Dunleavy collected $55,000 in gifts from wealthy hunters last year

Wealthy hunters, both in Alaska and Outside, bestowed hunting gifts worth $55,000 or more on Gov. Mike Dunleavy last year, equal to more than one-third of his salary.

His benefactors include lodge owner Sam Fejes, who gave him a hunt valued between $50,000 and $100,000; Texas developer Ronnie Urbanczk, who gave him a shotgun, shells, a semi-automatic pistol, a quail hunt, processed meat, a Stetson and a rodeo ticket; and Texan Billy Robinson, who gave him two shotguns and a chartered helicopter ride for a hunt.

Fejes, Urbanczk and Robinson were all big donors to the Dunleavy campaign in 2022.

The Anchorage Daily News has a good story on these gifts and how Dunleavy and his public relations people are still concealing some of the details from Alaskans.

Dunleavy’s publicity office does this by demanding formal records requests, which have built-in delays that can be made to last for weeks, months or forever.

“Dunleavy spokespeople declined to immediately answer questions about the dates that Dunleavy was out hunting and who accompanied him on his hunting trips, asking instead for the questions to be submitted through a formal records request,” the Daily News reported.

Dunleavy, like other elected officials and some state appointees, is required to file an annual personal finance disclosure form. The form lists his state defined-benefit pension, which is worth from $50,000 to $100,000 a year but he neglected to mention his salary as governor.

Here is his 2023 disclosure form.

His hunting trips made news last year on two occasions.

A year ago in February, Dunleavy donned a cowboy hat and showed up at the San Antonio rodeo, apparently a guest of Urbanczk. Then he went to a Safari Club International event in Michigan. He was named the Governor of the Year by the club.

Meanwhile, Dunleavy’s publicity employees refused to say where he was when they released a press release that had Dunleavy attacking the Biden administration during the infamous balloon incident. By not mentioning he was Outside, Dunleavy’s handlers gave the false impression that Dunleavy was in Alaska.

“Several people posited that Dunleavy was in Texas during the incident, based on sightings of the Republican governor at a Texas rodeo earlier in the week. Dunleavy spokesman Jeff Turner did not respond to several questions about Dunleavy’s whereabouts but said the governor was apprised on the unidentified object before it was shot down,” the Anchorage Daily News said at the time.

As I wrote here last year, there was no need to posit. On the night when F-35s first tracked an object floating over northern Alaska, Dunleavy was at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, which organizers claim is one of the greatest rodeos in North America. Dunleavy was introduced to the crowd and he stood to take a bow one hour and 27 minutes into the prime time rodeo broadcast in San Antonio.

After the rodeo, Dunleavy went to Muskegon, Michigan for a Safari Club International convention. Dunleavy has been a regular at Safari Club events and had the state sign onto a lawsuit with the club over federal hunting rules.

On that trip, Dunleavy skipped an important national meeting of governors in Washington, D.C. so he could go to the rodeo and the Safari Club meeting.

Later that spring, as the Legislature tried to complete its budget in May, Dunleavy was nowhere to be found in Juneau.

As I reported at the time, Dunleavy joined a 10-day bear trophy hunt that was an auction item at the Safari Club annual convention in Nashville. The hunt was valued at $29,500 and sold for $25,000.

“Sam Fejes has invited one hunter to the Sam Fejes Tsiu River Lodge for this 10-day, 1x1 guided rifle hunt for Alaskan Brown Bear and Black Bear with special guest Alaska’s Governor Mike Dunleavy,” the auction catalog said.

“When you hunt with Sam, you are assured that you will have a safe, enjoyable and memorable trip and the trophy hunt of a lifetime.”

Asked about Dunleavy missing the Juneau budget debate, his staff told Alaska Public Media he was taking part in a charity hunt. The Safari Club “is not a qualified charitable organization,” the club says, but a 501(c)(4) nonprofit.

On his financial disclosure form, Dunleavy says the guided spring bear hunt was a gift to him from Fejes worth between $50,000 and $100,000.

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