Alaska’s Governor Goes “Bulworth”?

Opinion by Andrew Jensen, Alaska Journal of Commerce

“Going Bulworth,” if you don’t know, is an expression for politicians who say what they actually think. It comes from the 1998 movie starring Warren

Bill Walker, Governor of Alaska. NGP file photo by Dave Harbour.

Bill Walker, Governor of Alaska. Northern Gas Pipelines file photo by Dave Harbour.

Beatty about a disillusioned U.S. senator who starts drinking at campaign events and rapping about single-payer healthcare.

Gov. Bill Walker went Bulworth in front of the Alaska Chamber.

At its annual meeting in Kenai on Oct. 12, Walker took the podium unshackled from any need to impress a group that was among those who gave him a grade of “D” on its business report card from the 2016 legislative session.

“Don’t give me grades,” Walker said at one point.

Minus the inebriation and the rapping, that was Walker, who angrily told people not to criticize his cabinet officials, said he doesn’t care about approval ratings, promised to introduce tax increases next year that will be bigger than those he proposed this year, and then cried poor about the pay cuts he and his appointees have taken to enter public service.

Yes, Walker said this in front of a room full of people from the oil industry that has shed 3,000 jobs over the past two years while state government payrolls haven’t been cut by a tenth of that.

We don’t know exactly what Brena paid Walker and his wife Donna for the firm, but financial disclosures put the number between $200,000 and $400,000 for the firm and that they sold the downtown office for between $400,000 and $1 million.

We do know that Brena, who was the chair of Walker’s oil and gas transition committee, is working to defeat pro-business candidates in the….

Read complete editorial here