Gubernatorial candidates speak at chamber

WASILLA — Six of the eight candidates for governor this year descended on the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce Tuesday to take turns making their election pitch to the business community.

Bill Walker

Running as an independent this time — he faced Parnell in the last election as a Republican and lost — Walker said he describes himself as “a carpenter with a law degree.”

“In Alaska, we have lost our way. I want to bring Alaska back,” he said.

Doing that includes balancing the budget, bringing down energy costs, accepting the federal Medicaid expansion, and improving graduation rates, he said.

On that final point, he said the Valley has a good example of how to do it: Mat-Su Career and Technical High School, which prepares kids for Alaska jobs.

“That’s working. That’s working very well,” he said. “I’d like to see that broadening out.”

Phil Stoddard

One of two candidates who couldn’t make it to the event — the other being Gov. Sean Parnell — Stoddard sent a brief statement to event organizers. Moderator Stu Graham, with the Matanuska Telephone Association, read the statement, which said Stoddard’s goal is “to bring the U.S. Navy back to Alaska and to Point MacKenzie.”

Brad Snowden

Snowden, of Seward, is kind of a perennial candidate. In past Frontiersman interviews he said his nickname is “governor,” and that when he formed a real estate company he named it the Governor’s Group. While everyone else handed out yard signs and lapel pins and bumper stickers, Snowden could be spotted at the back of the room with a helium tank, filling up campaign balloons.

“I don’t see this election as being about me, it’s about you,” he said.

He said his first goal would to sell fuel at cost if it is consumed in Alaska. His second is to end debate and get a natural gas pipeline built. His third is to bolster education. His fourth would be to put to a vote whether to hand federal lands over to the states.

Sean Parnell

The governor was elsewhere for a bill-signing ceremony. He sent the chamber a video but technical difficulties kept it from being played.

In an editorial board meeting at the Frontiersman last month, Parnell said he believes the state needs to keep in place the oil tax structure he pushed through. He said he believes he has a good record working for all parts of the state, from urban to rural.

Russ Millette

Millette briefly served as head of the state’s Republican Party. He wears his Tea Party affiliation on his sleeve and on his signs, actually, which prominently feature a Gadsden Flag — the yellow banner with the snake and the phrase Don’t Tread on Me.

“We have some major problems at the leadership level in this state,” Millette said. “The governor of this state has tremendous power to balance the budget. It’s called the line-item veto, and in this last budget he didn’t use it.”

He said he would cut the budget until he has brought spending in line with revenue. He also advocated a flat tax rate and for kicking the Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Land Management out of Alaska. He urged voters to consider making a choice outside of the mainstream.

“Nothing will change if you keep doing what you’ve always done,” he said.

Byron Mallott

Mallott was born and raised in Yakutat. He said that in his tenure as CEO of Sealaska Corp., one of that company’s subsidiaries was shipping sand and gravel from the Matanuska-Susitna Valley into Anchorage. That subsidiary was the largest user of the Alaska Railroad at the time.

He said he wants to bring back depleted salmon stocks and that he sees Mat-Su as key to understanding the state’s future as it transitions from rural to urban.

“It is the Matanuska Valley that in many ways is the experiment, the cauldron, the incredible Mecca of Alaska’s future,” he said.

Gerald “Tap” Heikes

Heikes is something of a perennial candidate. A Palmer resident, minister, and in his own words, “carpenter, Sheetrock-er and ne’er do well,” who has been running since 2006.

“I’m just another guy who’s fed up with the system,” he said

His goals as governor: nullify any laws President Barack Obama has managed to get passed, put federal land in Alaska into the hands of the state, work to bring down fuel costs to $1 per gallon for gasoline, and impeach the president.

“I mean what I’m saying, and it can be done,” he said.

Care Clift

“I have always been very devoted to the community,” said Clift, the Libertarian running this year.

Clift is a former schoolteacher who noted that public education is guaranteed by the state’s constitution.

“The Libertarian Party is known to be fiscally responsible and socially tolerant,” she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.