By Michael Tavoliero
Remember the last two of Alaska’s largest administrations, the State of Alaska and the Municipality of Anchorage, and you will certainly remember the gelding experienced through the “struggle sessions” of both the first term of Governor Michael J Dunleavy and the only term of Anchorage Mayor David Bronson. I went over them in Part 1.
The 2026 Gubernatorial “Beauty Pageant”
Today, we are greeted by a dozen Republicans who have declared or are preparing to declare their intent to run for governor in 2026. Among them are Click Bishop, Dave Bronson, Adam Crum, Nancy Dahlstrom, Edna DeVries, Matt Heilala, Shelley Hughes, James Parkin, Treg Taylor, Henry Kroll, Bruce Walden, and Bernadette Wilson. In other words, the full roster of the “I Would Like to Govern Alaska, Please!” club.
At this stage, it resembles less a political field and more the opening lineup of an Alaska-style beauty pageant, where the judging criteria lean less toward structural reform proposals and more toward who can smile warmly while saying, “I care deeply about Alaska’s future.” We saw a similar production during the 2016 Republican presidential primary; a crowded stage, many microphones, and very few knives sharpened for the actual work ahead with the exemption of Donald Trump.
Readers of Part 1 will appreciate the irony: the club’s name suggests governing power, but the structure of Alaska politics guarantees that none of these candidates, on their own, would be allowed to exercise it if and when elected. Candidates, please let that sink in. I am very open to a discussion on why and how you believe this will change if and when you take your hand off the Bible.
What stands out, and is worth acknowledging with sincerity, is that every one of these candidates is stepping forward because they believe Alaska deserves better, and that is no small thing. They generally share the same core Republican commitments: responsible resource development, reducing energy costs, expanding job opportunities, supporting law enforcement, strengthening parental roles in education, and guarding against federal overreach.
Where they differ is less in principle than in temperament. Some, like Click Bishop, lean toward consensus-building; others, like Bernadette Wilson, bring a reformer’s urgency and willingness to challenge entrenched systems. The distinctions among them tend to be in how they approach leadership and how they connect with the public, rather than in the substance of their platforms.
Their appeal, in other words, rests more in who they are than in sharply contrasting policy visions, and that is part of the challenge before us. Vanilla is still vanilla.
High Costs, No Return
If each of the declared candidates continues campaigning through the August primary, and if we use the 2022 gubernatorial cycle as a benchmark, we can reasonably expect individual campaign expenditures to approach $500,000 on average, not including independent expenditures. Collectively, the field could easily spend $5 million or more simply to determine which one of them advances before any general election effort even begins.
It is notable that none of the major 2026 gubernatorial candidates publicly address Medicaid expansion, the single largest structural cost driver in Alaska’s budget. No one proposes to reform it, audit it, expand it, or roll it back. It is treated as a subject not to be acknowledged, even though it was originally implemented without legislative approval and remains central to the State’s long-term fiscal crisis.
This reflects the broader pattern Alaska has lived through for more than a decade: we elect a chief executive who promises spending discipline, resource development, and restoration of the statutory PFD. The public mandate is consistent and clear. Yet once in office, the governor confronts a state legislature, public unions, mainstream media and bureaucratic structure that is not aligned to carry that mandate forward. The result is not reversal of voter intent, but the neutralization of it.
This is the condition we have already identified: Elections change officeholders, but not the system that limits them. The pattern is unmistakable. Now we must consider what must be built to replace it.
Alaska’s Path Forward: A Unified Strategy
Keep in mind, candidates, that the entire Alaskan voting population by now has figured out that no matter who gets elected, the new governor will be gelded, especially if Juneau’s permanent coalition stays in place.
Alaska cannot afford twelve Republican candidates running twelve separate campaigns burning through several million to divide the vote and produce another executive with no power, especially under the Ranked Choice Voting labyrinth.
If these candidates truly care about Alaska’s future, will they agree to one shared platform?
- Medicaid expansion and welfare cost reform and restructuring
- Education reform with parental governance
- Cheap, reliable, abundant energy and natural resource development
- Restoration of the statutory PFD formula
Instead of competing to be the next figurehead who gets gelded: Will all candidates agree to draw lots for a single candidate? One becomes the nominee. The others form the war council.
Every remaining candidate redirects their campaign funds in concert with every Alaskan conservative political party, the Alaska Republican Party, the Alaska Libertarian Party, Alaska Independence Party, and others, not to defeat each other, but to reform the single obstructive force in Alaska politics, the state legislature.
A simple goal: Conservative Supermajority
A concerted campaign finance goal for 2026 and 2028 to move conservative control in a supermajority 40-seat House and 20-seat Senate
The result: No coalition control. No “bipartisan majority.” No gelding.
The Outcome
The governor elected under this framework will not govern alone.
The governor will govern with:
- The Legislature aligned
- The bureaucracy restructured
- The mandate protected
- The PFD restored
- The welfare and healthcare structure rationalized
- Education returned to parents
- Resource development unleashed
This is not idealism. This is simply the only workable strategy.
Alaska does not need another governor to be gelded. Alaska needs a government aligned with the people who elected it.
Bronson went through the whole obstruction and delay thing with the assembly, so he needs to fire everyone in position in the administration and have people all in place to take the jobs when he takes office. Then he can operate as a governor should and his people can hold the legislature’s feet to the fire by exposing where all the money is going they have been STEALING from Alaska citizens.
So you acknowledge that the Dunleavy administration is “STEALING from Alaska citizens.” Glad to know that you see the rampant corruption of this administration: the worst since the Corrupt Bastards Club.
He said the legislature not the governor.
I believe you should re-read the comment from Mr. Rubey. His comment clearly identified the LEGISLATURE as the ones stealing from Alaskan citizens, not the Governor’s administration.
True account! Thank you for your voicing the truth. The Legislature has been gelded not the Crime Boss Dunleavy. Republicans cooperated in the governor’s bills by quietly changing tenure an responsibilities of every board under the management of the governor’s office. The residents of Alaska have been cheated many times over because of the elected legislature and their lack of integrity.
Bronson believes in a strong government, for a job, after you boot (or are booted from) the one to which you’re elected.
“…….. exposing where all the money is going they have been STEALING from Alaska citizens……….”
The Alaska state budget is published each and every year. Try reading it.
Again I agree with the body content.
The recognizing on the root evil is clearly stated. It is the solutions offered that bring heartburn believing the correct road to positive change of the status quo. The heartburn is “reality”.
Selfish priority of the powerful will side track the obvious intent.
Yet I am not in any position to suggest alternate suggestions so will wish the author the best of intent,
Cheers
Al-Ketchikan
You missed something from this list… ” the governor confronts a state legislature, public unions, mainstream media and bureaucratic structure…”
It is a nagging little thing called the law. The law requires the state the fund certain things. A governor, like it or not, is not a monarch and cannot, legally, ignore the law.
I would also add “extremist nut-jobs,” “partisan hacks,” and “self-serving executive branch appointees” to the list.
“…….It is a nagging little thing called the law. The law requires the state the fund certain things………”
Wielechowsky v Alaska. 2016. Nine years ago. Please read it. Stop the false propaganda.
Alaska Constitution: read it. Stop being ridiculous.
Wielechowsky v Alaska. 2016. “…the court’s ultimate conclusion nevertheless was correct: the legislature’s use of Permanent Fund income is subject to normal appropriation and veto budgetary processes.” Even the legislature has to follow the law. Where’s the propaganda false or otherwise?
How did you miss it?:
“……… “…the court’s ultimate conclusion nevertheless was correct: the legislature’s use of Permanent Fund income is subject to normal appropriation and veto budgetary processes.” ……..”
1) Any law proscribing a funding formula that must be followed is not “normal appropriation and veto budgetary process”.
2) The “normal appropriation and veto budgetary process” necessarily includes House and Senate proposing, debating, and approving budget amounts (from $0 to whatever), then a signature of the governor
3) Any desired appropriation that does not meet your, mine, or anybody else’s desire or demand is not “theft”. It is the “normal appropriation and veto budgetary process”.
I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it goes. We might get a PFD of any amount from $0.01 to many thousands of dollars, and we might not get a PFD at all, depending on the budgetary process. Period.
“……..Alaska Constitution: read it……..”
I have. I direct your attention to:
“………Article IX, Section VII:
“The proceeds of any state tax or license shall not be dedicated to any special purpose, except as provided in section 15 of this article or when required by the federal government for state participation in federal programs. This provision shall not prohibit the continuance of any dedication for special purposes existing upon the date of ratification of tavehis section by the people of Alaska. [Amended 1976]”
This is why, when legislators proclaim that they want to pass new taxes and do certain things with the money, it is a lie. They can’t. With few constitutional exceptions, no revenue can be pre-ordained to any particular expenditure. This includes “statutory PFD amounts”. You get what they appropriate each year for dividends, and that amount can be zero.
Bullseye! The other problem lies with the Alaskan voter, or actually the non-voter. Our voting turn out is a disgrace. I have voted in every election, national and local for my 74 years except when in southeast Asia in 72.
Each non-voter increases the power of your vote. If they’re too stupid to ignore voting, they’re plenty stupid enough to vote for the wrong people. Better they focus on their TV sets.
Hear hear!
We need a female governor, so no gelding is necessary.
Yeah. All emotion, no gonads. A perfect fit for this society.
Why exactly do we need a female governor?? Would you prefer a Trans – female that’s already been gelded??
Thank you for sharing this so quickly after Part 1. Another sound commentary, but I think you’re asking a great deal for 11 of 12 egos to move to the sidelines. They will surely trip over their IDs. That said, I may approach my ‘chosen’ State Senator to see what she thinks about becoming the leader of your proposed coalition in that particular body.
The above article says:
“It is notable that none of the major 2026 gubernatorial candidates publicly address Medicaid expansion, the single largest structural cost driver in Alaska’s budget.”
I think that spending on Medicaid should be reduced. I think there are too many young able-bodied people being dependent on it.
If we cut back on excessive expenditures there, we would have more money available for an increased PFD, while still maintaining a balanced budget.
I have been sending my uncashed PFD paper checks back to the state ever since 2015, because of the crash in oil prices back then, and the several years of budget deficits that resulted.
I have my uncashed 2024 $1000 PFD check sitting in my drawer. I plan to send it back because the state has not yet replenished the severely drained Constitutional Budget Reserve, like they are supposed to. Once the CBR is paid back, I will be able to pocket my future PFD checks with a clear conscience.
Be careful of hitching your wagon to the statutory PFD too strongly. While that law was never repealed, every single budget since Walker vetoed the PFD in 2016 was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. As much as I hate to mention it, one could make the case that every one of those budgets reset the level of the statutory PFD. The Other Side hasn’t had to make that argument yet, probably because they haven’t had to yet. Cheers –
“……..every single budget since Walker vetoed the PFD in 2016 was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor………”
That’s because a lawsuit challenging the state for not funding the statutory PFD went all the way up to the Alaska Supreme Court, and struck out at each level. The Supreme Court nailed the lid down. The statute was all the way unconstitutional. The statutory PFD is all the way DEAD. It has been dead for nine full years. I simply can’t believe people. Many don’t know because the crap-stirrers not only don’t tell them, but tell them otherwise. Many simply don’t want to believe it, so fantasize otherwise. It’s over.
Moreover, there have been multiple attempted constitutional amendments to reinstate a huge PFD. None have gone anywhere, nor will they. The money simply isn’t there.
I am a creative writer. Full disclosure – so people don’t think I’m nuts. Venues like Must Read Alaska spark my creative, inquisitive mind. I am a simple woman. If I were exalted to a position of elected leadership, I would exercise every bit of power that I fought for my entire life, and nobody could deter me from my core agenda. But that sentence is loaded. How does one simple woman or man with equal conviction really know their core agenda?
Obviously, there are so many confidential things in government, and once you know, you cannot unknow, and the simple person with a core agenda and steadfast conviction can become forever altered. If you are not accustomed to being disassembled, you can find your parts and pieces being used to assemble token versions of a more appropriate you.
Oftentimes, we come into leadership with a narrow view that we want to change or preserve. But we are so focused on our core agenda that we were never prepared for or anticipated the unknown parts.
But oh my goodness, let me experience being completely disassembled just for the sheer journey of the unknown. I know one thing. No plan, orator, commentator, observer, is as majestic as the person who does what they say they are going to do, admits when they were wrong, and serves individual people, one-on-one.
As a simple woman,