OPINION: The Alaska governor’s race and women’s safety

Gov. Michael Dunleavy doesn’t deserve another term for many reasons. One of the most important is his administration’s failure to meaningfully protect Alaska women from harassment and violence. Consider the current administration’s record on women’s safety.

On Dunleavy’s watch, Alaska led the nation in sexual assaults, with a rate nearly four times the national average. During Dunleavy’s term, 57.4% of Alaska women reported experiencing intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or both during their lifetime. If Dunleavy failed to protect women from sexual violence and harassment for the past four years, how are we expected to believe he will do better in the next four years?

His track record does not inspire confidence.

Illustrative is Dunleavy’s failure to protect a female employee from former Attorney General Kevin Clarkson. In 2020, Alaska learned that Clarkson repeatedly harassed a much younger woman then working in the Dunleavy’s Juneau office. Clarkson sent this female employee 558 text messages over a 27-day period commenting on her appearance, inviting her to his home, and ignoring her requests to be left alone. When the problem could no longer be quietly tolerated, Dunleavy covered up by allowing Clarkson to continue as attorney general after a 30-day suspension. Clarkson resigned only when the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica broke the scandal.

Dunleavy then nominated Ed Sniffen to succeed Clarkson as attorney general. But Sniffen resigned after another investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica. Sniffen now awaits trial on three counts of felony sexual abuse of a minor. It seems reasonable to ask whether Dunleavy’s ability to judge character has improved since then. If it has, why did Dunleavy continue to urge supporters to rank fellow Republican Charlie Pierce second after a Pierce subordinate credibly accused Pierce of workplace sexual misconduct?

The reality is that Dunleavy’s agenda has nothing to do with ending violence against women but everything to do with eliminating women’s rights to reproductive freedom. Unlike the U.S. Constitution under Dobbs, the Alaska Constitution protects a woman’s right to reproductive choice. Women in Alaska cannot be compelled to give birth to unwanted children or to children conceived through rape or incest.

But Dunleavy wants to change that. He already tried to intimidate the Alaska Court System by twice vetoing a portion of its budget as punishment for upholding a woman’s right to reproductive freedom. Litigation over these vetoes required Alaska to pay nearly $87,000 in costs and attorney’s fees. Dunleavy now supports a constitutional convention that, in all likelihood, would eliminate a women’s right to reproductive freedom. If voters reject the convention, Dunleavy promises to sponsor a constitutional amendment eliminating a woman’s right reproductive freedom.

Dunleavy still has not explained to Alaska women why state government should control their reproductive choices. And Dunleavy avoids accountability by skipping debates and refusing to sit for unscripted press interviews.

Alaska deserves better. Alaska deserves a governor who answers for his or her record and who is committed to protecting reproductive freedom and ending violence against women. For this reason, when you cast your ballot, do not vote for or rank Dunleavy. Instead, vote a candidate committed respecting women’s rights. Vote for Les Gara or Bill Walker, and rank the other as your second choice.

Kevin F. McCoy has lived in Alaska since 1976. He practiced law in the state for 44 years, and is now retired.

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