Walker, Fleener pitch candidacy

WASILLA — So what would possess a person to run for governor, as an Independent no less?

To the first question, “I don’t like knowing what I know and not doing something about it,” Bill Walker said.

To the second, he points out that as an Independent, he doesn’t have a party line to toe. He doesn’t have a platform to follow or favors to repay.

“I wouldn’t want to be governor under any other terms,” he said.

Another perk of running independently: Walker gets to pick his own lieutenant governor, and he’s chosen Craig Fleener.

Fleener is another lifelong Alaskan, hailing from Fort Yukon. He’s had just about every village job you can think of. He’s chief of wing intelligence for the 176th wing of the Alaska National Guard, a former deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, a moose biologist, a former tribal council member … the list goes on.

Like his running mate, Fleener said he likes the idea of running as an Independent.

“I think Alaska is ready for a change in the political scene,” Fleener said. “We really want to bring the power back to Alaskans.”

Walker said Wally Hickel was his main inspiration for running in the last gubernatorial election. He said Hickel told him then to run as an Independent. He didn’t believe Hickel and entered a crowded field trying to take on Gov. Sean Parnell, who would go on to win. After the race, Walker said he took a poll and found that if the primary had been the general, if everyone running from any party had been on the ballot all at once, he was just one point behind Parnell.

He said Parnell will have to debate him in a general election. A common complaint during the previous election was that Parnell wouldn’t show up to debates. At the time, Parnell said he was busy with state business.

“I chased him all over the state trying to debate him,” Walker said. “In Ketchikan, I thought I had him cornered at the Blueberry Festival.”

They were both at the festival, but at debate time, Parnell was on a plane back to Juneau.

If you’re wondering how Walker managed to get through two-thirds of a news article without talking about a natural gas pipeline, he said he’s still passionate about it, but isn’t bringing it up right from the start and at every turn like he did during the last election.

Walker has from the start been a strong proponent of a gas line to tidewater to sell gas on the world market. Four years ago, that was something of a minority opinion. The big ticket seemed to be a line through Canada.

“Now they’re all saying what I was saying four years ago,” he said. “Last time they were all singing, ‘Oh Canada’ and I was saying, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me.’”

He still thinks the state is doing it wrong and said the Parnell administration is studying the project rather than building it.

“If you make your living doing studies, we’re not the people for you,” Walker said of himself and Fleener.

“Pick up a shovel,” Fleener added.

Walker said that Parnell has given away billions in tax breaks to the oil companies and received nothing in return. The oil companies will move pipe around until we forget about it, he said, and then put it in warehouses for another decade until we get restless again.

Meanwhile, he pointed out that Norway’s oil industry is booming. Norway builds the infrastructure — pipelines and such — and sets the terms of development.

If Alaska would stand up to the oil companies, set terms and demand the right amount of taxes, Walker said the state wouldn’t have to struggle to fund education. His running mate picked up that thought.

“We gave the oil companies $40 billion and we’re laying off teachers,” Fleener said. “Doesn’t seem like a good trade to me.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.