Walker World, other politicos spotted in Ketchikan

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Former Gov. Bill Walker was spotted in Ketchikan today with his former chief of staff Scott Kendall, giving additional fuel to the rumor that Walker is considering a run for governor.

Walker and Kendall were attending the breast cancer fundraiser at the Waterfall Resort on Prince of Wales Island, which is an annual fishing event sponsored by the Murkowski family. Kendall has been said to be working to convince Walker, age 70, to make another run of it, after Walker’s spectacular political crash in 2018. Kendall is also considered the architect of Ballot Measure 2, which created jungle primaries and ranked-choice general elections in Alaska, to ease the way for a Murkowski victory in 2022; he is also the force behind the Recall Dunleavy group.

As speculation increases about Walker, word of possible running mates has brought out the names of former Commissioner of Labor Heidi Drygas, a Big Labor Democrat; and current Eagle River Rep. Kelly Merrick, a Big Labor Republican. Merrick, if she drops out of the House race in 2022 to run for lieutenant governor, would open up a slot for Anchorage Assemblywoman Jamie Allard to run for House, as some have pushed her to do.

In Ketchikan, political discussion at local watering holes swirled around a new rumor that former U.S. Senate candidate Al Gross is also considering a run — but not for Senate against Lisa Murkowski. He may be planning to run for governor, instead, according to those who have spoken with him.

Also spotted in Ketchikan and at the Waterfall Resort were Portland political strategist Jim Lottsfeldt, who has worked on Sen. Murkowski’s campaigns; Mike Pawlowski, Murkowski’s former chief of staff and now part of a consulting firm in Alaska; former House Speaker Terry Gardiner; former Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell; and Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s Chief of Staff Randy Ruaro, with his wife Dana. Ketchikan is the Ruaros’ hometown.

Many business leaders were also there, including the executives from Wells Fargo, Alyeska Pipeline Company, Edison Chouest, and Providence Hospital.

Missing was Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is having to remain in Washington, D.C. for a potential vote on the big infrastructure bill that she negotiated.

Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka and her campaign manager Gina Ritacco were seen arriving in Ketchikan for the annual Blueberry Festival. They had visited Haines, Hoonah, Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg, and Wrangell on their way to the First City.

Earlier this week, Walker and his wife Donna attended a fundraiser for Congressman Don Young in Anchorage, where Walker shook many hands.

33 COMMENTS

    • Walker cut way more government fat than Parnell or Dunleavy could have ever hoped to. Not sure what you’re referring to, but it’s not realistic.

  1. The residents of this state have been screwing it up for good.. do t blame it on a four year elected official. Alaskans want the world but we don’t want to contribute. Hands down. Time to pay our own way and not beg the lower 48 taxpayers for more money to run our state

  2. Who is gonna vote for the former, disgraced governor Bill Walker? He picked a child molester as his running mate last time. He picked a ballot-stuffing cheater as his Chief of Staff. And he was the prime mover who screwed every Alaskan on the PFD. His candidacy for governor in 2022 would be a laughing stock. But Walker is a proven fool. So, we hope he runs. Scott Kendall can squeeze a few more bucks out of him and try to stuff a few more ballots so he doesn’t have to get a real job to support his disabled father-in-law up in the River City.

    • Let’s face it, Walker has been setting this coming run up since Dunleavy got elected. 90 days into Dunleavy’s election it was Scott Kendall who started the recall. Trace all of the main movers behind the recall and they all go back to Walker, including Walker’s Attorney General, Lindemuth, who has suckered the Alaskan Federation of Natives into the latest lawsuit against Dunleavy. Walker is beginning to circulate with the intent to run. You don’t spend three years setting this up for nothing. Will his back-shooting tactics come back to bite him? That depends on how many Alaskans still believe him and Dermott Cole, who never finds anything good to say about Dunleavy, either, even if he has to twist or ignore facts. Both have been hard at it since the last election.

      • Well said, Shelia. And you addressed all of the enemy in one paragraph. Bill Walker, Scott Kendall, Lindemuth, and Dermot Cole. You forgot to throw in the ADN, who actually fired Cole because he was being paid too much for his third-grade reporting skills. Walker is just a pissed-off human being because his pedophile Lt. Governor got caught with his pants down on Walker’s watch. And the ADN wouldn’t report on this until about a year afterwards. Bill Walker is a disgraced man, and Alaskans would be foolish to ever re-elect this traitor to our great state.

  3. The architect of PFD grab and he thinks he can win. That is called some kind of stupid or he is clearly that arrogant.

  4. I sure hope Walker runs. We need someone who’s going to take our fiscal deficit seriously. Dunleavy doesn’t want to touch the issue and only wants to talk about paying out big dividends. He hasn’t done a single thing to help close the gap. Our businesses need fiscal certainty so they’re confident investing in the state.

    • Right, Jeff. Like Bill Walker inviting the Communist Chinese to invest in a majority share ownership of investing, constructing and operating a natural gas pipeline filled with gas from Prudhoe Bay. Do Alaskans want to work for the Communist Chinese on our own soil while battling off the Chinese virus? You need your head examined, Jeff. Bill Walker would sell off our state and his dead mother’s soul for another shot at political power. He’s a sick man. Don’t go there.

  5. These old, disgraced politicians like Bill Walker think the public still needs and desires them. LOL. What a joke. Bill Walker is as popular as a coiled load of dog turd in the middle of a narrow walking path. Only his own little lapdog, Scott Kendall, would sniff and step in it.

  6. A weak incumbent without the respect of the base, a charlatan ex with delusions of godhood and the backing of the Alaskan swamp.

    A corrupt state with a growing left of center population. A more corrupt legal system.

    Walker has got to be the favorite.

  7. I’m curious how they spotted him? The stench or the greasy stain he leaves behind him?

  8. Walker gave us Obamacare Medicaid which, according to one national study I saw, has increased Medicaid in this state 87% since then. Alaska has the third highest increase in the union, if you compare to states who accepted the Medicaid “deal” from the feds——and when you add education we’re at almost 45% of the total budget. According to Bert Stedman, if you add state employee’s retirement, we are at 66%—-who thinks we can have ferries or anything else with 34% of the budget left to run the current state costs? And, we should let Walker back in this mess?–he gave it to us. Vermont has REDUCED their Medicaid costs by 4% after accepting the Obamacare “deal”. I gave the report to Sen Stedman and suggested he call Vermont and ask how they did it….. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel every year–let’s get advice from states who are succeeding where we are failing. Adding Walker to the mess won’t help anyone.

  9. Walker was a disaster for Alaska!
    He unilaterally forced Obamacare expansion in Alaska – a massive government spending increase for his healthcare supporters
    He killed projects like the Juneau Access road to appease his greenie supporters
    He avoided real government spending cuts and unilaterally destroyed the statutory formula for PFD payments to satiate his university and public union supporters
    He called Byron Mallot his brother until it was no longer politically useful
    He claimed to be the only one who could get a gas line for Alaska and the desperately tried to sell the controlling interest in Alaska’s gas line project to Communist China in a vain effort to solidify his legacy
    He surrounded himself with self-serving, slimy, manipulative people to deceive and steal from Alaskans
    He claimed to be about unity but acted as a dictator
    “Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me!”
    I hope Alaskans realize what is happening here…

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