The Plan to Avoid Gelding Part 2

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? 

1. Medicaid expansion and welfare cost reform and restructuring 

2. Education reform with parental governance 

3. Cheap, reliable, abundant energy and natural resource development 

4. 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.