Dunleavy's Washington, D.C. publicist in line to collect $400,000 in total by end of 2026

During Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s 2022 re-election campaign, Dunleavy spokesman Jeff Turner declined to answer a question from the Anchorage Daily News about why Dunleavy was spending $4,000 a month in state money for the services of Washington, D.C. publicist Mary Vought.

Turner knew exactly why Vought was getting paid, as shown in a memo he wrote after the election, endorsing an extension of the no-bid PR contract with Vought, the president of Vought Strategies in Arlington, Virginia.

“Part of my job is to collaborate with the president at Vought Strategies on national level communications for Governor Dunleavy,” Turner wrote on Nov. 30, 2022. “Extending the contract with Vought Strategies is in the best interest of the Dunleavy administration.”

Turner credits Vought with creating a “successful national communications plan for Governor Dunleavy.” The plan includes getting him on Fox News and other right-wing outlets, sending out opinion columns under his name and boosting his ideas on social media. She is also to “engage with social media followers to grow followers and expand our message.”

Vought’s contract has now been extended or amended eight times over nearly four years, with two more extensions lined up to keep it in place until the end of Dunleavy’s term in 2026.

Here are the contracts and other documents obtained through a public records request.

It’s a textbook case of ignoring the state procurement law, putting political favoritism over competition and improperly stacking short-term contract extensions atop each other.

The Vought contract, which could cost nearly $400,000 by the end of Dunleavy’s second term, does not match up with any of the nine examples mentioned in state regulations about instances in which sole-source contracts might be appropriate.

Vought was hired by Dunleavy nearly four years ago, not long after she signed a chain letter opposing the Dunleavy recall and falsely claiming that Dunleavy had cut the state’s budget deficit by 40 percent.

She is married to obsequious Trump booster Russell Vought, a key player in Donald Trump’s plan to get revenge on political opponents if Trump is elected in 2024.

One of the controversies surrounding Russell was a piece he wrote in 2016, in which he said, “Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned.”

Dunleavy began paying Mary Vought $4,000 a month at the end of 2019, later raising that to $5,000.

A year ago, the governor’s office moved to extend the contract until the end of Dunleavy’s second term in 2026, which was approved by Chief Procurement Officer Thor Vue.

It wasn’t until Dunleavy was reelected that the state decided that Vought’s “services would still be needed.”

“This amendment is legitimate and due to unforeseen circumstances and were unforeseen when the contract was established due to the enormity of the information the vendor has access to and keep on point with,” the governor’s office claimed on a form for an “unanticipated amendment exception.”

“The topics and information that has been provided through Vought Strategies assistance has continued to keep Alaskans aware, informed both in Alaska and nationwide,” the governor’s office wrote.

Vought has the “history and knowledge of the media accounts held by Office of the Governor,” Dunleavy’s office wrote.

In response to a public records request, the Dunleavy administration said that Vought’s no-bid contract began June 18, 2020 and has been amended seven times since then.

This does not include her first no-bid contract, which expired in May 2020, paying her a total of $24,643 for six months.

Dunleavy’s office gave Vought a second no-bid contract on June 18, 2020 that was to last until the end of that year. Vought said it was a “continuation” of her earlier deal.

Near the end of 2020, the state gave her a third six-month deal, which later was extended until May 2022, November 2022, December 2022, December 2023 and now December 2024, with renewals to December 2025 and December 2026 pending at $60,000 a year.

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