As the Legislature's regular session ends and the race for governor begins, one of the biggest questions facing the state is also the first big campaign issue -- the gas pipeline.
A group of Gov. Frank Murkowski's critics say he fumbled the pipeline deal, and they want to freeze the giant project until someone else is elected to finish the job.
"We want them to wait on a gas line until we have a governor we can trust," said Lori Backes, director of the All Alaska Alliance. Her group supports a pipeline that stays in state -- runs through Fairbanks to the shipping port at Valdez -- rather than going through Canada.
Who should that new governor be? Backes organized a rally in Anchorage today, knocking Murkowski's handling of the gas line negotiations and invited all the candidates.
Murkowski spokeswoman Becky Hultberg said the event is more about "political theater" than good policy.
"Some people are judging the contract before they've even seen it," she said, referring to the deal Murkowski negotiated over the course of two years with oil companies that might build the line from Alaska, through Canada to the Lower 48.
The debate this week drew in most of the heavyweight contenders for Murkowski's job. Many said they want the governor to unveil the secret gas line deal so people can get a look at it and lawmakers can use it to help decide on new oil taxes.
Hultberg said the governor plans to release the contract to the public Wednesday.
Murkowski previously was going to wait until the Legislature finished revamping oil taxes, with the new oil tax rates rolled into the pipeline deal and locked in place for 30 years.
The governor has warned that if the Legislature sets oil taxes too high it could spoil the gas line deal.
On Thursday, candidate John Binkley, a Republican from Fairbanks, told reporters he wanted to take a wait-and-see approach with Murkowski's gas line contract.
"It's irresponsible to reject it out of hand until we've actually seen the contract," he said.
Still, Binkley said any gas line agreement shouldn't lock in oil tax rates for decades and needs a guarantee that the companies will build a gas line. That's not a sure thing, he said.
Former Wasilla mayor and would-be governor Sarah Palin planned to attend today's rally, and Rep. Eric Croft said he hoped to make it too.
They both said their goal isn't to stall the pipeline but to make sure lawmakers don't rush to set new oil taxes before getting a look at the details of the gas line deal.
"To expect (legislators) to make the right decision based on a secret gas deal deserves a failing grade," said Palin, a Republican.
Croft said the state needs a gas line and a new governor and won't get one without the other.
"We've waited four years for Frank Murkowski to do it, and he hasn't been able to," Croft said.
An Anchorage Democrat, Croft wants the job. So does another Anchorage Democrat, Rep. Ethan Berkowitz, who couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.
Andrew Halcro, a Republican and former Anchorage representative, is also running for governor, as an independent. He talked Thursday about the need to start thinking about how to get the state ready for thousands of new workers who would arrive to build the pipeline and how to pay for the hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of infrastructure it would take to make the project happen.
But he didn't plan to attend today's rally.
"I don't agree with the premise that we should just grind everything to a halt and wait for the next governor," he said.
Murkowski hasn't announced whether he's running for re-election.
Backes, the All Alaska Alliance director, said the rally grew partly out of protest against Murkowski's handling of the gas contract, which she said included "an unacceptable amount of secrecy and an unacceptable amount of conflicting statements and missed deadlines."
Hultberg said the governor has done his job -- he prepared a gas line contract to present to the Legislature.
"It's really unfortunate that some individuals have chosen to resort to personal attacks to promote their own agendas," she said.
Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins can be reached at khopkins@adn.com.
