its recycling centers as there were when single-use bags were used.
There is an environmental cost associated with cleaning and drying the reusable bags.
95 percent of reusable bags come from overseas, most of them from China.
Additionally, bans end up harming businesses, especially retail businesses. In Los Angeles, following its ban in 2011, every single store inside the ban area had to terminate some of its staff. None of the stores outside the area dismissed staff. Stores inside the ban area decreased their employment by 10 percent. Stores outside the area increased their employment by 2.4 percent.
A plastic bag ban or tax is virtue signaling at its worst. Not only does it limit freedom, but it also increases your chances of picking up a foodborne illness, and harms business by forcing layoffs. And we are doing all of this for what? To feel good about ourselves during the worst jobs market in Anchorage since the late 1980s?
This is yet another time where the cost of doing something is far, far greater than simply leaving Alaskans alone to live their lives in a manner that they see fit.
As of this writing, it is unclear which problem the Anchorage Assembly thinks it will be solving. If it is littering, we do have laws on the books against littering. However, given the ongoing crime spree, perhaps the simple solution of enforcing the laws on the books is beyond the esteemed members of our Assembly.
If it is some ill-defined obeisance to Mother Gaia, they will have to explain the cost benefit analysis of virtue signaling against higher exposure to bacterial infestations in reusable bags.
A final thought goes to Assemblymen Chris Constant and Dick Traini. When does “Somebody’s got to do it” and “We need to get in line” become defensible rationale for foolish action? I’ve heard three-year olds with better arguments.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He is a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
IF PLASTIC BAGS HAVE FLAWS, TOTES HAVE DRAWBACKS TOO
The Anchorage Assembly is debating an issue that jurisdictions all over the world have already decided: Whether stores should be allowed to provide customers with “single use” plastic bags to carry out their purchases.
An observant Anchorage resident can be forgiven for predicting that the decision will favor a ban. After all, elections have consequences and the Anchorage Assembly has swung hard left. After all, if China can ban plastic bags, why can’t Anchorage?
A workshop for AO 2018-63 and 63(S) is planned for Aug. 10 at City Hall in Assembly Conference Room #155 from 12-1 p.m.
A public hearing on the matter is also scheduled for the Aug. 14 Assembly meeting at the Loussac Library. Meetings generally start at 5 pm and public hearing portions at 6 pm.
CAN CONSERVATIVES SUPPORT A BAG BAN?
Wasilla and Palmer have banned these single-use bags because they have such a big problem with wind blowing them out of the landfill. Homer, a more liberal enclave, tried a ban on plastic bags, and then backed off, even though it is a coastal community sensitive to ocean pollution.
Viewpoints on a single-use plastic bag ban tend to cross political lines. Plenty of conservatives support a ban, because they support conservation. Most liberals do, as well. But not everyone thinks this is a front-burner issue for Anchorage, which is under siege by property and violent crime.
A review of the bag arguments:
The Libertarian says, this is the government meddling in the free market.
The environmentalist says, this is a commonsense and easily implemented step to reducing plastics in the environment — and we’re coming for your plastic straws and disposable diapers.
The political scientist says, decisions like these are best left to local governments. In Anchorage, the elected representatives on the Assembly approved the commercialization of pot sales, and will likely ban single-use plastic bags. These are equivalent actions and are typical decisions communities make that determine how they want to operate.
The contrarian says, there’s no evidence that these bag bans reduce the use of plastic significantly or help reduce landfill. Reusable plastic bags are often also made of synthetic fibers, and although they are durable, eventually they are thrown out.
But bans are popular these days, especially when it comes to plastic.
WHICH STATES HAVE BANNED PLASTIC BAGS?
The trend toward banishing single-use plastic bags started in San Francisco in 2007. Today on San Francisco streets, there may be no single-use plastic bags drifting around, but there are plenty of used plastic hypodermic needles, creating all sorts of hazards. They are not exactly recyclable either.
It’s a safety problem created because the city hands out clean needles to drug addicts. The addicts toss them and they litter the entire city now with a combination of plastic, toxins, and possibly disease.
The community of San Francisco made choices. While it pioneered the bag ban, the streets are increasingly covered in human feces and garbage and the city is losing tourism and conventions because of the filth. The city just didn’t manage to get its priorities straight.
Thank goodness San Francisco has a ban on single-use plastic bags. (Photo: San Francisco Public Works Department)
In 2014, California became the first state to impose a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags at large retail stores. It was challenged by referendum, but Proposition 67 passed with 52 percent of the vote. The people of California have spoken, and they now carry their own bags with them to the store.
What happened next?
Retailers started complaining that the reusable bags that shoppers use have led to an increase in shoplifting by allowing criminals to walk off with goods that are easily concealed as they browse the aisles.
“I’ve noticed since the plastic bag ban, it’s made it a bit more challenging to spot someone who may be trying to steal some of these items,” said Long Beach Police Sgt. Robert Woods, as reported in local newspapers after the ban went into effect in California. Similar reports have been made in Portland and Seattle, with thousands of dollars worth of inventory “shrinkage” reported.
Hawaii bans non-biodegradable plastic bags at the checkout stands on the island counties of Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii. Honolulu enacted a ban as well, which makes it a defacto statewide ban. Paper bags must contain more than 40 percent recycled material.
The District of Columbia enacted legislation requiring all businesses that sell food or alcohol to charge 5 cents for paper or plastic bags.
WHAT ARE PLASTIC BAGS MADE OF?
The single-use bags provided in grocery stores are typically made of natural gas and petroleum in the form of polyethylene.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH THAT?
While hard plastics are increasingly recyclable in Alaska, plastic bags are not, nor are they degradable. They eventually break down into tiny bits of plastic and are ingested in the food chain, sometimes whole, sometimes in parts, but even before they break down into shreds, they spend decades in the environment, and can choke wildlife and clog the oceans.
One novel way these plastics in the food chain may be affecting humans is because the dioxin in them is an endocrine disruptor. Sometimes this is called a “gender-bender” pollutant. In nature, this is linked with reproductive confusion. No one knows if human gender confusion is linked to endocrine disruptors.
When Austin, Texas, enacted a ban, residents resorted to buying heavier-grade plastic bags, something that shoppers are now doing in Wasilla. Those heavier bags may be used a few times, but end up in the garbage too.
The Austin bag ban is no longer enforced because the Texas Supreme Court ruled that bag bans at the local level, such as the one that was contested in Laredo, are superceded by a state law covering solid waste.
In Alaska, more waste is likely generated from the bubble wrap, plastic wrap, and cardboard boxes that arrive from Amazon by the thousands of pounds each day, but these are harder targets for foes of plastic.
Yet the bag ban is somewhat of a “gateway” plastic ban, with more surely to follow: plastic straws and disposable diapers, for example.
Reps. Andy Josephson and Harriet Drummond introduced HB 264, a 20-cent tax on single-use plastic bags, but the measuredied this year in House Rules Committee. It would have been the highest tax in the country on carry-out bags, four times that charged by the District of Columbia for paper or plastic.
It’s hard to say where Gov. Bill Walker was going with his message, which presumably he approved. It was an attempt at a humorous jab at his leading opponent for governor, Mike Dunleavy, who has a a robust team of young and talented Alaskans working on his behalf, churning out social media messages and videos in rapid succession, always seeming to be one step ahead of the competitors.
Those young Alaskans — in their 20s and 30s — have come up with some savage campaign memes over the past weeks, poking fun of Walker and using contemporary references from pop culture.
But the Walker campaign’s David and Goliath, “Standing Tall for the Phillistines” [sic] meme, shown above, isn’t in the same league. It was the decoration on a rambling fundraising letter to the Walker faithful from the governor’s campaign manager, John-Henry Heckendorn.
The letter made no actual sense, but played metaphorical Twister with an old Bible story, while getting a dig in over Dunleavy’s height challenge of 6’7″.
Heckendorn even threw in a Shaquille O’Neal reference. Sweet.
With the liberal voters that Walker is looking for this season, he may have used the wrong imagery. A recent Pew Research study shows that only 15 percent of those who identify as liberals are Christian. The Bible story theme might have mystified the intended audience.
A screen shot from the Pew study on religious beliefs and political leanings. Read the study here.
Memes are a messaging art form, and not everyone has the talent for them.
Here’s a successful meme, one that is easily understood and requires no 500-word fundraising pitch narrative to go with it. (It came #StraightOuttaDunleavyforAlaska. The independent group that produced this one can be found here.)
Ken Koelsch, elected as Mayor of Juneau in a special election on March 15, 2016, announced today that he will not run for the office on Oct. 2.
“My commitment to this community will never cease – and yet it’s time to turn the reins of leadership over to the next generation,” Koelsch said in a statement.
“Thanks for allowing me the privilege of being your mayor. It will be weird to turn off the lights in my office for the last time and leave some things unfinished but that is the nature of the job and life. When I leave for the last time, it will be to go home to my wife of 50 years, Marian, and our children and grandchildren. It doesn’t get any better than that,” he said.
“I am proud of what we’ve done for Juneau. Nothing is simple or easy but we tackled difficult and complex issues like homelessness and crime while still trying to pay attention to schools and streets and keeping taxes under control.
“I’ll miss strolling the halls of the Capitol every Friday morning, talking to legislators and trying to address their concerns. It was an honor getting to know some truly dedicated and amazing lawmakers from around Alaska. Out of 60 legislators, only three are from Juneau – we’re kind of outnumbered, so I thought it was important to make friends for the Capital City. Based on all the feedback I got, I think that was time well spent. “
Koelsch said he will not be endorsing anyone to succeed him, adding, “I understand we may have some great people stepping forward and I trust the community will make a good decision.”
Koelsch taught at Juneau-Douglas High School from 1968-1996, and served as the Port Director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection for 18 years. He was on the Juneau Assembly from 1997-2003, as well as serving on other boards and commissions before winning 59 percent of the vote in a special election for mayor in 2016.
This morning, Koelsch commented his journey from being a teacher at the local high school to being mayor:
“Being mayor wasn’t on my life lesson plans when we moved to Juneau in 1968 for a teaching job. Being mayor wasn’t on my bucket list when I retired from U.S. Customs in 2014 at the age of 70. But it happened thanks to the hard work of many and now I can check that box too.”
“A mayor accomplishes nothing by him or herself. It takes the dedication of eight other Assembly members, an engaged public, a City Manager and a City Attorney and a hard working group of city employees to produce the quality of goods and services expected by Juneau residents.”
“I have had the luxury of not having to be guided just by poll numbers or the loudest voices. I’ve had the luxury of trying to do what is right by relying on my family values and life experiences and my interactions with you.
He said he gathered input from the community constantly — from phone calls, emails, letters, Assembly meetings, neighborhood meetings, walking to City Hall from his home at the base of Mount Juneau, grocery shopping, and attending church.
“Being mayor isn’t theoretical. It’s where the rubber hits the road. It’s making decisions about taxing your hard-earned income and spending your money, funding education, dealing with crime, providing recreational opportunities, supporting our economic engines like government, mining, fishing, tourism, small businesses and trying to ensure there is a safety net where and when it is needed.”
Many friends consider Koelsch the “Poet Mayor,” whose gracious words come naturally from his lifetime love of language and literature. Koelsch was elected by a landslide in 2016 during the special election held when former Mayor Greg Fisk died unexpectedly Nov. 30, 2015.
The Alaska Republican Party’s annual summer picnic returned to Kincaid Park Chalet on Thursday afternoon, and Must Read Alaska was on station with a two-question poll: 1. Which candidate for governor do you support, and 2. do you support or oppose your Permanent Fund dividend being used to pay for state government?
The results of the first question were 77 percent for Dunleavy and 23 percent for Treadwell.
Participants were given the choice of voting for Michael Sheldon, Mark Begich, and Bill Walker, as well.
With Sheldon receiving zero votes, the voting board was remodeled halfway through the evening to accommodate all the Dunleavy votes that were being cast with smiley-face stickers.
Surprisingly, Mark Begich received four votes at the Republican picnic, beating out Gov. Bill Walker, who received just one.
On the second poll, participants leaned against the use of Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividends to fund state government:
Mike Dunleavy, candidate for governor, likes what he sees on the Must Read Alaska poll about use of Permanent Fund dividends for state government.
The results of this question were 21 percent support, and 79 percent opposed.
The results of a poll like this at a Republican picnic are going to be different than a sidewalk poll conducted in downtown Anchorage, the heart of the second-most liberal legislative district in Alaska, District 20.
Downtown Anchorage will typically have a more liberal respondent to a sidewalk poll, as evidenced by the one KTVA conducted earlier this week on the same base question about the Permanent Fund. That sampling of 17 people had 9 people basically accepting the need for a reduced Permanent Fund dividend, and 8 opposing it.
Screen shot of KVTA reporter Emily Carlson explaining how people voted on the news station’s “person on the street” poll earlier this week. 8 opposed the reduction, and 9 accepted it as necessary.
And the ARP picnic poll results also differ from the Harstad Strategic Research poll conducted on behalf of the AFL-CIO several weeks ago, which also came up with a result of 51 percent of Alaskans understanding and supporting the necessity of a smaller Permanent Fund dividend, with just 43 percent opposed to the reduction.
FROM SIDEWALK POLLS TO LAWN GAMES
In spite of a sprinkling of rain, the lawn games were classic, with the egg-and-spoon relay being won by the team made up of West Anchorage Assembly candidates Sam Moore and Nikki Rose, who managed to not break their egg.
The three-legged race was won by the team of legislative candidates Forrest McDonald and Josh Revak, and the egg toss masters were Sen. Mike Shower and Lt. Gov. candidate Stephen Wright. All four are military veterans.
More than 250 people attended the picnic, which featured both leading gubernatorial candidates, Dunleavy and Mead Treadwell, who brought large entourages of supporters, and a dozen or more legislative candidates running on the Republican primary ballot.
What do you do when you’re the sitting governor and you’re losing the “sign war” for your reelection? You have your Department of Transportation enforce the “no signs visible from roadway” law.
In advance of a crackdown from the Alaska Department of Transportation, Gov. Bill Walker’s campaign has started removing its own Walker/Mallott signs from roadways.
Photographed above, Walker’s sign had been stripped from its wooden frame, which was a still standing at the corner of Jewell Lake Road and Raspberry Road in Anchorage on Wednesday. Empty Walker frames are also found elsewhere in Anchorage, notably at the A and C Street triangle near 39th.
The State has hired three part-time workers to remove signs that are in the State’s rights-of-way.
A notice went out to candidates on July 9 that the enforcement of the sign law would start.
Four days earlier on July 5, Gov. Walker purchased $19,000 worth of bus wrap signs in Anchorage, according to his financial reports with the Alaska Public Offices Commission.
The same site at Jewell Lake and Raspberry Road, in a photograph from two weeks ago.
“Does DOT feel they have the roads in such good repair that they can use their limited resources for harassment of candidates?” asked one political campaign worker, who asked to remain anonymous.
At this point in the campaigns, there are literally thousands of candidate signs up across the state. Three part-time workers will have their work cut out for them, as they pry and haul the signs back to a DOT storage yard and then fine the candidates $50 per confiscated sign.
How DOT temporary employees will make the decisions on which signs to target during the last three weeks of the Primary election is delicate. Taking down the wrong sign may attract a First Amendment lawsuit from a candidate, especially if an opposing candidate’s sign is left standing in an equivalent place.
The entire endeavor is lawsuit bait. Documentation of sign removal will need to be impeccable in advance of legal action that could plausibly allege the Walker Administration is willfully trying to swing the election.
All signs in the state right-of-way are illegal, but the law that governs this is not enforced historically for campaigns, or even for garage sale or real estate signs. Signs are often found within sight of state roads — even if they are on private property.
The law is problematic, but resulted from a voter initiative in 1998 to ban billboards.
A State DOT representative said anything that blocks the line of sight and creates a safety hazard will be targeted first. That might be a judgment call, but Walker’s sign on Raspberry and Jewell would not have been in that category. It was among several at that intersection, with others possibly creating a sight-line hazard.
In the past, the law is something the State has ignored because the First Amendment is unambiguous in its protection of political speech. All it usually does is send out a notice to candidates about the law, which can be seen here.
Tuckerman Babcock, chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, recalled how in 1994, the state Department of Transportation picked up all of Sen. Lyda Green’s signs in Wasilla, while leaving Jay Kerttula’s sign untouched.
“They wanted me to pay to pick up my signs, and I said, ‘You give me all the signs, and I’m not going to pay for them, and I’m not going to complain to the media that you are a political arm of the Democratic Party.’ They gave me the signs back,” he said.
“I think they have to be mindful of public safety, but they don’t want to be caught taking sides,” Babcock said.
WHO BENEFITS?
With fewer of his own signs in Anchorage, the governor’s focus on Alaska’s largest city for sign removal may look like a political ploy. His signs are in much greater numbers in Juneau and Valdez. But throughout the Railbelt, Mike Dunleavy has the most signs, therefore the most to lose.
The sign enforcement doesn’t impact candidate Mead Treadwell nearly as much, since he has comparatively few signs out. He just joined the race on June 2. The same goes for Mark Begich, because he joined late and has few signs out.
But Walker signs, unlike Begich signs, have been out for months prior to the DOT’s sudden, recent interest in sign law enforcement. Preventing his Democratic rival from closing that gap can be seen as preserving the governor’s political advantage.
HE’S FOCUSED ON RESTORING PERMANENT FUND DIVIDEND, CUTTING BUDGET
It was 1980, the year John Lennon was shot. The year Mount St. Helens blew. And the year that young Richard Walker, barely 20, sold his ’69 Chevy Impala, bought a plane ticket, and headed for Alaska.
Walker started out as a dishwasher and bouncer in Spenard, working at La Mex restaurant. But he kept bugging the laborers union shop until he was headed for the North Slope and at age 21, became a roughneck, working in the oil patch for eight years.
Then a back injury on a rig took him out of the field and into environmental response and cleanup work. His company sent him to Kodiak, and he’s called it home nearly ever since. He loves Kodiak.
Walker is now running for House District 32 against incumbent Rep. Louise Stutes, who lost the endorsement of her fellow Republicans for organizing with the Democrats to control the House and try to force an income tax on Alaskans once she got to Juneau.
Stutes voted in favor of the income tax, HB 115, which other Democrats in the House favored. It failed in the Senate, which is under the control of Republicans.
Under Stutes preferred state income tax, a person making $50,000 a year would have to pay the state $992.50 plus four percent of anything they made in excess of $50,000 up to $100,000, where the next step of progressive taxes would kick in. The plan was prepared to hire up to 60 state tax collectors to enforce the law.
Stutes also voted in favor of SB 91, the controversial criminal justice reform that many Alaskans believe has led to more illegal drug trafficking, property theft, and violent crime in Alaska. SB 91has been revised through other legislation since its passage, with some of its more criminal-friendly parts trimmed. But crime is still at a near-record high, although less so in Kodiak.
Paul Seaton of Homer, Gabrielle LeDoux of Muldoon, and Louise Stutes of Kodiak listen to Alaska Republican Party officer Rick Whitbeck, as he explains to them rules that ultimately led to their being sanctioned by the party for having organized to take over the House with Democrats.
Stutes, who owned a bar for 25 years, also proposed legislation to cut serving limits at Alaska breweries from 36 ounces to 24 ounces per day and at distilleries from 3 ounces to 2 ounces per day, something that was widely panned by craft breweries and distilleries. These are some of the only industries in the state that have been adding jobs during the current recession.
Walker’s time in Kodiak — from 1991-2002 and 2005-present — has been centered on family and community service. His wife has a big family in Kodiak, and together they have six grown children, 35 grandchildren, and too-many-to-count nieces and nephews.
He’s a member of the Elks Club, and part of the group that started the youth football program. Over the years he has raised thousands of dollars for youth football in Kodiak. He is also active with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Walker was elected to the Kodiak City Council for six years, and has served on the Parks and Recreation Board. He ran for House in 2014, and he’s decided it’s time to try again.
“We have to really start tightening up on the budget,” he told the local radio station. “I wasn’t in favor of cutting our Permanent Fund [dividend]. Our resources in the state of Alaska are abundant, and we’re not even hardly touching them.”
CAN HE BEAT THE INCUMBENT?
Walker’s 30-day fundraising report to the Alaska Public Offices Commission shows local support. He raised $6,555, compared with Louise Stutes, the Republican who organizes with the Democrats, who raised $7,125 in her latest report. But she started with $13,000 and she also has the support of large labor unions, which will fund radio and newspaper spots for her.
Walker has a radio spot of his own running now, paid for by the Alaska Republican Party, characterizing Stutes and her band of PFD pirates as thieves, and promising to right the ship if he’s elected in the Primary, Aug. 21, and the General Election on Nov. 6. The pirate brogue in his campaign spot is “five-star aaaargh”:
Gov. Bill Walker’s job approval rating is stuck at 29 percent since April, but his disapproval rating has started to climb and is now 54 percent, putting him upside down with voters, according to the July poll released by Morning Consult.This spells danger for him as Alaskans begin to focus on the election at hand.
Walker is the second-least popular governor who is running for reelection, after Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois. 60 percent of the Illinois poll respondents disapprove of Rauner, while 54 disapprove of Walker.
In April, Walker’s disapproval rate was 52 percent, according to the same polling company.
Those two numbers put Walker’s net approval rating at -24.
The Morning Consult poll, net approval rating of governors running for reelection.
A net approval rating is achieved when the disapproval rating is subtracted from the approval rating. It’s a number that tells political observers just how popular a public figure is.
Gov. Rauner of Illinois, a Republican, has been written off as unelectable even as he faces an ally of disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has an even tougher net approval rating than Bill Walker: -34.
The most popular governor today is Republican Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, with a net approval rating of +52.
Comparing Walker with another well-known name, President Donald Trump’s net approval rating in Alaska is +10. It’s a 34 point difference between the sentiment for Trump and for Walker.
Morning Consult releases quarterly checks on governors’ popularity. In the July poll, Walker has inched closer to the bottom of the barrel, replacing Gov. Paul LePage of Maine as fifth least liked governor of the 50.
In April, 19 percent of respondents didn’t know or didn’t care to answer. That group of undecided Alaska respondents has shrunk to 17 percent in the July poll. The margin of error in Alaska is 5 percent on this poll.
As for the methodology, respondents indicated whether they approve or disapprove of the job performance of their U.S. governors. For each question, they could answer strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, strongly disapprove, or don’t know / no opinion.
