Alaska News

Dan Sullivan addresses his transition: 'Alaskans want to move forward'

With six weeks to go until Republican Dan Sullivan is sworn in as Alaska's new U.S. senator, he wants to stop talking about the election.

Just minutes after the Alaska Democratic Party emailed media with an attack on "Senator Koch" -- an allusion to the boost Sullivan's campaign received from independent groups tied to the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers -- Sullivan said in an interview that "the vast majority of Alaskans I talk to, they were sick of the election come Nov. 4, and they are really sick of hearing about it now."

"Alaskans want to look forward, and don't want to hear from politicians rehashing an election that's almost a month old now," he said. "I'd be glad to talk to you about the future."

In a 30-minute phone conversation, Sullivan spoke about his efforts to set up his Senate office, his first steps once he's sworn in, his intent to remain a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, and whether he'd support a government shutdown over President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration.

The interview has been edited and condensed.

We talked to you a couple of weeks ago when you were in Washington, D.C. -- what have you been working on since then?

Certainly, number one, spending time with my wife and daughters, catching up on some family time. We had college applications due for my oldest, dance performances, just taking my kids to school, going to movies with my wife.

I've had two different Marine Corps Reserve trainings. Continuing to meet with Alaskans and folks beyond, senators, both Democrats and Republicans, certainly (Alaska U.S.) Sen. (Lisa) Murkowski but senators in D.C., both sides of the aisle there, former staffers who are giving us a good sense on some of the key issues. I've had a couple good conversations with Bill Walker, met with a number of prominent Alaska Native leaders. I'll be back in D.C. next week kind of working, and then continuing to meet new colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

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Tell me what your transition effort is going to look like. Do you have a team? Do you have a chief of staff yet?

We're putting together the team. It's something that's in process. It's not by any means something that's even close to having a full team ready. There'll be a D.C. component and an Alaska component. Part of sitting down with senators on both sides of the aisle is that they give you advice, and one of the really good pieces of advice I've gotten already is: Work really hard on the structure of your office before you start hiring people like crazy. Across the board, people are saying one thing that new senators make a mistake on is thinking they have to have every single slot filled and hired by the swearing-in date.

So, have you hired a chief of staff?

No.

Do you plan to have constituent workers and Alaska offices in place by the swearing-in date?

When I talked to (defeated incumbent) Sen. (Mark) Begich, I mentioned the importance of making sure we had a smooth transition, particularly with regard to making sure that the outstanding case work for Alaskans was handled without things falling through the cracks. The people on my transition staff, I know, are reaching out to Sen. Begich's team to make sure that happens.

Do you have any plans as far as your first official actions once you’re sworn in? Are you working on drafting any legislation?

You know, what I've been doing is focusing on, in discussions with other senators, some of the key issues that I campaigned about. The over-regulation of our economy. The rolling back of regulations that, again -- I think this is something that the vast majority of Alaskans, way beyond party, view as important. And looking at opportunities to really continue to make progress on our economic development, and opportunities in the resources development sector, and other sectors.

That's what I ran on, and what's been very heartwarming to me is you can run on something like that, and you can focus on issues like that in your state, but in my discussions with the new senators coming in, and with other senators (that are) part of a Republican majority, there seems to be very strong interest in making these kinds of issues top priority.

You'll see a very different approach from a Senate Republican majority than you have with a previous Senate.

But will any of these issues be Dan Sullivan’s issues, or dealt with through a Dan Sullivan bill, as opposed to you signing on to another senator’s effort? I realize that it might be presumptuous to assume you could start your first month in the Senate with a bunch of new bills, but can you give people any specifics?

I think it's too early to tell. In my discussions back in Washington last week, I didn't talk about, 'Hey, I've got this specific bill that I want you, senator, to support.' But I was talking about the huge opportunities for energy development in Alaska. (The) permitting system. And you get consensus on those kind of broad, strategic issues. That's my focus right now.

You campaigned with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas -- he’s recently been defending last year’s government shutdown, and indicating that Republicans shouldn’t be afraid to take a similarly hard-line stance when it comes to fighting President Obama on his recent executive action on immigration.
Would you support Congress withholding funding from the federal government or certain federal agencies over these immigration issues?

Look, I think the executive amnesty issue, it came up a lot in my campaign. I think Mark Begich even said that he was opposed to it. Very interestingly, the president, for the last three years, has stated on numerous occasions that he doesn't have the authority to do what he just did. This goes to the heart of the rule of law, and the constitutional government that a senator, whether he's a Democrat or Republican, is supposed to defend.

I'm certainly someone that's going to focus on the different tools, that's going to stand up to the prerogative of the Congress, which, by the way, is the prerogative of the American people. I think there's different ways to do that. I certainly haven't landed on one.

But is withholding federal government funding, or agency funding, something that should be considered?

I think the vast majority of the Republicans that were talking about what to do, post executive action announcement of President Obama, were not supporting a government shutdown. They (are) looking at different ways to try to reverse a decision that many people think is not within the constitutional bounds of this president's authority, and I'm looking at similar (things).

Are you planning on staying in the Marine Corps Reserve? What will your commitments be there, and how will you handle any conflicts with your work in the Senate, like if there’s a vote while you’re supposed to be in training?

As a matter of fact, I was in discussions with some folks about it today. During my campaign, I said that I would do that, that I would continue. I'm commanding officer of a reserve unit right now. I'm a battalion commander -- in many ways, people see that (as) kind of the pinnacle of the 20-year military command. My attention is to remain in that command billet, finish that out. I'm already scheduled to be done with that by this summer.

My goal would be to make sure that I'm able to fulfill my duties as a U.S. senator for Alaskans, and also that I'm able to fully carry out my duties as a commander of a Marine Corps Reserve unit. I was able to do that as a candidate, and being a candidate is a pretty time-consuming endeavor. I will say this, though: It's one thing to get the high level briefing on what's going on in the military from the Pentagon, and the PowerPoints. It's quite another to literally be on the ground with the grunts and the young Marines who are at the pointy tip of the spear. And that's what I'm doing right now.

But what if there’s a conflict?

With, like, a vote or something? Most training is on the weekends, and then you schedule your two-week annual training during an extended block -- you can actually break that up a little bit as well. And then, when you're commander of a unit like that, you're doing work but that can be at night, that can be phone calls, that can be a computer to make sure your Marines are taken care of. So I think I'll address that when and if those kind of conflicts come up. But there's ways that you can fulfill the responsibilities to both. It's been done in the past, and if I'm finding that I can't, I'll be the first one to try to make a course correction.

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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