Alaska governor candidates react to sex-harassment lawsuit against Pierce

Independent governor candidate Bill Walker called for Republican candidate Charlie Pierce to quit his campaign after Pierce and the Kenai Peninsula Borough were sued by a borough employee who said she was sexually harassed by Pierce when he served as mayor.

The lawsuit was filed Friday by Pierce’s former executive assistant.

Incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy, also a Republican, said during a debate two days before the lawsuit was filed that he would rank Pierce second in Alaska’s ranked-choice election for governor.

Asked whether the lawsuit has changed his position, Dunleavy said on Monday in an emailed statement: “The allegations as described are serious, and we have a system of due process under the law to vet these claims. Without any way to independently verify these claims at this late date, it would be inappropriate and unfair to all parties involved to make any snap judgments or draw any conclusions from a complaint filed just days ago. I’ve been focused on my race all along, and I’m asking all Alaskans for their support.”

Pierce did not respond to messages left on his cellphone Monday.

(Dunleavy’s campaign did not respond to earlier requests for comment about his previous support for Pierce when the Daily News reported the suit on Friday, and the governor declined to speak to a Daily News reporter when approached at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention on Saturday.)

Democratic candidate Les Gara said it seemed odd to him that Dunleavy didn’t reconsider his position when all four candidates shared a debate stage on Saturday, one day after the lawsuit was filed.

“To me, in this race, it seems odd for the governor to encourage people to vote for Mr. Pierce given all that,” Gara said.

He attempted to draw a line between the lawsuit against Pierce and sexual-harassment allegations against former Attorney General Kevin Clarkson, who resigned after the Daily News documented Clarkson’s actions.

“It’s very consistent with the way the governor dealt with the sexual harassment claim against the attorney general. Until the press caught wind of it, it didn’t seem like the governor took 500 sexually harassing texts to a young employee seriously,” Gara said.

In 2018, Walker’s lieutenant governor candidate, Byron Mallott, quit that year’s election after propositioning a state employee. Walker suspended his campaign, and Dunleavy won the race, which also featured Democratic candidate Mark Begich.

In a written statement on Sunday, Walker said, “When a person in a position of power does something wrong, you don’t urge your supporters to vote for them. You demand accountability. Charlie Pierce should suspend his campaign immediately, and Mike Dunleavy should not continue to support Pierce just because it helps with his personal political ambitions.”

Attorney Caitlin Shortell is representing the plaintiff in Friday’s lawsuit and said she “is not a political person and did not file this lawsuit to make commentary on any election. (She) filed this lawsuit to enforce her right to be free from sexual harassment in the workplace.”

Shortell said the lawsuit’s timing was dictated by a state law that prescribes a 180-day statute of limitations.

According to the document, Pierce subjected his assistant “to increasingly frequent incidents of sexual harassment including: sexual remarks, embraces, kisses, touching her breast, false imprisonment in his private office, massages, discussion of his sex life, and questions as to Wastell’s sexual preferences and desires. This conduct began happening several times per week and increased in frequency until the sexual harassment was constant.”

The assistant submitted a formal complaint on July 11, and the Kenai borough hired an outside legal firm to investigate the claims three days later.

That report, delivered less than two weeks after the firm was hired, said the assistant’s claims were credible. That report has not been released to the public, and its conclusions became known only after Pierce announced that he would resign.

In two other known cases, the Kenai Peninsula Borough settled workplace harassment lawsuits against Pierce, with the borough paying a combined $260,000.

Officials at the borough, speaking anonymously, said the borough attempted to negotiate a settlement in order to avoid the latest lawsuit, but that those talks failed.

Shortell, who was hired by the assistant in place of another attorney, said she was not involved in any mediation and there is no settlement agreement.

She said the plaintiff intends to litigate her case and will take it to trial if it cannot be resolved.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.