Earlier this month, a crowd gathered at a Fairbanks venue to celebrate the confirmation of U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Affairs Mike Sfraga — an Alaskan and the first-ever person to hold the newly created position.
Sfraga’s confirmation was a priority of Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who pushed for the creation of the Arctic ambassador post and was seen personally lobbying her colleagues on the Senate floor during the vote.
It took more than a year after Sfraga’s nomination for the U.S. Senate to confirm him, amid opposition from some Republicans. But now, not even three months in, he may soon be out of a job.
Sfraga was appointed by President Joe Biden, and it’s typical for politically appointed ambassadors to resign their posts during presidential transitions; others, like those serving as ambassadors to Kenya and South Africa, have already announced their departures.
Sfraga, a geographer who has also worked at a think tank and University of Alaska Fairbanks, has not publicly made such an announcement.
A spokesperson for Sfraga declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for Murkowski.
Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said in a brief interview that Sfraga’s fate is likely up to Donald Trump.
“The tradition is, when a new administration comes in, most ambassadors, they just resign or step down,” said Sullivan, who missed Sfraga’s confirmation vote due to a trip to the United Nations. “But I have no idea. I truly don’t.”
Sfraga’s nomination faced close scrutiny from some Republicans, who criticized his links to Russia and China.
Republican U.S. Sen. James Risch of Idaho, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said Sfraga had spoken at one Russian government-sponsored conference headlined by Vladimir Putin and also at a panel sponsored by a “sanctioned, state-owned Russian energy company.”
Sfraga, at a Senate hearing, called Russia “half of the Arctic” and said that because the region is a small community, “you must engage.”
“Indeed, at one of those conferences, President Putin did provide a keynote address,” he said. “But I had no interaction with President Putin at all.”
Among those voting against Sfraga’s confirmation was the man who would be his new boss, Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whom Trump has chosen to be the new Secretary of State.
Many of Sfraga’s friends and allies are hoping to see him remain on the job. Fran Ulmer, a former Alaska lieutenant governor who served with Sfraga on the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, said Sfraga has spent many years working on Arctic issues and science, and establishing relationships with officials from other nations.
“He has a kind of credibility with them that would help the U.S. when it comes to pursuing a particular Arctic agenda,” she said. “Those relationships matter, and those relationships don’t happen overnight — they happen over years. So, it would be to the next administration’s advantage to have someone in there who has that kind of credibility but also those connections.”
Another friend of Sfraga’s, Mark Myers, a federal government veteran who is a former head of the U.S. Geological Survey, said that “if you were to bet, the bet would be against him.”
“But has some strong support,” added Myers.
Myers said the Fairbanks celebration of Sfraga’s confirmation drew dozens of people, including some from Alaska’s university system and the military and even Murkowski, who teleconferenced in.
“At his core, he is our neighbor, our friend — and he is just so important,” Murkowski told the audience, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
• Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at natherz@gmail.com or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. Subscribe at this link. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.
