The race so far...

A month after entering the race for Governor, I’ve had a chance to debate the other major contenders for the job just once, in Naknek, and my Republican contenders three more times.

Scott Hawkins has left the race, leaving me as the only GOP candidate with substantial business experience. Alaska’s 2018 choices are clear: two candidates on the left are clearly for new and higher taxes. Our side is for Alaska keeping its promises to its people to pay the Permanent Fund dividend (PFD) by cutting costs and growing revenues.

I’m backing that up with a strong economic growth plan and keeping our promises to investors we need to find more oil.

To that, I’ve made some bold proposals to emphasize value-added options for all our resources. Why can’t oil we refine here better compete with all the jet fuel we import from Singapore? How do we build a timber products industry, not just a timber-cutting industry? Can we upgrade the graphite that could be mined near Nome to replace China’s monopoly on what’s needed for electric car batteries? Why should Russia get a monopoly on serving shipping in the Arctic? I want us to export more value-added products, and help keep more of our kids from leaving Alaska.

My mentor Wally Hickel’s motto for leadership was “Stay Free.” I’ve worked closely with those who bring vital jobs in to our state – in natural resources and fisheries, telecommunications, transport, health and power, as well as our vitally important Native tribes and corporations. I know where to start as Governor to diversify and grow the economy, and I go in without conflicts of interest.

In one debate, I had the chance to illustrate a bit of my background as a tech/start-up entrepreneur. One opponent urged the Chugiak audience to search on Google to see how much of a fuss he’d put up protecting the PFD. I told the audience that while they are using Google they should look at StreetView, pioneered worldwide by a company I helped found.

Alaska’s resources are rich, but the resources between our ears are richer. We can do more nurture start-up businesses here, based on strong local markets for many technologies, and by harnessing the global reach of our Native corporations and Permanent Fund investment managers.

As Governor I am determined to protect the PFD, and use other Permanent Fund earnings — plus revenue growth from our lands, waters, resources — to avoid taxes. We will reduce medical costs by working with our health care providers, including ANTHC (Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium) and by getting more people to work so a third of the people in our whole state are not dependent on Medicaid.

We must help the helpless without creating more helplessness.

We will fight crime with more federal-state cooperation to stop opioid abuse and the flow of illegal drugs to Alaska by mail. We must also “correct” a social service system and a Department of Corrections that hasn’t prevented a growing crime rate; there are still too many returning criminals.

We tell peoplePeople can who love or hate the Pebble Mine proposal, but that we’re not going to take the mine’s due process rights away — as both Sen. Begich and Gov. Walker have suggested — because a government that does, could take your due process rights, too: your gun rights, your rights as a parent, your individual and property rights.

In Naknek, I pressed Governor Walker when I brought up his climate change program’s advocacy of carbon taxes. Alaska is a state known for cold, dark and distance, and taxes would raise prices on heat, light, and transportation statewide, while doing little or nothing to change the weather. It’s also a new oil tax. Walker said he doesn’t support such a tax, despite the fact that Lt. Governor Mallott just completed an east coast tour where the proposed carbon tax was touted in the New York Times. That’s a mixed message if there ever was one, especially while we’re trying to fill our pipeline.

Answering a questioner in Naknek who was concerned about federal overreach, Walker and I had a bit of a dust-up, too, on how we need to fight for more control of our destiny with the federal government, especially while Donald Trump is President. I’d chaired a blue ribbon group of Alaskans with strategies to get more land and management control to our state. Walker defunded the group and ignored the group’s recommendations. Heroes like John Sturgeon are going to the Supreme Court to defend our water and access rights with little help from the State, and Alaska’s strategy to defend our statehood rights is AWOL.

We have more debates, parades, State Fairs, blueberry festivals planned between now and August 21. (Girdwood’s Forest Fair is off-limits to politics, but I enjoy the music just the same!) I’m making myself accessible to all and having fun reconnecting with Alaskans.

On the Fourth of July, we celebrated the idea that government’s role is to protect our natural rights — not to take them away! Alaska’s Founders set up a state to cover its costs from developing our vast resources — by winning an ocean and land grant bigger than all of California, and to recognize our dream of independence and self-determination. I want to return Alaska to that conservativerestore our Founders’ vision, on both counts.

Alaskans want to be proud of their state again — national statistics put us near the bottom of America on everything from our crime and employment rates to creating new jobs and success in education. As your Governor I will work tirelessly to bring experience and leadership to make that happen. to put our state back on top, and not just the top of the map.

Business leader and Former Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell chaired the US Arctic Research Commission and was a cabinet member in Gov. Wally Hickel’s administration. As a civic and business leader he has He worked to gain permission for Alaska oil and LNG export, raised funds to build and support the Alaska Sealife and Prince William Sound science centers, and has worked to bringbrought major investment to the North. He led Alaska’s efforts to force the US to field a missile defense system, now sited in Alaska, that could defend all 50 states.