Dunleavy tries to intimidate Anchorage Daily News and its reporters

Gov. Mike Dunleavy had one of his state-paid campaign workers try to intimidate the Anchorage Daily News and its reporters, deflecting attention from Dunleavy’s unethical practice of using state employees and contractors as “volunteers” on his campaign.

Let’s hope this doesn’t work.

Dunleavy doesn't want anyone asking questions about how he is running his campaign out of the governor’s office, relying on state-paid “volunteers” to do work that other campaigns pay for. He has been campaigning for more than a year and spent almost nothing on staff.

The lame letter to the Daily News attacked reporter Sean Maguire because his wife, Juneau assembly member Carole Triem, supports Les Gara in the governor’s race. The thrust of the letter is that the reporter and the newspaper are trying to hide something, which is absurd. It appears, according to Dunleavy sycophant Suzanne Downing, that the reporter has been asking questions Dunleavy doesn’t like.

“Members of the Dunleavy administration who are volunteering during their personal time are in compliance with all state laws and policies regarding ethics disclosures and the prohibition against campaign activities on public time,” wrote state employee and Dunleavy “volunteer” Andrew Jensen.

It helps that the people running the governor’s campaign out of the governor’s office are the ones who say they are in compliance with all state laws and policies.

Anything to try to change the subject of what Dunleavy is really doing with state money.

Last July, Dunleavy hired back his 2018 campaign manager, Brett Huber, and created a brand-new $140,000-a-year job titled “Governor’s Senior Policy Advisor for Statehood Defense.”

Huber had no job duties other than to direct the chorus of complaints about federal overreach and promote Dunleavy. It was a campaign job, paid for with public funds.

Huber left his state job this year in April, given a $50,000 no-bid contract by the governor that keeps him on the payroll, doing the same work he had allegedly being doing as a state employee. Huber is also on the payroll of a Dunleavy support group.

Dunleavy has given a $50,000 consulting contract to Jordan Shilling, a former state employee, and “volunteer” on Dunleavy’s reelection campaign. Shilling, a deputy treasurer of the Dunleavy campaign, has donated $750 to the Dunleavy campaign.

The Alaska Landmine reports that state employee Tyson Gallagher, now the acting chief of staff for Dunleavy, is also working on the Dunleavy campaign. Gallagher, a former employee of GCI, earns about $150,000 from the state.

Gallagher, a deputy treasurer of the Dunleavy campaign, has given $1,013 to the Dunleavy campaign.

On May 10, former Dunleavy public relations man Matt Shuckerow gave $1,000 to the Dunleavy campaign. On May 25, Dunleavy gave Shuckerow a $29,500 state contract for public relations work until after the election. Part of Shuckerow’s job is to develop talking points for Dunleavy and write social media posts. All of that is campaign work.

On Oct. 19 last year Dunleavy hired Andrew Jensen, former editor of the Alaska Journal of Commerce, as a state public relations man for $90,000.

The Jensen scandal is not that he takes personal leave during the hours in which he is officially a “volunteer” for the campaign, the official excuse from the governor’s office.

The scandal is that his state job is identical to his campaign job.

State law prohibits spending public funds on partisan purposes. Partisan “means having the intent to differentially benefit or harm a candidate or potential candidate for elective office.”

Jensen’s state job, which is entirely focused on singing the praises of Dunleavy is one of many examples of how Dunleavy has ignored that prohibition because no one can stop him.

Dunleavy gets away with this because the state personnel board charged with handling ethics complaints in the executive branch is useless.

The three-member personnel board includes former Rep. and current House candidate Craig Johnson as a member. Johnson’s claim to ethics fame is that he filed letters for many years saying he couldn’t disclose his wife’s salary as required by state law because he had no idea how much money his wife made at Channel 2 in Anchorage.

Starting in 2008 or earlier, Johnson’s disclosure forms included letters from the different owners of KTUU and even from Nancy herself, addressed to Craig, claiming her salary was a secret.

Getting the same “Dear Craig” form letter every year from your spouse saying that your income is a secret should not qualify under state law as a “good faith effort to ascertain the information” for disclosure. It’s not an effort at all. It’s not even a good excuse.

The other members of the personnel board are Keith Hamilton, president of Alaska Christian College and a member of the board since 2010; and Alfred Tagmani Sr., a former state employee and member of the board since 2006.

I wrote about Johnson’s claims two years ago that he hadn't known how much his wife had made since at least 2008, but now he says he has discovered that information. The report he filed as a candidate for state House says she made between $100,000 and $200,000 last year from Gray Broadcasting. while he made between $10,000 and $20,000 from his state pension.

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