Parnell, Walker clash in debate

WASILLA — Gubernatorial candidates faced a raft of questions from a lively audience of local business owners and campaign supporters Friday.

Candidates for lieutenant governor Dan Sullivan and Byron Mallott also participated in the free-flowing, largely unstructured debate hosted by the Mat-Su Business Alliance. Unlike other debates, candidates weren’t held to strict time limits for their responses, and were allowed to answer questions directly from the audience.

Topics ranged from Valley-specific questions, like the Knik Arm crossing, to more general topics about economic development in Alaska, to obscure questions like the role Alaska Dispatch News publishers played in the formation of the unity ticket.

On the bridge question in particular, Walker repeated earlier statements about examining the feasibility of the bridge, more than expressing blanket support.

“I’m all about infrastructure,” he said. “I’m from a building background. I would put all the projects on the table and see what we can do, what we can’t do.”

Candidates also said they see the bridge as a potential route to affordable Anchorage housing, though much of the district is currently set aside for agricultural purposes.

Parnell took partial credit for moving the development of the bridge to the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities after an earlier Public Private Partnership, or P3 model, became unfeasible.

“When the P3 wasn’t able to be advanced anymore, our Department of Revenue went to work,” he said.

An additional route between the city and the Valley could also improve transportation, Sullivan said.

“I think everybody’s had that experience where that road is closed down because of weather or an accident,” he said. “Every time that happens, you’re stranding 18,000 to 20,000 commuters.”

Economic arguments centered on potential coal use in Alaska, including Usibelli Coal Mine’s recently approved permit for mining at Wishbone Hill in the Sutton area. All candidates said that if the company can adhere to state environmental statutes, coal mining should move forward. They also briefly addressed an ongoing legal battle surrounding Point Thomson, an Exxon-managed, liquid natural gas field.

The Parnell campaign has said in the past a lawsuit undertaken by Walker could end jobs at the site. The Walker campaign counters that the deal, in which suits and countersuits for leases in the gas field eventually wound up in the state Supreme Court before being settled out of court, constitutes an unconstitutional way of doing business.

“It’s a frightening precedent for how to do business in the state of Alaska,” Walker said.

The suit would not end Alaskan jobs, Walker continued.

“Nothing I’m doing with the suit would shut down Point Thomson,” he said.

Parnell reiterated his counter at Friday’s debate, that the state needs the money too badly to settle 2003 claims that the companies had reneged on leases originally established in 1983.

“The question really is will you set aside everything at (Point Thompson) and call a halt, or will you move forward?” he said.

Some of the questions, primarily those from moderator and Radio Host Dan Fagan, drew vocal objections from the audience — “are you even a moderator?” someone shouted from the crowd at one point — particularly when Fagan asked each of the candidates whether a child in its mother’s womb was alive, which prompted a tirade from Mallott, the lone pro-choice candidate on the podium.

“Let me say this: I care about a child after it’s born,” he said. “I care about a child who has not had a good education, who has no opportunity, who does not have the opportunity looking forward to have equality, to have freedom, to be able to have a job, to be able to look at America and say it is my home and it is a place of opportunity. That’s what I care about.

“The issues that we are addressing here will not be the kind of issues that move Alaska forward and solve our problems and create opportunities, and that is what will make our ticket the kind of ticket that will advance Alaska’s future on issues that will affect every single one of us and not our personal beliefs.”

Applause and whistles temporarily overwhelmed the moderators.

Moderator Amanda Coyne brought up bipartisanship, and said Walker had been able to gain traction on that issue because of Parnell’s largely Republican appointments to state boards and commissions.

Parnell pointed to several measures he said had been passed along bipartisan lines, including the decision to address the unfunded pension liability in the most recent budget. Despite disagreements in Juneau, the parties played well together, Parnell said.

“The partisanship that you hear about that Bill Walker is capitalizing on is really a broken (Washington, D.C.) Congress that we all know about, that we’ve heard about,” he said. “When it comes to this executive branch, with this legislative branch, this is the best working relationship I’ve seen in a long time.”

While Parnell said his administration with Sullivan represented a congruence of opinion on a lot of issues, at least one difference appeared over the course of the debate. When asked during a rapid-fire yes-or-no series of questions at the end of the debate whether they opposed or supported Proposition 3, which would boost the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour, Sullivan said he opposed the measure, while Parnell said he favored it.

Asked about that after the debate, Sullivan said he felt his answer spoke for itself.

“The only real difference between us is he likes the Minnesota Vikings and I’m a 49ers fan,” Sullivan quipped.

The Parnell-Sullivan ticket won a straw poll held among the debate’s pro-business attendees, 97 votes to 77 votes. The same pool showed attendees overwhelmingly rejecting Proposition 2 (108 to 32), narrowly failing Proposition 3 (78 to 68), and opposing Proposition 4 (84 to 54).

The election is set for Nov. 4.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.