Dunleavy turns to right-wing support group again for UA Board of Regents pick
The Legislature rejected Bethany Marcum, the CEO of the right-wing Alaska Policy Forum, after Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed her to an eight-year term on the University of Alaska Board of Regents.
Dunleavy is politically aligned with the forum, a group that is no friend of public education, both K-12 and the University of Alaska. The forum is a bottomless well of misleading claims and phony statistics about education.
Dunleavy has returned to the Alaska Policy Forum talent pool for another selection for the regents, this time former forum board member Seth D. Church of Fairbanks, who has long been active in right-wing causes.
Dunleavy makes it a habit to draw appointees not based on skills for particular positions and whether the state would best be served by an applicant, but on ideology. His record shows that he chooses from a select group of those who did not sign the recall petition—people who have proven to be loyal to Dunleavy.
After Marcum’s rejection, Dunleavy did not follow the law and appoint a replacement within three days to allow a legislative confirmation vote. He waited until after the session and appointed GOP functionary Tuckerman Babcock, who has had so little direct connection with the university that in an interview with the Anchorage Daily News, he referred to the regents as the “board of trustees,” which is not something that people with close ties to the University of Alaska would say.
Naming Babcock on an interim basis meant that there would be no confirmation process until next year. Dunleavy will have to reappoint Babcock in January to keep him on the regents. The same is true with Church. Dunleavy left that key information out of his press releases.
Church was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of UA Regent Darroll Hargraves on March 8. Dunleavy should have appointed a replacement in a timely manner, allowing for legislative confirmation during the session that ended in May. He waited until this week, avoiding confirmation process again.
There should be a real vetting undertaken before anyone gets appointed to an office as important as the regents, a process in which there is public involvement and real discussion of qualifications and goals. We aren’t getting that with this governor.
It’s not clear from the four-paragraph Dunleavy press release why Church wants to be on the regents, what qualifies him for the position or why Dunleavy wants him there.
Church did not attend a regular university and Dunleavy didn’t mention anything about him being involved with UA in the past. Church was a student at “Beacon College and Graduate School” from 2003-2005 and did not complete a degree, his LinkedIn page says.
Church is president and director of “Alaska Policy Partners,” a group that has members who overlap with the Alaska Policy Forum, which is headquartered in the same Old Seward Highway building. The group ran the most scurrilous attack ads during the 2022 Alaska state campaign against moderate Republicans and Democrats. This will be an issue when he faces a confirmation vote next year.
Among the early backers of Alaska Policy Partners were Attorney General Tregarrick Taylor and his wife Jodi Taylor, Bethany Marcum and Seth Church. The AG has been recruiting for people to join him on a $15,000 fundraising fishing tri for Alaska Policy Partners.
About his background on public entities, Dunleavy’s office says, “Church served on the Alaska Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, and the Marine Transportation Advisory Board. In 2010 Seth Church was chosen as a Top Forty Under 40 by the Alaska Journal of Commerce and the Alaska Chamber of Commerce.”
What Dunleavy’s press release does not say is that the Top Forty Under 40 was not the only item from long ago. Fomer Gov. Frank Murkowski named Church as a youth member of the justice advisory committee in 2003. Church was the youth representative to the national coalition for Juvenile Justice in 2006. And former Gov. Sarah Palin named him to the ferry system advisory board in 2009.
Meanwhile, Church has a lot of experience on Republican campaign politics, from the failed campaign with Joe Miller to dethrone Randy Ruedrich from the GOP in 2008, to the failed Miller campaign to dethrone Sen. Lisa Murkowski in 2010 and the failed Kelly Tshibaka campaign to dethrone Murkowski in 2022. He went to Mar-al-ago, basked in the reflected glory of the Trump, and posed with the likes of Don Jr.
In 2012, Church claimed on Facebook that the choice between Romney and Obama was between “Mormon or Muslim. . . socialist or capitalist. . . Chicago Mafia or Wall Street Ivy League . . .Which would you prefer?”
“We’ve seen how harmful Obama has been and we understand the US government needs a business minded man in the White House to correct some of the missteps of the current administration,” Church said.
In 2022, he said that millions have died under Roe v. Wade, but “less will die now” because of the Supreme Court decision on abortion. He said that Hilary Clinton is “evil” and she tried to overthrow an election. And that Trump was the “best choice for president I’ve ever had the opportunity to vote for.”
In 2020, he said Schaeffer Cox was wrongfully convicted. “I've known Schaeffer Cox since we graduated from High School. What the FBI did to him was similar to what they did to Michael Flynn, Ted Stevens, & Don Young.”
The Dunleavy press release refers to Church as an entrepreneur, that he has two decades of experience in construction and real estate and his business skills are what UA needs.
“As a business owner, Seth brings a perspective to the Board of Regents that will ensure the University of Alaska is effectively preparing students for productive careers,” Dunleavy’s press release claims.
Among the more significant business experiences that Dunleavy did not mention are how and why Church’s firm, Company C, sought protection under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy laws after oil prices fell and his business in North Dakota faltered. That happened on Dec. 23, 2015.
Six days later, People’s United Equipment Finance Corp. filed suit against Church and others in Texas, saying they had defaulted on loans for equipment and working capital. The company said it deserved to be paid in full immediately.
In 2016, in federal court in the Southern District of Texas, the court ordered that Church and his company pay $573,250 in damages for back loans. The final judgment ending the case was filed on April 8, 2016.
On Church’s LinkedIn page and on his website, there are two claims that appear to be a clear case of inflating a resume, both of which create credibility questions.
He says this on his website, “After graduating high school in 2002, Senator Frank Murkowski accepted Seth's application to be a summer intern in Washington, D.C. Seth worked on determining the fairness of the formula for appropriating Indian Reservation Roads funds at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“From January through May of 2003, Seth served as a page in the Alaska State Senate.”
On his LinkedIn page, he says he worked for the Alaska Legislature as a staff member from January to May 2003. He also presents a job description that exaggerates the role of a page, claiming that he “maintained security and safety in the Senate chambers and provided transportation services.”
A legislative page is not a legislative staff member.
Regarding his time as a Murkowski intern, to claim that he had a role in determining the fairness of a federal formula for reservation roads exaggerates the role of an intern.
The lack of a public vetting process before someone starts serving on the regents is a critical failure in our system, made worse when we have a governor who puts a narrow view of politics above all else.
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