JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Five candidates for Alaskan governor met Tuesday in a forum sponsored by the Alaska State AFL-CIO, giving each the chance to test their campaign messages in the early goings of this election year.
Democratic Reps. Ethan Berkowitz and Eric Croft of Anchorage; Republican candidates Sarah Palin of Wasilla and John Binkley of Fairbanks; and independent Andrew Halcro of Anchorage were each given 10 minutes to speak at the forum, held in Centennial Hall in Juneau.
Still unknown is whether Republican incumbent Frank Murkowski and former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles plan to campaign. Republican Lt. Gov. Loren Leman also has not announced his intentions.
Playing to a union crowd, all the candidates addressed labor in some way. Nearly all criticized a measure signed into law last year that does away with traditional pensions for new state workers and teachers in favor of a 401(k)-type defined contribution system.
"It is the worst, most dangerous piece of legislation I've seen in the 10 years in the Legislature," Berkowitz said.
Candidates also took on the way Murkowski has handled negotiations for a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope. Reaching a fiscal deal with three oil companies for the $20 to $25 billion gas line through Canada to U.S. Midwestern markets figures to be one of the biggest issues of the campaign this year.
Murkowski has been in negotiations with BP, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips for well over a year. The negotiations are confidential in keeping with the state's Stranded Gas Act.
Palin, who supports an alternative pipeline proposal from the North Slope to Valdez, said the governor is negotiating from a position of weakness by placing artificial deadlines on the talks and by concealing the meat of the talks from the public.
"Alaskans have the right to ask whose interests are being served here in these negotiations," she said.
Croft spoke about improving education and protecting the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend. He also mentioned a pair of citizen initiatives on U.S. Senate vacancies and lobbyist contributions he, along with fellow Democratic Reps. Harry Crawford and David Guttenberg, was able to put on the ballot when similar legislation could not be passed.
Binkley focused on his family's roots in Alaska and his own time in the Legislature representing Bethel. As he fought for more and better hiring of locals there, he'll fight for it as governor, he said.
Halcro, the independent candidate, said governing was about managing. Partisan politics has made governing today look like a bunch of 12-year-olds playing soccer: All huddled around, kicking each other, with nobody looking down the field, he said.
