Dunleavy now claims he supports Zink, though he refused to do so in front of right-wing group in Mat-Su

Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his handlers shifted into damage control about his political cowardice and refusal to defend the work record of Dr. Anne Zink, the state’s chief medical officer.

On Saturday, Dunleay spoke to a right-wing crowd in Mat-Su that clamored for Zink to be fired. Dunleavy didn’t disappoint his fans.

He said he would make a "decision" about her and other employees, a comment that drew cheers from the four dozen in attendance, who clearly interpreted it as a suggestion that Zink’s days as a state employee were numbered.

In a phone interview Wednesday reported by the Anchorage Daily News, Dunleavy said he didn’t say anything in defense of Zink that day because he wanted to protect confidential information.

”Dunleavy dismissed the idea that he was trying to placate his audience and said he was trying to avoid discussing personnel issues at a public forum,” the newspaper said.

“Personnel files, personnel everything should be protected and not just willy-nilly discussed,” he told the Anchorage newspaper.

He is lying. This claim is preposterous.

His silence about Zink before the zealots had nothing to do with a “willy-nilly” discussion of personnel files.

It has everything to do with the patented Dunleavy campaign approach of telling every audience what he thinks will make him popular. In this case, his audience wanted Zink gone and Dunleavy did nothing to challenge them or suggest it wouldn’t happen.

Check out the video on Facebook for yourself starting at about the 41-minute mark and continuing for about five minutes. Twice during his session with the Mat-Su members of the Association of Mature American Citizens, the crowd cheered when someone called upon Dunleavy to fire Zink.

Dunleavy refused to defend her record before the hostile crowd or to defend the work of Alaska’s hospitals, another subject on which the “mature” audience was out for blood.

Zink’s name came up again after Dunleavy didn’t mention her. An audience member said, “What about Zink?” and he tried to placate the crowd and send a message that he agreed with the attack.

“I’ll make that decision. I’ll make that decision. I’m not gonna have a discussion—I’m being honest with you—I’m not gonna have a discussion here in front of folks. I’ll make a decision not just about one staff member, but a number of staff members,” said Dunleavy.

Now Dunleavy tells the Anchorage Daily News he “should have been clear” about what he thinks of Zink. He was pretty clear. He told the zealots “I’ll make a decision” about Zink, which is what they wanted and they clapped.

Four days later, he tells the Anchorage newspaper, “There is no reason for me to fire Dr. Zink. Dr. Zink has my confidence.” Such confidence that he couldn’t mention it before a hostile crowd of four dozen.

Dunleavy didn’t have the guts to tell right-wing zealots that Zink has been doing a good job. Now he doesn’t have the guts to say what happened last Saturday, inventing this fairy tale that he was trying to avoid disclosing confidential information.

When he ran for governor in 2018, Dunleavy made it standard practice to try to please whatever audience he was addressing with evasion and amorphous statements. He’s doing it again for the 2022 campaign. It’s long past the time for Alaska news organizations to recognize this and hold him accountable.

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