A protest in downtown Anchorage Monday night urging people to sign an application to recall Alaska’s governor was lightly attended. The political news website The Midnight Sun tweeted a rally participant count of 19. KTVA reported more than two dozen protesters.
Former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller is leading an effort to oust Gov. Bill Walker over his veto to cut Alaskans’ Permanent Fund Dividend checks in half. It’s spawned the website recallgovwalker.com and the Facebook page Recall Gov Bill Walker.
“People depend on the PFD. We live in a state where the cost of living is 25 percent higher than other states. People use that PFD for their heat bill. We’ve had people write us that they might not be able to get medical care that they need, or their children won’t be able to buy school clothes,” Miller said during a phone interview Monday before the protest.
“There’s just an extensive list of injuries that people are going to be sustaining as a consequence of what the governor has done,” he continued.
In light of a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, Walker announced at the end of June a string of vetoes, including cuts to oil tax credits, education and capital projects. His veto to the Alaska Permanent Fund appropriation halves the expected dividend check amount of $2,000 and caps it at $1,000 for every Alaska resident.
Miller referred to the veto as “stealing” in a July 4 post to his website Restoring Liberty. He’s accusing Walker of being no longer fit for office, incompetent and having neglected his duties, which are three or four grounds for recall according to state statute.
Miller believes it’s against state law for Walker to use his veto pen to strike a fund transfer of the Permanent Fund appropriation. He also said Walker has, in the past, made repeated promises to not touch the PFD to help balance the budget.
“A lot of people voted for this guy with the understanding that he would protect their interests, that he would be a governor of the people, and that’s not the way it’s turned out,” Miller said.
Seeking signatures
The Alaska Division of Elections hasn’t received notification of any recall effort, said director Josie Bahnke, but that’s not required for the two-step process.
In order to recall the governor, Bahnke said a committee of three people would have to file an application that states the grounds of recall and have 28,545 signatures of qualified voters, which is equal to 10 percent of those who voted in the 2014 general election.
“How long that takes them can kind of depend on how organized a group is,” Bahnke said.
Miller said he and two undisclosed individuals make up the committee and the goal is to get more than 30,000 signatures for the application phase.
Supporting Miller’s recall effort is what he called a “loosely affiliated group across the state.” He said they’re not an official group and have no funding sources.
For gathering signatures, Miller said he’s relying on others to take up the challenge.
“It’s going to require a grassroots effort across the state to make this thing happen. Everybody has to sign the same form and have the same statement of grounds for recall attached to the signatures forms, but this is not going to be a controlled event. It’s going to be determined by how people react to the level of anger they have and how much they want to hold the governor accountable,” he said.
Once the recall committee completes the application, including the required number of signatures, it gets turned into the Division of Elections. Bahnke said her division and the Department of Law weigh in to make the decision to certify or deny the application.
“Either we say, ‘Yes, go ahead,’ or we say, ‘No, you don’t have enough grounds for recall,’ or ‘You don’t have enough signatures,’ or no for whatever reason is given to the committee. But if everything looks good, our division would prepare petition booklets for full circulation throughout the state,” she explained.
In the second phase of the process, the recall effort must get signatures of qualified voters equal to 25 percent of those who voted in the 2014 general election, which is around 71,000, Bahnke said.
If the petition is deemed sufficient, there would be a call for a special election to put the question before the people of Alaska. If the petition comes in during a specific time frame, Bahnke said the question to recall Walker could be part of the November general election.
Walker unswayed
Miller said the signature-gathering process will be a “tough road.”
“There’s no question about it. We understand it’s an enormous challenge, but there’s an enormous amount of outrage across the state about what this governor has done,” he said.
Miller said his post about the recall on his Restoring Liberty website, the Recall Governor Bill Walker website and Facebook page have garnered “hundreds, may even be thousands” of responses or phone calls from people across the state.
“I respect these Alaskans’ right to voice their objections over my budget vetoes,” Gov. Bill Walker said in a statement issued by his office Tuesday in response to the recall effort. “However that does not sway my decision on how to address the state’s fiscal challenges. Alaska is currently facing a $4 billion budget deficit. Without significant changes, the Permanent Fund Dividend will go to zero in just four years.”
The statement said his actions follow those of the Republican-led Senate, which voted to restructure the Permanent Fund.
“While the actions we took were not politically popular, they were absolutely necessary to preserve our state’s savings and bring fiscal stability back to Alaska.”
• Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.
Related stories:
Juneau rally urges lawmakers to ‘Do your jobs!’
Legislature starts fifth special session with no clear path forward
Juneau voters to decide city sales tax question: Five years or forever?
