No disgrace in Walker’s withdrawal

Alaska voters do not have a history of re-electing their sitting governors. Only three times since statehood have they returned an incumbent, William Egan in 1962, Jay Hammond in 1978 and Tony Knowles in 1998. Every election has its own idiosyncrasies, but if there's a common thread that links all the others, it might be that the voters like change more than they like their current occupant of the mansion in Juneau. In suspending his 2018 campaign, Gov. Bill Walker joins a line of distinguished Alaskans who served but one gubernatorial term.

Egan earned high marks for his dedication to setting the state on a firm foundation of integrity, transparency and compassion in government, and for efficiency in establishing the various new departments, agencies and administrative and legal codes. But when he sought a third consecutive term, arguing that he had not served the full two terms allowed by the state constitution because statehood was not official until Jan. 3, 1959, and the constitution provides for the governor to be inaugurated the second Monday in December, voters took a dim view of the claim and elected Walter Hickel. But midway through Hickel's term, newly elected President Nixon tapped Hickel to be his Secretary of the Interior. Keith Miller served out the term and sought election in his own right, but voters chose Egan again (the constitution does not limit the number of non-consecutive terms) who argued in his campaign for a generous and quick settlement of Alaska Native land claims.

The desire for change seemed a salient issue in the 1974 campaign when Egan ran yet again. Instead, voters chose Jay Hammond — who, running at the crest of the environmental movement, argued for "responsible development," attracting voters from both sides of the environment/development divide. Hammond had soundly defeated Hickel in the Republican primary. Hammond and Hickel squared off again in the 1978 primary, which was decided by the state supreme court following charges of fraud, declaring Hammond the winner. Hickel waged a write-in campaign, capturing 26 percent of the vote to Hammond's 39 percent, with Democrat Chancy Croft getting 20 percent.

There followed a series of one-term governors, interrupted only by Knowles. Bill Sheffield served during the 1985 oil price crisis, and survived an attempted impeachment. Steve Cowper declared when elected that he would serve only a single term, and provided exemplary leadership in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Hickel lost the Republican primary in 1990 to Arliss Sturgulewski, but switched his affiliation to independent and won the general with 39 percent of the vote to Democrat Knowles' 31 percent; Sturgulewski polled 26 percent. Knowles won election in 1994 with the narrowest margin in any Alaska governor's race, 536 votes, 41.08 percent to 40.84 percent for Republican Jim Campbell and 13.04 percent for Jack Coghill running as an independent. Then in 1994, Knowles won re-election by the widest margin in an Alaska governor's race, 33 percent. It came to light during the campaign that his Republican opponent, John Lindauer, had violated campaign finance law through his wife providing most of his financing. The Republican vote was split between Robin Taylor, 18.3 percent, Lindauer, 17.9 percent and Ray Metcalfe, 6.1 percent.

Former U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski succeeded Knowles but failed to win re-election, most likely because of a backlash over his appointing his daughter to serve out his U.S. Senate term shortly after his gubernatorial victory. Sarah Palin won a large primary victory over Murkowski, and defeated Knowles 48 percent to 41 percent in the 2006 general. Palin served only two-and-a-half years of her term, having been selected as John McCain's vice-presidential running mate. Sean Parnell served the remainder of the term and won election in his own right in 2010, but lost to Bill Walker in 2014.

Bill Walker is clearly a man of integrity, determination and courage, but his decision to reduce the Permanent Fund dividend to try to balance the budget, burdening the financially vulnerable, made him effectively unelectable, now complicated by the resignation of Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott. For those who favor retention of Medicaid, and the protection of women's rights, Mike Dunleavy is unacceptable. Given Alaska's many one-term governors, there's no disgrace in
Gov. Walker withdrawing. It's entirely consistent with other courageous decisions he has made.

Editor's note: The original version of this column was written before Gov. Bill Walker suspended his campaign. It has been modified by the author to reflect his withdrawal from the race.

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