Five simple questions for every candidate for governor

Two months ago, Gov. Mike Dunleavy refused to answer simple written questions from news organizations, claiming that he has answered every important question in the past and people can look up public statements of his online.

As I wrote at the time, if you look up his public statements you will find a long record of evasion, deflection and political dodgeball. Dunleavy doesn’t want to answer questions unless he approves of the questions, which is when he dips into his infinite supply of pablum.

Now he has another chance to either come clean with Alaskans or continue to stonewall, hiding his position on basic questions such as whether he supports holding a constitutional convention and whether Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

Dunleavy is using a state employee, Andrew Jensen, as his campaign palace guard, shielding Dunleavy from Alaskans who deserve to know where he stands.

(By the way, Dunleavy supports holding a convention, but he has refused to say so in public, preferring to duck the question. Obsequious to an extreme when it comes to Trump, Dunleavy accepts the Trump lies that Biden was not elected fairly. About climate change, Dunleavy rejects the science. )

The Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Public Media, the Alaska Beacon and KTOO have jointly submitted a lists of questions to the candidates. The answers are due Monday at noon.

There are 11 open-ended questions and 5 that require a simple yes or no answer. The open-ended questions have some value, but any campaign that wants to can easily respond with answers that ignore the question. The format of these exchanges leaves a lot to be desired as there is no opportunity to tell the candidate, “You didn’t answer the question.”

Former Rep. Les Gara sent me a copy of his answers and I am waiting a response from former Gov. Bill Walker.

Here are the “yes or no” questions and Gara’s responses.

Yes or No. Do you believe Joe Biden won the presidential election in 2020?

Gara: Yes.

Yes or no. Would you consider new taxes as part of a complete balanced budget plan?

Gara: “As answered above.” ( Gara can do better than that. I will get to his detailed answer about why he supports raising oil taxes in a future blog post. He should say “yes” to this question and make his position clear.)

Yes or no. Do you think climate change is affected by human activities?

Gara: Yes.

Yes or no. Do you support a constitutional convention?

Gara: No.

Yes or no. Do you support maintaining open primaries and ranked choice voting in Alaska?

Gara: Yes.

Anyone who refuses to answer those questions doesn't qualify to be governor. I’ll have more on Gara’s open-ended responses before too long.