JUNEAU -- Gov. Sean Parnell said Thursday he didn't know of concerns about Mark Fish, his nominee to a state commission that defends individuals from discrimination, until information about Fish's anti-feminist blog posts in 2009 appeared in the Daily News.
At a news conference Thursday morning, Parnell told reporters he only learned his pick for the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights had run into trouble after Fish resigned from the panel the night before.
Fish, 54, said in an interview Thursday evening that he didn't recognize himself from his portrayal in the Daily News story about the controversy.
He said he's been happily married 22 years, has a sister who describes herself as an "elegant feminist," and relished his work on the human rights commission. The commission oversees cases of discrimination based on race, gender, religion or disability, as well as in certain cases, factors such as age or marital status.
"It's a political appointment, and politics are at play," Fish said. "I'm an opinionated person."
"I'm a classical liberal," Fish said. "I believe an individual has the right to life, liberty and property, and the essence of government is to defend those individual rights."
Fish was an active volunteer in Sarah Palin's 2006 campaign for governor and angled for an appointment after that, according to recently released internal emails from the Palin era. He appears to have applied for the Game Board in early 2007, but didn't get it. Instead he was tapped for the human rights commission, which he describes as "an awesome responsibility."
"I recall with great fondness the primary campaign being part of that "rag tag team. Nothing could have ever replaced the efforts or the creativity of her volunteers," Fish wrote in 2007 in one of those just-released emails, using the sloppy punctuation common in such messages.
Days later, Palin mentioned Fish in a group email to Ivy Frye and other aides as well as her husband, Todd.
"Ivy: has Mark Fish been appt to anything yet?" Palin wrote. "It's tough trying to remember everyone on that very long list of good supporters -- those who want to still help -- i think this email from Bill to Mark is evidence of some of the frustration I hear from others, too, who say we've forgotten the good folks who got us here and really beleive in the change we want to see in govt and that we're plugging in Murky, Binkley and Knowles' people more often than our own." The latter refers to the men Palin beat in 2006: former Govs. Frank Murkowski and Tony Knowles, along with candidate John Binkley.
In October 2007, Palin appointed Fish to the human rights commission and he was confirmed by the Legislature the next year with no problem.
Fish's most controversial blog posts appeared in 2009, the same year he created his blog, Common Sense Alaska. He posted under the name Alaska Fish.
In one post, he blogged about his unhappiness with radical feminists, Native leaders and Democratic operatives because of their opposition to Palin's nomination of Wayne Ross as attorney general. Certain feminists in particular irked him.
"Yes folks, elements of this group actually belief men have no value and through science they can eliminate men from the face of the earth," Fish wrote. In another, he took on a proposal before the Anchorage Assembly to extend city anti-discrimination laws to people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. He said the matter was a "side show" meant to distract from the real issues.
Paula Haley, executive director of the human rights commission, said Thursday she hadn't known about Fish's blog. Fish had appeared professional and reasonable during his years on the commission, she said.
His nomination for a second term was scheduled to be heard Thursday by the House State Affairs Committee. He already cleared the Senate counterpart, he said.
But on Tuesday, someone told a staffer for Rep. Max Gruenberg, D-Anchorage, about the blog. Gruenberg, a retired lawyer who serves on the State Affairs Committee, said his staffer showed him some of the more troublesome posts.
"I was shocked," Gruenberg said Thursday. "I think they showed somebody who might not have an open mind in dealing with various classes of people and groups who might be involved in human rights issues."
On Wednesday, Gruenberg said he alerted Jason Hooley, the governor's director of boards and commissions.
At his new conference, Parnell said it was Hooley's job to vet candidates. Hooley declined to answer questions.
According to State Affairs Committee chairman Bob Lynn, Hooley asked for the hearing on Fish's nomination to be postponed. In a phone call Wednesday night, Fish said Hooley told him that his nomination appeared to be in trouble.
Fish said he immediately offered to step down.
"The last thing I want to do is cause any problems," he said.
Parnell said he had made hundreds of appointments during his time as governor, and will make hundreds more. The process works, and the legislative oversight is key, Parnell said.
"We vet them as thoroughly as we can but then there's a public process to vet them as well," the governor said. "That's why it's set up that way, to discover issues that should have arisen perhaps earlier."
Reach Lisa Demer at ldemer@adn.com or (907) 500-7388.
By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News