Look through the governor’s “Newsroom” page on his official website. You’ll find it’s set up for all kinds of ways he can talk to Alaskans: press releases, speeches, op-eds and even proclamations. But look through those pages, and you’ll either find blank space or loads of useless legalese that use the word “Whereas” an obscene number of times. We even have a ridiculously insensitive proclamation declaring June to be “Barbecue Month,” made on June 20, while much of the state was shrouded in wildfire smoke. Barbecue indeed.
But if you want to hear Gov. Mike Dunleavy defend his budget cuts or explain just how overdrawing the Permanent Fund earnings counts as being “fiscally responsible,” you’ll be disappointed. If you’re looking for town hall meetings the governor is attending to take questions from seniors or university students about the tenuous future he is engineering for them, you’ll search in vain. The governor, it seems, is AWOL. Away from his desk. Not available for comment.
Strong leaders don’t hide when the heat is on. Where are you, Mike? We’d all like to have a little chat.
— Gregory Hartley
Anchorage
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