Governor Bill Walker faces a potential campaign to recall him from office. Joe Miller backs the effort. He was the runner-up in the 2010 U.S. Senate campaign and 2014 Senate Republican primary.
Miller cited Walker’s veto of half of Permanent Fund dividend funding in explaining why he supports ousting the governor before Walker’s term ends.
“Cutting the people’s money before really much substance in anything else; the fact he misrepresented what he was going to do when he ran for office; you know, basically his devotion to basically the crony capitalist centrists as opposed to the people’s interests I think fall squarely within the recall parameters,” Miller said.
State law provides for four grounds for recall – lack of fitness, incompetence, neglect of duties, or corruption.
The recall application must have nearly 29,000 signatures to start the formal recall petition process. The petition then must gather roughly 70,000 signatures in 180 days before the recall would be placed on the ballot.
For his part, Walker said in an emailed statement that he respects the recall organizers’ right to voice their objections to his budget vetoes. But it doesn’t sway his decision on how to address the state’s fiscal challenges. He adds that the Permanent Fund dividend will go to zero in four years without significant changes.
There have only been two successful recalls of governors in U.S. history — North Dakota Governor Lynn Frazier in 1921 and California Governor Gray Davis in 2003, when Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced Davis.
Andrew Kitchenman is the state government and politics reporter for Alaska Public Media and KTOO in Juneau. Reach him at akitchenman@alaskapublic.org.
