Gov. Mike Dunleavy claimed during a rare statewide debate that he hasn’t shown up at 13 debates in recent months because of natural disasters, including the 2018 Anchorage earthquake, the COVID pandemic, fires, storms and other catastrophes.

Former Gov. Bill Walker and former Rep. Les Gara say the political disaster of the Dunleavy administration is the real catastrophe that has kept him far from the debate stage.

Dunleavy has chosen to insulate and isolate himself, using state employees, state offices and the other resources of state government as his chief campaign machinery, claiming he’s not a candidate and he doesn’t have time to be a candidate because he’s a guy with a job.

The portrayal of Dunleavy as the busiest governor in the world is laughable, but it’s the best excuse he can come up with for avoiding debates.

He is wooden at these events, he doesn’t respond well to criticism, he’s doesn’t want to talk about his disastrous record and he is slow on his feet.

He has a habit of repeating himself. He told the audience three times Wednesday that he has three daughters, which is certainly true. He told the audience four times that because of him “billions of dollars” has been added to state savings, which is certainly not true. If oil prices don’t climb from where they are now, the state faces a deficit.

Despite all the natural disasters, Dunleavy could have participated in every debate either in person or electronically without taking any time away from his job as governor.

He claims otherwise.

“The reason I haven’t been at all the debates Bill is because I have a job. It’s called governor,” Dunleavy said Wednesday to Walker, speaking at his condescending best.

“We’ve had disasters in Alaska. I don’t know if you’ve tuned into that. We’ve have COVID, we've had earthquakes that I had to clean up after. We’ve had storms. We’ve had fires. The role of a governor in a state the size of Western Europe is to be out in the state dealing with folks, especially when there’s disasters, doing the visits,” said Dunleavy.

“How many debates do you need to be able to get your point across?”

Dunleavy suggested that he has listened to many of the debates that he has skipped because of his busy schedule.

“I’ve listened to these two guys to the right of me talk here for the past several months. They don’t talk about their plan. They don’t talk . . . Bill doesn’t talk about his record. He doesn’t want to. I don’t blame him.”

Walker said he understands that being governor is a full-time job, but that Dunleavy should have shown up at every debate, as Walker did when he was the incumbent and a candidate in 2018.

“As far as talking about records, at least I show up. I’ll talk about anything. You don’t show up,” said Walker.

Gara said Dunleavy has skipped 13 debates because of his dismal record. All told, 20,000 people have left the state during the Dunleavy years in a wave of outmigration, the biggest export of his term.

The best news coverage of the debate Wednesday appeared in the Anchorage Daily News, reported by Iris Samuels. This is a textbook example of deadline reporting. It’s hard to imagine that anyone could do a better job.