The ADN editorial board used some poor logic when it compared the recall efforts directed to Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Assembly Chair Felix Rivera. The cases are anything but similar. The ADN board took the position that the “delayed appointment of a Palmer judge … “was no big deal. This was a deliberate act that was just part of a larger goal which is to eventually overturn Alaska’s method of selecting judges and to make that process more political.
“Partisan mailers purchased with state funds …” is likewise more serious than the ADN board would have us believe. If any administration is allowed to do that with impunity, what else might it try to get by with on a bigger scale? Why is this ever right? Why ignore this?
The “$334,700 (deleted) from the court system’s budget …” was another political attack that did not work out for the governor; he had to return it. These are not “narrow grounds” that the ADN board would have us believe. These actions were unilateral and certainly not subject to any rational debate before they were enacted. There was no opportunity to “work through the issues” beforehand.
The ADN board said that “… the recall effort lost much of its steam in early 2020.” Of course it did! We are in the middle of a pandemic which severely restricts the ability of that bipartisan effort to collect signatures.
— John Jensen
Anchorage
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