Newly elected Gov. Bill Walker has so far named or renamed seven commissioners to head state departments, with more appointments anticipated over the next few weeks.
Of those seven, only Republican Craig Richards, Walker's former law partner and his pick for attorney general, is registered with one of the two major parties. The rest -- Walker's choices to lead the departments of health and social services, environmental conservation, labor, natural resources, revenue and public safety -- haven't declared Democratic or Republican party affiliations, according to a state voter database.
But that hasn't stopped some Republicans from criticizing the new administration's makeup.
"They all tend to be Democrats," said Randy Ruedrich, the former chair of the Alaska Republican Party. "Or at least opposed to normal, Republican, pro-development job issues."
Walker has described himself as a traditional Alaska Republican but dropped his party registration last fall in the process of merging his campaign with that of Byron Mallott, who was running for governor as a Democrat but agreed to run for lieutenant governor with Walker instead. The Alaska Democratic Party endorsed their ticket.
At the time, incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell's campaign questioned what the Democrats had been promised in the deal, firing off press releases asking who would have the power to appoint commissioners and attempting to tie Walker and Mallott to Democratic President Barack Obama.
But so far, Walker's high-level appointees haven't skewed to one party or the other -- and a top aide coordinating the transition says that in some conversations about prospective appointees, Walker hasn't even known their party affiliation. And while his choices have frustrated some Republicans, they also haven't fully satisfied other constituencies -- the leader of one environmental group, for example, has objected to Walker's choice to keep Parnell's environmental conservation commissioner.
"We're not keeping score," Walker said at a news conference Tuesday. "It's more of a philosophy affiliation -- those that are going to put Alaska first."
Sam Cotten, Walker's pick to lead the Department of Fish and Game, is a Democrat and a former state legislator but his position is temporary while Walker awaits nominations from the state boards of fish and game. Bruce Botelho, Walker's temporary transition coordinator, is also a Democrat and a former state attorney general.
The governor's chief of staff, Jim Whitaker, is a Republican, as is Darwin Peterson, Walker's legislative director, who was a longtime aide to Sen. Bert Stedman, a Sitka Republican.
While GOP elected officials have been measured in their reactions to Walker's choice, the selections haven't satisfied Alaska Republican Party loyalists like Ruedrich or Frank McQueary, the party's vice chair-elect, who like Ruedrich argued that Walker's appointees "appear to be mostly Democrats."
Ruedrich discounted the fact that many of the appointees were unaffiliated or even registered Republicans, calling Whitaker, who gave a speech endorsing Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, an "alleged Republican."
And Ruedrich was critical of Walker's nominee to be the state's revenue commissioner, Randall Hoffbeck, a former state oil property tax assessor and North Slope Borough official, arguing that Hoffbeck had tried to increase taxes on the oil industry.
In fact, McQueary acknowledged that much of the skepticism stems from Walker's and his appointees' sometimes contentious history with the oil industry as it does from their party affiliation.
Hoffbeck did, in fact, work to increase the property tax valuation of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, while Richards worked with Walker on a lawsuit challenging the process behind a state settlement with Exxon Mobil that pushed forward a long-delayed project on the North Slope.
Marty Rutherford, who will hold a high-level position in Walker's natural resources department, is a registered Republican -- but she was also a top natural resources official in the administration of Gov. Sarah Palin, which pushed oil tax and gas line legislation through the Legislature that the state's big oil companies opposed.
"I think there's a discomfort degree as far as (Walker's) judgment and his whole history in oil and gas," McQueary said. "We have somebody who's made a living suing oil companies, denigrating oil companies."
While Republican party leaders were outspoken about Walker's appointees, their counterparts in the state Legislature were more cautious. The Legislature must confirm Walker's commissioners during its upcoming session, and while Republican Senate President Kevin Meyer said they would be vetted for "capabilities" and "knowledge," he added, "I just don't see any commissioners or appointments that we can't work with, or are going to be controversial."
As for the Democrats, state party spokesman Zack Fields called Walker's appointees a "breath of fresh air, and a welcome change from divisive partisanship."
But not all of Walker's appointments are likely to please typical Democratic constituencies, either. When informed of the complaints from the Republicans, Fields brought up Walker's choice to keep Larry Hartig as commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation.
"I don't think anyone would call him an environmentalist," Fields said.
In fact, at least one environmental group was disappointed when it learned of Hartig's appointment.
Bob Shavelson, the executive director of Cook Inletkeeper, said he anticipated Walker's choice as natural resources commissioner, Mark Myers, to "bring science back" to the department. But he criticized Hartig -- who was originally appointed by Palin in 2007 -- as "one of the prime implementers of Gov. Parnell's agenda."
"He went against the will of the people on cruise ship dumping," Shavelson said. "He killed Sarah Palin's climate change task force without any discussion or notice."
In an emailed statement, Hartig responded by saying, "I appreciate the opportunity to be part of the team that Gov. Walker is putting together, continuing to serve all the people of Alaska, and working with Alaskans throughout the state on these and other important matters."
In a phone interview, Botelho, Walker's transition coordinator, said the new governor's appointment process has led him to "draw fire" from people on both sides.
"I've heard some Republicans complain that it's all Democrats. And the Democrats are viewing the same slate and wondering where the Democrats are," Botelho said. "Party affiliation is clearly not a driving force here."
He added that Walker is looking for people who are known as problem solvers, rather than for people who are driven by ideology. Botelho stressed that Walker had made a commitment to consult with Mallott on appointments -- which he said was being fulfilled -- but stressed that there was "no quota" for Democratic commissioners, or for those chosen by Mallott.
"The governor has certainly turned to the lieutenant governor for counsel on appointments," Botelho said. "But he makes the final decision."
Asked about the relatively small number of Democratic appointees, Mallott said in a phone interview that in some cases, the new administration has actively recruited people whose views don't align with theirs.
He cited the choice of Rod Arno -- whose organization, the Alaska Outdoor Council, has been accused of being anti-subsistence -- to participate on the transition's subsistence panel. And at the commissioner level, Mallott said several people will be kept "who were key in advancing the policies and the programs of the prior administration."
"They're being kept because regardless of their personal views, they've been decent administrators -- they've advanced the work of their department, where it matters," he said. "We aren't asking them, 'Did you drink Parnell's Kool-Aid?' "
Mallott said the new administration aims at getting "all Alaskans into play," and he cited his own experience as an Alaska Native as one reason to recruit people whose views may not match his own.
"I know what it means for an Alaskan to be powerless -- for an Alaskan to feel that they don't have access to their government," he said. "I want to move us away from that, because it destroys people without power."
Alaska Dispatch Publishing