State officials lied about Dunleavy's decision to run from his own press conference

On Dec. 11, Gov. Mike Dunleavy famously ducked out of his own press conference in Juneau in record time, after about 11 minutes.

It was an important meeting that deserved an hour of his time, called to reveal the proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

It had been scheduled days in advance, allowing Dunleavy time to clear his calendar and explain to the public why he had reversed himself on nearly every budget declaration he made last February.

The full scope of this about-face on education, Medicaid and other costly programs is staggering, more than a half-billion dollars.

In retrospect, it is now clear that this was the beginning of Dunleavy’s effort to rebrand himself as an innocent bystander on the budget, a lame effort to disavow any responsibility for a fiscal plan, mission impossible in his hands. This rebranding campaign will fail, as the executive branch remains a focus of budget power in Alaska’s Constitution.

At that December press conference, Dunleavy said he didn’t have time to answer a lot of questions, so he had gathered his commissioners and other top staff—assembled in firing line fashion—to provide reporters with whatever they needed.

“I do have some other meetings I have to attend to,” Dunleavy said of his plan to split.

Dunleavy took four questions before heading for the “other meetings” that he claimed he had to attend.

“I’m going to run right now,” he said, departing the podium emblazoned with the state seal.

Dunleavy staff members evaded most of the big questions in the minutes that followed—questions about a major change in budget policy that can only be answered by the tallest man in state government.

As the 27-minute press conference was about to end, reporter James Brooks of the Anchorage Daily News asked a question that deserved a real answer: “What meeting did the governor have to go to? What meeting is more important than the budget?”

“He had another obligation, I’m sorry,” said Jeff Turner.

“What is it?” Brooks asked.

Turner kept quiet. Neither he nor any of the governor’s top advisers and commissioners dared say a word about the alleged obligation, which makes all of them complicit in this little lie. It was a sorry performance.

“If you have any followup questions, we’ll be happy to take it,” said Turner.

It was clear immediately that the alleged Dunleavy obligation was a lie, concocted to allow the uncomfortable governor to avoid answering questions about the budget mess for which he has no good answers. Rather than tell the truth, the leaders of the executive branch chose to lie.

Dunleavy is in charge of his own schedule and almost anything can wait 15 minutes. Now there is some proof that there was no pressing obligation and he didn’t have to run.

What was the urgent meeting?

The governor’s schedule for that day, released to Alaska Public Media reporter Nat Herz, shows that after the 2 p.m. press conference Dunleavy met with Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer for chit-chat. Perhaps they met to watch the press conference on TV.

Then Dunleavy met with the staff members who had been at the press conference in his stead.

Dunleavy and Meyer can meet any time on any day. Maybe they talked about the holiday reception scheduled for that evening, which doesn’t qualify as an emergency. The budget, on the other hand, is an urgent matter.

The circumstances of this lie warrant news coverage.

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