Vimeo video 1229047123

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to kick things off here. My name is Connor Idukovich. I'm the executive director of the Resource Development Council. We're a nonprofit, nonpartisan trade association representing Alaska's oil and gas, mining, forestry, fisheries, and tourism industries.

While I give some other introductions, I'd ask the candidates to start making their way up here and get settled at these podiums, please. So I'd first like to just thank everyone for being here today. We do have a pretty packed agenda.

First of all, this event is being jointly co-hosted by 11 other organizations other than RDC. We decided to really collaborate on this event. You'll see all the logos on the screen right now. But, you know, this, this group as a whole is really working to grow our economy, create jobs, and develop Alaska's resources. That's where we all really combine.

Together and can collaborate. I think it's, it's very unique in Alaska compared to really anywhere else in the country that we can collaborate in that way across so many different industries. So before I introduce our candidates here, I do want to introduce the partner organizations, some of whom are asking questions over here to the side. But we have the Alaska Forest Association, the Kenai River Sport Fishing Association, the Associated General Contractors of Alaska, ANCSA Regional Association, Pacific Seafood Association, Alaska Miners Association, Alaska Trucking Association, Alaska Support Industry Alliance, Alaska Oil and Gas Association, Alaska Travel Industry Association, and the Alaska Chamber. A lot of Alaska in that as I'm reading that out loud, I realize.

So please give me a— can we do a round of applause for those fellow trade associations?

All right. Now we will begin the actual gubernatorial forum portion of today. So, you know, these candidates have dedicated energy and time into the significant task of learning the issues of pertinent Alaskan topics and taking on the responsibility to serve as an elected official. So today we're joined by the top 4 Alaska gubernatorial candidates. We have Treg Taylor, Jonathan Crease Tompkins, Dave Bronson, and Bernadette Wilson.

So please help me welcome our candidates today.

All right. A couple ground rules for the audience going forward. We are going to hold the applause during individual responses and we— just because we want to get through as many questions as we can today. And we will give all the candidates a round of applause at the end. For some of the structure of the forum today, I'll be asking questions to all 4 candidates that cover topics related to all of the hosting organizations.

For the main questions that I'll be asking, each candidate is gonna have 60 seconds to respond. And later, there is gonna be a short brief answer portion where we ask candidates to shorten their responses to just 30 seconds. That's— there's about 4 of those questions a little bit later on. Following that, we will move on to the 7 organizations— or I think we have 6 today— sitting to the side of the stage here who will ask questions on behalf of their specific industries. These questions are also going to be 60-second answers as well.

We are—. We do have a visible timekeeper here, so you guys will receive a warning as it winds down. We are going to cut off mics after about 5 seconds or so after the time runs out to try and let you finish your thought, but we are gonna be trying to be strict on time today. And then finally, we are gonna start with 2-minute opening remarks. And I'll start, just mention that the candidates haven't been provided these questions in advance.

They've been provided some broad topics, as well as the list of organizations that might be asking them a question, to make sure that we're as unbiased on this as we can be. So with that, I'm going to start with Craig. I'm going to be referring to you all by your first names if that's okay. Craig, it is for you for 2-minute opening remarks. Appreciate it.

Hey, at least we're all not on the hot seat today. That's good. That's a first. You know, God has blessed Alaska with an abundance of resources. It's our responsibility government's responsibility, private sector's responsibility to develop those resources responsibly in order to move Alaska forward and to help Alaska families.

And that's what Candy and I are focused on in this race. We know what happens when we do. It's our answer to ESG, right? We know where the Red Dog Mine was. We have a 50% reduction in poverty rates.

North Slope, 40% reduction in poverty rates. A life expectancy since operations started on the North Slope has increased by 12 years. 12 Years. That's huge. And we also know that crime and suicide rates plummet in these areas where there's economic opportunity.

You know, government has a responsibility to develop the infrastructure to getting these, these things done for Alaskans. Look, you know who I am, right? I worked in the oil and gas business for a good portion of my career. Candy English has worked her entire career in the oil and gas business. And during my 4 and a half years, As attorney general for the state, I partnered with industry to get things done for Alaska.

I defended the Willow Project against environmental groups. I sued the EPA for their preemptive veto of a big, large mining project. I fought off massive critical habitat designations for the ice seal. I sued to delist the ring seal. I worked hard to overturn the Chevron deference.

Because of that win, we no longer defer to agency interpretation of the law. Which is huge for Alaska. I fought back against massive federal expansion of WOTUS and the definition of wetlands, right? The way they were defining wetlands, most of Alaska, including any permafrost areas, would be regulated by the EPA. We won.

I sued the Biden administration for his stance on the NPRA and not having a viable lease sale. Look what happens when we did. We had a record lease sale for Alaskans. Kandi and I will continue to do that on behalf of Alaskans to responsibly develop our resources for Alaska families. Thank you, Treg.

Jonathan. Good afternoon. I'm Jonathan Christomkins. My initials are JKT, which you may have seen emblazoned on signs around Anchorage and Alaska. I'll just share a little bit about my background and sort of go into the policy when we get to the specific questions.

I'm born and raised in Sitka, down in Southeast Alaska. Grew up there. That community means a lot to me.

Grew up in scouting. I was an Eagle Scout and got into the legislature and electoral politics at a younger age. I was 23 when I first entered the House of Representatives, representing that rural Southeast Alaska district. A lot of commercial fishing, a lot of sport fishing, a lot of logging, the Bokan and Niblack mines, or those prospects were in my district. So was Greens Creek, and for a portion of time, I believe Kensington.

And in that time, I very much oriented myself towards a politics of collaboration and trying to find common ground. And I am running for governor because I believe we have lost that in our governor's office, in our executive branch the last 8 years. And I feel under this administration, Alaska has been going in the wrong direction There is conflict in Juneau and a failure to be able to get things done and solve problems. The basic administration of state government is failing Alaskans. It's failing the private sector and it's failing industry.

You look at DOT, you look at other base critical functions the state should be executing and it is not. And I have no patience for that. And I want to turn that around and I want to solve problems and I want to work together with the legislature And I want to bring that spirit of governance to Juneau. So that is why I am running for governor. I'm running with Zach Johnson, who is an Anchorage local.

He's on the Anchorage Assembly, a lifelong independent. Our ticket crosses party lines in sort of in and of itself. He's a Marine Corps veteran and a former state trooper, and I believe also brings a lot of integrity and reasonableness to the executive branch. And very excited to participate in this debate and hopefully make it to Juneau. Alright, thank you, Jonathan.

Dave, these should pick you up if you don't feel like holding it. Well, thanks for hosting this. This is a great opportunity. I've spoken many times in this room, and it's good to be back. First and foremost, I want to thank the most important person in my life, my wife of 41 years, Deb.

She's put up with a lot, and certainly in the last 6 years, she's put up with politics in our life, and that's certainly not been easy, as you can probably imagine. You know, I'll keep it to a high level as well. You're looking for a philosophy here in a governor, 'cause one of us are gonna be the next governor, unless something terrible happens. And you want to capture that, you want to understand that philosophy. And that philosophy is, touches on a couple of things.

One, we can't tax our way into prosperity. Whether it's property taxes, sales tax, or certainly income tax for our employees. We also can't cut our way to success. We see this, you see this in the permitting process each and every day. The permits aren't going out.

It takes too long to start a project. You're falling years behind on your projects, and that's because we're in a statewide hiring freeze, and we've been into this freeze for 14 or 15 months now, and the permitting office is grossly understaffed, and they can't keep up with the work. Those are the very mechanical things that have to be fixed. If we don't bring on the right number of people, and I'm a fiscal conservative, and I'm sitting here saying we gotta hire more people in key positions. So we gotta end the hiring freeze strategically in just in the right places, because as the director of Ted Stevens International Airport, I had 500 people reporting to me, and we had very critical positions that were not filled.

I was facing the same problems you were facing. We've gotta get to work, we've gotta get the permitting done, and there's only one way out of this fiscal mess that we're in. We gotta grow our way out through resource. And resource development. That's the only way out.

That's the only engine that's big enough. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dave. Bernadette. All right, well, thank you so much.

It's good to be with you guys. So in a little more than 40 days, each of you is going to walk in to vote. And the question that you have to ask yourselves is, what will we do differently this time? The reality is we haven't had stalled project— projects for 8 years. We have had stalled projects for decades.

We're going to sit up here on this debate stage, and many of what we will talk about today will be the same issues that you talked about with your gubernatorial candidates 4, 8, 12, and plus years ago. So what will we do differently in roughly 43 days to make sure that 4 years from now, 8 years from now, you're not asking the same questions of those candidates that you're asking of us today. I would encourage you to consider this. It has also simultaneously been decades since we have voted for a business owner. We have tried voting for experienced politicians.

Where has that landed you? Are you any better off today than you were 10, 20, or 30 years ago? As we go through the next hour and a half, you will no doubt see a lot of alignment when it comes to issues. Let's be honest, a lot of what we're going to talk about today will be preaching to the choir, and most of us will indeed see eye to eye. The question is, how do we get results?

I would argue that it's time for someone that signed the front of a paycheck, that knows what it's like to take risk, that knows how to pull through the cash flow problems when you've hit rock bottom. What will we do differently this time? At the heart of it, that is the question that each of us has to answer. Thank you. All right, thank you, Bernadette.

We're going to start with Jonathan on our first question, uh, of the afternoon here, and we are going to go back to all the way to the Constitution of Alaska. You know, when we talk about issues that come up a lot, like Bernadette was saying. So anyway, Alaska's Constitution states that it is the policy of the state to encourage the settlement of its land and the development of its resources by making them available for maximum use consistent with the public interest. It goes on to say that resources belonging to the state shall be developed for the maximum benefit of its people. You should be probably familiar with this, this sentence from the Constitution.

The question is, what factors would you consider in determining public interest and maximum benefit, and how would these clauses impact your administration's resource development and taxation policies?

It's one of the most important questions facing the state. I think ultimately there is a point where Alaska's interest and Alaskans' interest, Alaska and Alaskans' interests intersect with that of industry and private investment. And trying to find that optimal crossover point is, is sort of in the art of governing in Alaska when it comes to resource development. And if you go too far in one direction, you stifle and smother investment and the ability to develop resources with the private sector. If you go too far the other direction, you're extracting rents and you become a resource colony.

And neither of those extremes are what we want. And finding that reasonable calibrated middle ground is, is, I think, the art of governing in Alaska. I think Alaskans need to have a say in resource development. And I think some of the best examples of resource development— Red Dog, the North Slope, Kensington and Green Creek and Southeast, on and on, are when Alaskans are a part of that process and bought in in the development. All right, thank you, Jonathan.

Dave, would you like me to repeat the question? No, I think I got it. Um, you know, the, the, the next governor— every governor swears an oath, like you said, to the Constitution. That includes Article 8, Section 1, uh, 2, 3, and 4, which is sustainability for the max benefit for Alaskans. It doesn't say anything about maximizing our resources for the benefit of people who don't live here, who don't get a permanent fund dividend check, for example.

And too often, and I like the comment, I use it many times, we're not a resource colony. We just aren't. We act like it sometimes because we're treated like that by the federal government. And thank heavens the most recent administration came in federally and removed a lot of the restrictions so we can develop. But we got to remember one thing.

The state doesn't dig holes in the ground to make mines. The state doesn't build roads. The state contracts with you to build roads. And it's the state's job to make sure those projects go forth quickly for the benefit of, benefit of you as Alaskans and for the benefit of your employees who are Alaskans. And the governor needs to focus on that.

Thank you, Dave. We'll move to Bernadette. Let me know if you want me to restate the question. No, that's all right. I think I've got it.

We need to quit apologizing for the industry in which we work. We do it better, safer, and cleaner than anywhere in the world. We are indeed a resource development state. Not getting a gas line for 40 years because we have legislators who are worried about if we're going to, quote, get our fair share is indeed precisely produced for Alaskans, $0. You leaving oil in the ground because you want to keep jacking up taxes, as JKT supports raising oil taxes, that's not working for the maximum benefit of Alaskans.

That oil and gas, those minerals have zero value to us unless we have a business partner that can help us get them to market. It's time for the state of Alaska to start treating our resource development companies as though they are our business partners. Business partner. We are indeed business partners. That needs to be reflected at all levels of government.

Thank you, Bernadette. Tregg. Yeah, let me give you a little scenario. Let's talk about the Ambler Road, for example. This is a perfect discussion point for this, what is maximum use, maximum benefit of the people.

And it really stems around what resources the state owns can be used for public purposes. Is the Ambler Road a public purpose? Private road gets the Ambler Mining District. And I can tell you one of the arguments I had about the gravel, gravel for use in the road. We have gravel all along that proposed roadway.

Now, what should the state charge for that gravel? Well, right now, my argument is the gravel has zero value. It is a stranded resource without access to it. It has zero value. So the gravel used for that road along that roadway, the Ambler Road, should be given by the state without charge, right?

That makes sense. Plus, once the road's in, guess what that rest of that gravel has? Actual value to Alaskans in the state of Alaska. And so that gives you a kind of an idea of where I stand and when the public purpose comes into our statutory scheme for when we can utilize state resources to help in these projects. Thank you, Treg.

We'll move on to our next question. This one we'll start with Dave.

The businesses and industries represented here today generally benefit from a government that is efficient, fiscally disciplined, and avoids placing unnecessary costs on the private sector. At the same time, we rely on the state as a partner to provide essential services and making investments that support economic activity. So the question is, when making difficult budget decisions, what priority would you place on operating and capital spending that directly supports private sector growth, and what types of investments would you prioritize? Well, you need to prioritize the projects that have the greatest and soonest or earliest return on investment. That's what we have to do.

We're compelled to do that as agents or as representatives of the state, of the people. Unfortunately, we've got a philosophy in Juneau where our legislators and too many others focus on what's good for the treasury. And they have to do that. That's our job. But they forget the other half, the bigger half of that equation is they don't focus on what's good for the individual Alaskans to include the people that are represented in this room.

The projects have got to get done. We're focusing, we're trying to tax, a high tax on a project that they're going to kill because of the tax. The job is, the focus of government has got to focus on what's good for the people. We don't have a gas line, and we should have had a gas line at least this year, that started. And we're forgetting that people in Fairbanks can't even afford to heat their homes anymore.

I mean, we're in crisis mode all across this state and we're focused on the wrong things. We need to focus on what's best for the people who build the things for this state. Thank you, Dave. Bernadette, let me know if you want me to restate the question. That's all right.

I got it, I think. So I'll tell you, number one, this administration is going to go in and build roads. If there is any area that Alaska is severely lacking, it most certainly is infrastructure and development. As a whole, but you take the state of Connecticut, that's like itty-bitty, right? It's like Bernadette size.

Then you take Alaska, it's like Dunlevy size. Connecticut's got 117 times the amount of road miles that we have here in Alaska. It's one thing that Alaska needs to do is go in and build roads so that we can get access. 2,700 Mining claims along Ambler Road. But the other thing I'll say is this, because this is important when it comes to the state budget.

We have more government employees per capita than any other state in the country. We don't need more government employees. We need to operate efficiently. We need to come in and we need to look at our budget. We need to find efficiencies.

We need to look for legitimate spending cap. We need to look for how we manage our permanent fund dividend. We need to change how we budget, whether we want to look at a 5-year rolling average or zero-based budgeting. There are several things that need to be done so that we can give dependability and that we are not constantly turning to the oil and gas industry to try to jack up their taxes. Thank you, Bernadette.

Tregg. Well, infrastructure is a core responsibility of government, right? You got infrastructure, public safety, education. Those are the 3 core things government should be doing, and we're not doing well in a lot of that. But, you know, we have to have vision, right?

Whether it's— if we didn't have vision, we look at where Alaska would be without the oil pipeline. We have to have vision. And we have to invest in our future, whether it's the Ambler Road, whether it's West Susitna Access, or whether it's a rail line from Nome to Nenana, right? We have to, as a state, work to get that infrastructure, whether that's through ADA, whether that's through a capital budget. You know, the state didn't even have a capital budget last year, right?

Those things have to change if we're going to move forward as a state and we're going to be prosperous for Alaska families.

All right, thank you. And over to Jonathan. I'll, I'll answer in two ways. Um, I'll answer first in what I think the state of Alaska should not be doing. And what I think state government should not be doing is trying to will a private industry that doesn't exist into existence.

That is the role of the private sector, that is the role of private capital, and we should let markets work. And hopefully they are fair and rational markets. But I do not think the state of Alaska should be building grain silos in Valdez, for instance, which I think is kind of the example of the direction the state should not go. What the state should be doing— and I'll just note the timer, I don't think started. I've started my own here.

Okay, great. I'll look to you— is invest in foundational infrastructure that has a multiplier effect for economic opportunity in the state. So projects that I think represent that kind of potential for economic growth, energy infrastructure, because the cost of energy is a huge variable on economic growth and opportunity. Building the, the subsea link between Kenai and Beluga, investing in new and lower-cost energy that businesses and industry can use. Looking at harbors and ports, Port of Alaska, or harbors in cross-coastal Alaska, which then are the base for hundreds of small businesses, which is our commercial fishing fleet, or the Dalton Highway and making sure it's not rudded out to all heck and that commerce and freight can make its way to the North Slope and the oil patch.

So those are the roles that I think the state should focus on. Thank you. All right. We will be going to Bernadette for our next question. And if we could get this to be a 1-minute timer, I see up here.

Thank you. Okay, Bernadette, the industries represented here all face a common challenge. Is finding enough qualified workers. We want to grow our local workforce, hire Alaskans, and ensure the next generation sees a future for themselves here. What specifically would you do as governor to give the next generation confidence that Alaska will have a thriving economy where they can build careers and lives in the long term?

Yes, when it comes to workforce development, we need to start by bringing our trades back into our high schools. We need to get into the high school level, and whether it's electrical, plumbing, construction, any number of things. We need to get our trades back in at the high school level. We need to entice them right away. I don't want to talk about how do we get our kids back to Alaska.

I want to talk about how we keep our kids in Alaska. When you look at the collegiate level, we need to look at our university system and say, you know what, we need to be investing in our— well, for example, our welding program. I was shocked when someone came to me and said, Bernadette, the university is investing as much in these programs where there's not interest. Well, if there's no interest in underwater basket weaving and there's no job coming out of it. Let's get the money into our mining program, for example.

We could talk about things we need to do with our CDL program. Now when you come into Alaska, it takes you roughly 3 months to wait just to get into a CDL class. Then it's gonna cost you roughly $10,000, sometimes more, depending on where you're at. So we need to change those things as well. All right, thank you, Bernadette.

Craig? Well, the answer to moving our economy forward, the last part, is unleashing Alaska's extraordinary resource potential, right? Our allies, the United States, are in desperate need for our critical minerals and rare earths, so we have to access them. That's the infrastructure side that we just talked about. As far as our workforce, the alignment between our K-12 education, our universities, and the actual job needs in Alaska— there's no alignment, very little alignment there.

And we have to realign those to build the workforce Alaska needs to move into the future. High school is still oriented the wrong way for too many students, right? It's still oriented to putting a kid into college, and that's that's frankly not where most of our kids are headed. And there's awesome opportunity in the trades. There's awesome opportunity in starting your own business.

We need to start working on that. Our vo— our vo-tech needs vast improvement, right? Kids should be able to graduate high school job ready with a certificate. Now, whether that means we need to change regs, we need to change laws, work with our federal counterparts to change apprenticeship rules, let's do it. But kids, there's no reason our kids cannot graduate high school job ready with certificates ready to go.

Thank you, Tregg. Jonathan. Well, I agree with Bernadette and Tregg in the importance of having the trades and vocational pathways integrated starting even at a high school level. And I think that's a huge win. You know, get apprenticeships sort of tied into a secondary level.

Those are— there's a lot of demand and Alaskans and young Alaskans should should fill that demand. Another thing that I think is really relevant in terms of having Alaska grow and young people want to stay here or come here is cost of living. And energy is huge. Housing is huge. And I'm a big supply-side person, especially when it comes to housing.

The state should be a positive partner and a champion to grow, get more houses built everywhere in Alaska, and drive down costs so people can afford to be here. And the last thing I'll say is celebrating entrepreneurship and business creation. And I think that is sort of a culture that in part is set by state government. You know, that could be resource industry, it can be outside the resource industry. I was just checking Alaska Precast Solutions in Akiski yesterday, like an incredible homegrown business.

And so the state should be championing and celebrating those kinds of businesses. Thank you, Jonathan. And Dave. For too long in this country, we've developed a mismatch between what our kids want when they grow up and what we expect of them. We expect them all to go to college.

Well, the world has changed. The entrepreneurs very often don't go to college. A lot of these very sharp kids, they're just not cut out for it. I wouldn't have went to college if I had a choice, but I wanted to be an Air Force pilot. To be an Air Force pilot, you had to be an officer.

To be an officer, you had to have a college degree. So I went to college. These young guys, young gals that want to be heavy equipment operators, because we know how many it's going to take just for the gas line. 4,000. We're not even looking at Fidertown, we're not looking at all the other big projects.

We're just looking at 4,000 heavy equipment operators. Where the heck do they come from? Because we don't have enough right now. When I was at the airport, I had 45 positions of heavy equipment operators, and I, and I could only fill 18 positions. Where do they come from?

So we've, again, we've got to address this mismatch of what we want our kids, or what we allow our kids to do. They've got to, they've got to be matched up with what they want to do as a career, and we need to get them to where we need them. Thank you, Dave. All right, we're moving on to our fourth question. We're going to start back with Tregg.

This was one question I didn't actually give even a topic area for, but hopefully it shouldn't be too difficult. To keep things a little bit interesting, I took the liberty of reaching out to someone who's formerly held the position of Governor of Alaska. So we reached out to Sean Parnell, Governor Sean Parnell, to ask a question of the candidates. So his question is, "What I'm hearing from Alaskans and from others around the country is that politicians seem more focused on pummeling each other rather than solving problems together for the benefit of the people they serve." The question is, what issue do you think 70 to 80% of Alaskans agree needs to be solved, and what specific steps would you take as governor to resolve it, to include how you would bring Alaskans together to make it happen? Trey.

That is the first step of working across the aisle, is to look and find what you— areas of agreement, right? And then build trust working on those areas of agreement. And for me, it's going to be energy. We have to have an affordable, reliable source of energy for Alaskan businesses and for Alaska families. When you're paying more to heat your home than you are for your mortgage, something is upside down and we have to fix that or we're going to see the further out migration, outward migration of Alaskan families.

We need to pursue an all-of-the-above approach, right? We need to embrace these projects and let the market decide the winners. There's great projects. AEA, I think, has done a fantastic job with the Bradley Lake, the Dixon diversion there that's going to increase capacity there. We've got solar that AEA is investing in.

And then the redundant line from Cook Inlet. That's hugely important because our military has been demanding redundant systems for a long time so they can expand because they're global— our global position here. And we got to invest in incentivizing further gas production in the Cook Inlet. Right now it's upside down. Capital is more than what you're going to get.

So you have to change that equation so our producers like Hex and Hilcorp operate and produce additional gas. Thank you, Tregg. Uh, we'll move to Jonathan. Let me know if you need a repeat on the question. No, it's great.

It's a great question. I—. 3 Answers sprung to mind. Um, one is energy, and I don't think I'd have anything to add to Tregg's response. That resonates with me.

Two is the state of public education in Alaska and just quality of schools, and, and that becomes an economic issue when you can't attract and retain professionals and working families because there's not a confidence in the schools that your kids are going to. And that is unacceptable on many levels, including an economic level. Uh, the area I think I would most focus on that I think there actually is, I like to think, um, consensus among Alaskans is we need to balance our budget in a durable and sustainable way. And that's going to require a little bit of compromise from a lot of different sectors and stakeholders. But I think it can be done in a reasonable way.

We need to defuse the annual political grenade that is the PFD debate, and we need to broker a sustainable compromise that can Alaska— last Alaska years and decades. Thank you, Jonathan. Dave? I think the question, question was, is what are the 70/30 issues? There's several of them.

One is improve education. Everyone agrees on that. Another one is end the squabbling in Juneau. So if you want to know, if you want somebody that's gonna go in there and fight with the legislature, go down there with a predisposition towards fighting with the legislature. Please find someone else to vote for, 'cause that's not me.

The other thing is bycatch. That's a 70-30 issue. That's a big one. And the other one of the 4 is build a gas line. I mean, these are all 70-30 issues.

In fact, the gas line's probably a 90-10 issue, and we've gotta get All of these issues, all 4 of them, these 70/30 issues across the line. Because they're important. How am I gonna do it? I'm just not gonna, the first one, I'm not gonna go down and fight in Juneau. I'm just not.

I'm gonna collaborate with the people who hold the purse strings. That's the legislature. When it comes to trawling, we gotta end bycatch. And trawling is a problem. Because it impacts every other group in this state that depends on fishing.

It just does, okay? And that needs to be a database solution. And I'm out of time. All right, thank you, Dave. Bernadette.

All right, well, obviously, you know, we could go through all of the, the normal ones— energy, education, uh, the whole host of them— but the reality is none of you stop and think about the state budget every single day. No, you don't. Let's just be very candid about that. I would argue while those issues are most certainly probably 70, 80 issues, I would argue one of the greatest ones we need to address that hasn't been mentioned up on this stage is the drug and psychiatric problem that is plaguing this state. You can have the greatest job in the most beautiful neighborhood, but if you are passing a drug and psychiatric outbreak that is happening all over the street as you take your child to that number one school in America, really, who cares?

The question was, what would the governor do about it? I'll tell you, I'll use Anchorage as an example because that's where we happen to be right now. I think that the governor ought to come in and audit where we're spending that money that's being taken from the state government. But we also need to have a strong conversation about how we do indeed lead that legislature. Thank you, Bernadette.

We are now going to transition into a short answer round of questions, where each candidate will have 30 seconds or less to respond. We're gonna start with Jonathan in this round. So, the question is, Will increasing oil production be an explicit economic priority for your administration?

What's happening in the NPRA with the lease sale I think is maybe the most single exciting thing for Alaska in terms of economic growth. It's great for the Treasury, it's great for jobs, it's great for GDP, and the state should be a partner in trying to make sure that there is increased development and production on the North Slope. As a supporter of Willow and the legislature, I think what Santos is doing with Pika, and hopefully soon Horseshoe and Kwaka, is incredibly exciting, and the state should be trying to accelerate that progress. All right, thank you. Dave.

Absolutely, yes. I want TAPS to be for our— or excuse me, I want the Acalan G to be for our generation what TAPS was for us for the last 50 years. This is absolutely critical. This is how our kids go to college, how our grandkids get jobs in this state. And we haven't been forward-thinking enough in the last couple of years, at least.

And we're not focused on that at all. And finally, with Glenfarm in place, we are focusing on it. And hopefully we can get other projects going, like Donlin and Donlin Creek Mine, to get these kind of things going. We've got to grow our way out of this. Thank you, Dave.

Bernadette. Absolutely. As I mentioned earlier, I think that we need to change our thinking. We need to treat the oil industry as though they are our business partner. I can tell you under this administration, if I have to go fight with the legislature to stop a Hill Corp tax, I'm gonna go fight with the legislature.

If I have to go fight with that legislature to stop an income tax, you sure as heck can bet I'm gonna go stop an income tax. A statewide sales tax? Yep, I'll go have that fight too. If you're not willing to go down there and fight for the values and principles, then quite frankly, need to go sit down in the back of the room. But I'll also point out that unlike our Democrat opponent up here, while we do support oil and gas, he signed a letter to Pelosi saying he didn't.

Thank you, Bernadette. Craig.

Absolutely. Yes. You know, it's why— it's why I fought and included the ANWR leasing. On the first day executive order when I helped draft that for President Trump. It's why I'm fighting over the boundary of the NPRA— or sorry, I got those reversed— NPRA and then ANWR.

And, you know, we're running at 22 to 24% capacity right now, even with Pickett and Willow, which are awesome. I'm so glad to see those go. We're still going to be under 50% capacity of that pipeline, and we have so much more potential. Let's grab it and get it done. All right, thank you, Tregg.

Starting with Dave this time. Bernadette mentioned taxes, so the question is, would you support a targeted tax that applies to one single industry during your administration? Dave? I would not. Bernadette?

You want to start the—. Oh, there we go. Do you want to start the timer again? Absolutely not. I would not.

And as I just stated, If I have to go down there, if I'm the last person standing that's going to stand between you and an increase on your oil taxes, then absolutely I will go down there and I'll have that battle on behalf of you. If I have to go down there and stand up against an income tax, a statewide sales tax, whatever attack might be coming, any number— today we call it a Hillcorp tax under a JK administration. We'll be calling it an oil tax under every other industry name that wants to do business here. Heck yes, I will absolutely oppose every single one of them. Thank you, Bernadette.

Craig. Absolutely no. No, you can't tax your way to prosperity. Alaska families are already struggling. Alaska businesses are already struggling, and we can't further exacerbate that.

We can't have another ACES. Remember what happened with ACES, right? No new development on the North Slope. We have got to avoid that at all costs. Government has to be doing everything it can to encourage business, not discourage businesses.

And what businesses need is certainty at the tax level. Certainty at the regulatory level because there's already so many variables, right? What's, what's the— what's oil going to be worth? What are the prices of raw materials needed to build this project? Give them certainty and they will come.

All right, thank you, Craig. And Jonathan. Well, first, I do support resource development on the North Slope, and the letter I signed talked about supporting clean energy, and in my mind it's "and both." It is renewable energy, wind, solar, plug-in solar, whatever pencils, and it is oil and gas development. And I think that is sort of the Lisa Murkowski model of energy, and I very much subscribe to it, and my voting record in the legislature is crystal clear. And on the matter of S corps, I do think there needs to be parity in the corporate income tax structure in the oil and gas sector.

And the way the state of Alaska thinks about oil and gas taxes, corporate income tax is a key part of it, and I do think that parity needs to apply to all corporations. Thank you, Jonathan. The next question will start with Bernadette.

So Section 1326 of the Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act, otherwise known as ANILCA, specifically limits the executive branch's authority to withdraw land in Alaska without congressional approval first. Executive branch action— actions thus far to withdraw land have created a lot of ping-pong effects for industry. So the question is, will you support this provision in ANILCA to limit federal land withdrawals without the explicit approval of Congress first? So there's no doubt that ANILCA is most certainly broken. I mean, when Alaska argued for statehood, we argued off of the idea that we would have the rights to develop our resources.

The federal government has not stood up to their end of the promise on that, so we need to do that. Unfortunately, it's led to a lot of a lack of dependability, a lack of stability here in Alaska. We need to get our lands opened up. We should have absolutely the right to develop them. I think that the governor needs to be working very strongly with our federal delegation on this matter.

Thank you, Bernadette. Tregg. Yeah, ANILCA, you know, the largest land grab in U.S. history, and we've been litigating aspects of that since it came into being. I think the answer is the state has to do everything in its power. Whether that's work with our federal counterparts to pass congressional legislation.

But when you can't access state lands because there's federal land in the way, or you can't utilize, uh, federal lands that are supposed to be working lands, that's, that's a big negative for Alaskans. And so any, any aspect, any way, any avenue, we should be pursuing that to better our ability to, to responsibly develop our resources for Alaskan families. Thank you, Trey. Jonathan. Can I have you repeat the question?

Yeah, I'm just going to repeat the end of it, which is, will you support, uh, this provision in ANILCA that, uh, to limit federal land withdrawals without the explicit approval of Congress?

I, I think I need to learn more. Um, uh, federal land withdrawals. I mean, I, I think generally speaking, the feds have enough land in Alaska, if that's what the question is getting at. So I, I think I have a pretty averse perspective if there's going to be more beyond what exists. In terms of federal land holdings that currently exist, I think the state should work with the delegation for land swaps to be able to promote reasonable economic development.

I think what happened with the King Cove Road, for example, is a good example of the state sort of working in the best interest of our communities. And whether it's a community or whether it's an industry, we should try to work with a delegation to get land in state hands. Thank you, Jonathan. And is that— yeah, or did Dave— sorry, we do have Dave still. Dave, please.

Rick, there's clearly a conflict between our Constitution and ILCA, and that needs to be resolved. But a brute force attack on the federal government by trying to take— you got to follow the law. You just— even as you fight to change the law, that's absolutely essential. Because if you get caught up in court, Work with the federal administration. They have unlimited funds.

And they're usually going to win. Just work with them. The good thing is that the current administration in D.C. is very friendly to us. And they're working with us. The previous administration was very, very hostile to us.

70 Executive orders shutting down resource development in the state of Alaska. And the current administration reversed that along with Senator Dan Sullivan. So thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Dave.

Just to kind of qualify that response, I wanted everyone to kind of get through it, but it is, you know, it's about the ping-pong effect that some of you guys have talked about where one administration comes in with a land withdrawal, the next administration reverses that. We want something that's stable. That's really the most important thing for the business community and industries that we represent.

Finally, this is our last sort of short answer. It shouldn't be too hard, so we're going to go to Treg first. What are you most optimistic about when it comes to Alaska's economic future? I am bullish on Alaska's future. I remember when Rob Gilliam was interviewing a gentleman from the UAE and he said, "How'd you guys go from Bedouin communities to this huge metropolis that is economically successful?" And he gave an answer and it really hit me.

He says, "Because we embrace that we are in an energy state." I look around sometimes and I don't think we have embraced that we are a resource state. And once we do and we have a mindset that we're going to responsibly develop those resources, there is no reason why we can't be the number one state in affordability, in livability, in education, on all these things that we need vast improvements on. All right, thank you, Craig. Jonathan. The fundamental assets Alaska has, from our $90 billion permanent fund to the resources that the state have, are incredible and the envy of of every other state in the union.

And I think the, the primary limiting factor that has prevented Alaska from being able to realize economic growth and opportunity has largely been governing over the last 10 years. And the conflict and dysfunction that has prevented us from fully realizing those assets for the benefit of Alaskans is, I think, the problem that we need to solve. And I think if we can solve that, the future is is incredibly bright for the state. Thank you, Jonathan. Dave.

Well, like Craig, I'm very bullish on the state. I look at nearly, when you look at Fighter Town, you look at AKLNG, you look at the Anchorage Tower, you look at the border project, the new station at the border coming in at about half a billion dollars, we've got a lot of good work coming our way. The trouble is, is we as a state, we're not prepared for it. We don't have the electricians, we don't have the plumbers, we certainly don't have the heavy equipment operators. And that's where the state needs to come in alongside you and help out with those kinds of issues.

Getting our workers on board. Thank you, Dave. Bernadette. All right, well, even with a 22-year-old son, I am incredibly excited when I think about, you know, as I look at the future of Alaska, we've said on this campaign, America's strength starts with Alaska. I'm one of the only ones in this race— there's a couple of us— that even if, God willing, I did 8 years as your governor, when I'm done, I will have to go back and live and work in the very economy that we create.

This isn't a retirement plan for me. It's not a farewell tour. The reality is, I think the greatest opportunity ahead of us right now, you guys, is the next 24 months, where we have a guaranteed Republican president who wants to see us move. We have to move with a sense of urgency. All right, thank you, Bernadette.

This ends my portion of the moderated questions, thankfully. We're going to move over to my colleagues here from my fellow trade associations. So first up will be the Alaska Forest Association, Tessa Axelson, and her question will start with Jonathan. Good afternoon, candidates. What specific actions will you take during your administration to ensure the sustainability and growth of the forest product industries in Alaska?

I think Alaska State Forests, I think particularly in Southeast Alaska, my old district, need to be managed to make sure that there's a reasonable supply of timber. And in particular, we're talking about Viking Mill in Kulwak. I think there's some smaller mills and operators in Thorn Bay and Prince of Wales, which was my district for 10 years, so I'm familiar with it. Um, I think there's so much uncertainty with The Tongass and federal lands, the state forests have been a real key source of supply and need to be managed in a hand-in-glove way with the forest products industry. Thank you, Jonathan.

Dave.

Well, our forest projects are dearly important to us, and with the ending of the roadless rule, we may have more access to them. The sad thing is, is too much of our infrastructure and our expertise has left the state in our logging industry. The logging industry, that infrastructure and that personnel that did the value added to the timber we bring out of our forest. Certainly we need to manage for sustainability in our forest, but now we've got to start from scratch. After Clinton shut us down in Tongass, the business went away, the people went away, the expertise went away, and the infrastructure went away.

It's not a quick turn the key, and it's not like ending COVID and you think you can turn turn an economy back on. It doesn't work that way. But at least we've got the roadless rule coming to an end, and we've got to exercise as much as we can the development of our forests for economic benefit as well as sustainability. Thank you, Dave. Bernadette.

Yes, so we need to negotiate a 10 to 20 year timber supply strategy. I think, you know, the governor worked on this here not too long ago, Governor Dunleavy did. I think that we need to build upon that agreement. We need to have infrastructure, absolutely. We need to talk about our workforce development so that we do have the people that can go work in this area.

The other thing I've talked a lot about is under our administration, we are going to implement a shot clock when it comes to permitting. This will affect, of course, across multiple industries. But from the time that you apply for that permit with the state of Alaska, that clock is going to start ticking and you are going to know unequivocally what your timeline is for when that permit is issued. So we need to have a conversation about all of those things that will go on. There's no reason that Alaska should not be leading the country when it comes to our timber production.

If there's one area of the state that we absolutely have not— do not talk nearly enough about and are leaving so much untapped, it's most certainly our timber industry. Thank you, Bernadette. Craig. This is the example I'd always use for people in the lower 48 when I was trying to describe how much the federal government really has their foot on Alaska's neck, and it's the timber industry. I talk about the Tongass National Forest being bigger than the state of West Virginia, the Chugach National Forest being bigger than New Hampshire, but New Hampshire's timber industry, 5 times bigger than Alaska's.

That's nonsense. And so as governor, I'm going to do everything I can to incentivize the industry. Right now they're struggling. They don't have the long— they need long-term leases, right, to make the capital expenditures, right? Our mills have closed.

They've gutted those mills. So if we're going to mass produce lumber and timber products, we've got to rebuild the capital, the capital aspects of that industry so that we can have a market. And so long-term leases, that'll be a priority. And also helping to capitalize those, those mills with incentives, whether it be through ADA or tax breaks. But we've got to restart that industry.

It's a shame that we ever lost it in the first place. Even British Columbia, a left-leaning province, has figured out that timber is a renewable resource, and they're using it to their full advantage. All right, thank you, Craig. Thank you, Tessa. We're gonna move to DeAntha Skibinski with the Alaska Miners Association, and her question will go to Dave first.

Thank you, candidates. There's been a lot of road talk today, and we all appreciate that, but we'd like to get specific. There's also been a lot of mining talk, and all of you have pointed out that Alaska has the proven ability to lead the nation in domestic critical mineral production. Our future potential depends on the roads, ports, and energy infrastructure needed to reach and develop our mineral projects. I'm talking road proposals like Ambler, West Susitna, that we need to access these minerals and using existing public infrastructure to transport minerals.

If you are elected governor, what would your administration do to protect and maintain existing infrastructure, including the industry's ability to utilize it, and advance the new roads, ports, and energy development that we need to reach our mineral potential? We'll certainly support the roads, roads to mines. That's a concept or a philosophy that we need to adhere to. So up to Whiskey Bravo, we certainly need West Susitna Access Road built. That, it's kind of stalled this year.

We built the first couple miles, DOT did, and then it's kind of, it's kind of stopped. Ambler, it's still stuck up or stuck in the federal process a little bit, but that looks like it's going to go, and that's a good thing. The state needs to focus on the things and how we move the minerals once we have the ore, how we move the ore. You know, Whiskey Bravo isn't just, isn't just gold, it's also coal, and there's an opportunity to bring coal to the inlet to help either produce electricity or export coal. So Port McKenzie is a big part of this. Mining in Alaska, port, 'cause you've gotta get ore, you've gotta get it to waterline, unless it's a very refined ore that can be shipped, you know, by airplane.

The state has an obligation, just as everything within DOTPF, is to get the projects, the road projects going so we can move the ore once it happens. And that falls, a lot of that falls on the state. Because it's our roads. Thank you, Dave. Bernadette.

So we absolutely need to invest in our roads. Roads is actually one of my favorites. I grew up in a dirt company and I tell people I know dirt and I know trash, so I figure I'm well qualified for politics. But I've talked about the fact that we need to have a shot clock when it comes to permitting. This is incredibly important.

In the country of India, just a few years ago, they built a 47-mile road in 4 days and 9 hours. The conversation we need to be having about our roads is not just how do we invest in them, how do we build them, but let's say, just take Ambler for an example. How do we get a day crew and a night crew going on one end of the road, and how do we get a day crew and a night crew going on the other end of the road, and how do we meet in the middle? It shouldn't be just how do we get them done, but how fast can we go? What's the sense of urgency?

Because in the country of India, if you can get a 47-mile road built, I know sure as heck we got a lot of Alaskans out here that can build those dang roads. And I am more than happy to go jump in that excavator with you. Strongly suggest someone comes with me, because it might not be very pretty. But I can most certainly guarantee you we're going to get the roads built. Thank you, Bernadette.

Craig, and let us know if you need a repeat on the question. Good. You know, first of all, we have to maintain what we have. Hall Road's a prime example. Horrible conditions right now.

Everybody's struggling with the Hall Road, and yet that's our vital resource that most of our state budget stems from. And we've got to— like I've talked about the public purse already— we've got to use state resources. Right now it's just sitting in the ground. We need to use state resources and help to build the infrastructure necessary to tap into our vast resources, mining included. And I think the big thing that we can do as a state is get out of the way, right?

We have to engage in serious permitting and regulatory reform. The only reason I convinced Candy English to leave her prosperous job as an owner of Northern Solutions in the oil and gas industry was because The opportunity to reform how we do things with the regulatory and permitting, give certainty, decrease times. Those regulations should be the least restrictive possible based upon the statutory requirements that promulgate those regulations. And that's something we can do immediately. And looks like my time's up, but regulatory and permitting reform.

Thank you, Tregg. And finally, Jonathan. Mm, multipart answer. I think maintaining what we have is incredibly important, and like Tregg, I think the Hall Road is a great example of just core critical infrastructure that is not in appropriate state of repair. Um, I support roads when the economics are there, and I think there is a little bit of a risk that the state has finite resources and we try to expend ourselves in every direction with every megaproject, and at the end of the day, we have nothing to show for it.

So when there's a strong economic case for a road and associated development, I think that makes a lot of sense for the state to lean in and participate. I think Red Dog is a great example of ADA partnering for something that was incredibly mutually beneficial. And then the last piece is ports are incredibly important too. And I spent some time with the Graphite One team, and the Port of Nome is critical to that project advancing. And, um, you know, it's roads and it's ports.

And so when it pencils and the state can make those core infrastructure investments and the economics are there and they will recoup and pay for themselves over the lifespan of the project, then I think there's a compelling case to proceed. All right, thank you, Jonathan, and thank you, DeAntha. Next up we'll have Alicia Kressel with the Associated General Contractors of Alaska. Thank you. Contractors and communities need predictability in order to to support all of the resource industries in this room today.

Given the funding instability and changing project schedules that have affected Alaska's transportation program in recent years, what will your administration do to stabilize the DOT core program, address deferred maintenance, ensure equitable project distribution across Alaska's regions, and balance those priorities against those large legacy infrastructure projects? And this goes to Bernadette first. So I think that the governor needs to have a robust capital project— or excuse me, a robust capital budget. You know, we talk about all the time, well, you know, if it pencils out. We have debated for decades, you guys, on whether or not it's going to pencil out.

And here we've sat. It's been nearly 40 years since we have built a major road in this state. The reality is we need to step in, not just with a strong capital budget, but we need to step in with a governor who's willing to take takes the risk and isn't afraid to fail. Is every project going to turn out exactly the way that we want it to? No, it's not.

Are some of them going to go bust? Probably. But we can sit here and we can worry about the perfection and does everything pencil out, or we can say, you know what, we're going to go, we're going to run hard, we're going to run fast, because Alaskans do it better than anywhere in the world. So a lot of this is going to come down to the mentality and the approach that your governor has. Do they have this sense of urgency?

Are they the risk taker? Are they the one that wants to drive hard and say, hey, one crew isn't going to do it, find me four? That's the question. Thank you, Bernadette. Tregg.

Yeah, we need to, we need to be planning for the future, right? We need to put it on paper, have a long-term capital budget plan, a long-term infrastructure plan to help give certainty. And I know that you just cited the fact that we have had those in the past and we haven't followed through with those, but it has to be It is a core responsibility, like I've already spoken to, infrastructure is a core responsibility of government. And then you've got to help give certainty, and I think you get a lot of certainty through the permitting and regulatory reform, right? You have to help those companies that are trying to do business and trying to develop our resources have that equation balance out to yes, right, on a go on a project.

And you do that by giving them as much certainty as possible through that process. Thank you, Tregg. Jonathan, can I have you repeat the question? I'll just read the end of it, how about that? What will your administration do to stabilize the DOT core program, address deferred maintenance, ensure equitable project distribution across Alaska's regions, and balance those core priorities against larger legacy infrastructure projects?

Well, to level set, I think the current state of DOT is unacceptable and is failing Alaskans and is failing the contractor community. And there are tens of, if not hundreds of millions of dollars of federal money that have been forfeited because of the state's inability to run a STIP and work with the federal government and get that 9-to-1 match. And that— if that's not a lose-lose, I don't know what is. So first order of business is depoliticizing DOT, not trying to centralize power in the commissioner's office, and making sure that professionals who are competent are administering a STIP and getting every last federal dollar available. I think the STIP process should be done in partnership with the contractor community and communities and reflect community needs, but the failure to not get the full and maximum federal match is frankly a patriotic duty of the governor and should be a patriotic duty of DOT leadership, and I don't think we're there right now.

Thank you, Jonathan. Jonathan, and finally Dave. Yeah, administrative, there's some things you can get done, and Jonathan touched on it. The STIP's got to be absolutely done, and that includes the amendments and the modifications within the 4-year window. We were notified, I think, a week or week and a half ago that the 2730 STIP is now open to public comment.

I hope you're all commenting on that or at least reviewing it. But we've got to get that done quicker. But the other thing that must be done is this, is even if we start getting the STIP done on time and getting it completed, giving us a force multiplier of 99 to 1 advantage on our 90/10 money, because that STIP applies to our 10% or our portion applies to that 10%. The big thing is The other thing is, is that we've got to get our projects out of the state sooner. We can't be doing it in May and June, because you don't have time to hire people.

Your people may still be in a project in the Lower 48. And again, we need programmability, long-term stability. The STIP has got to be absolutely done programmatically, and it's got to be done early, and then the projects have got to be done much earlier, are released to you much earlier. Clear. All right, thank you, Dave, and thank you, Alicia.

Next up, we have Nicole Kimball representing the Pacific Seafood Processors Association, and this question will start with Craig. Good afternoon. Fishermen and processors have invested billions of dollars in rural coastal Alaska and seafood businesses. What would your administration do to promote and support continued private investment and economic stability for communities dependent on commercial fishing? Well, I think there's, uh, there's a lot that the state can do.

Again, it's— we have programs available for economic development. AEDA is a prime example, and AEA with their power, right? If we can bring cheaper power to those communities, then all of a sudden those processing plants, etc., are more affordable and might pencil out. And I think the importance to the communities in these areas, right? We've already lost timber in a large section of this area.

Now, now the, the viability of our fisheries are in question. And so we've got to do everything we can to protect that. And that's, that's got to be a core sort of effort on the part of state government. So it's going to go into who you do, who do you get as your Fish and Game Commissioner? Who do you put as your Transportation Commissioner.

And you pick the right people to help problem solve that, and then you work with industry on those issues about how best to enable them. Don't decide how you can best do it, but talk to them, communicate, have that dialogue so that you can find out how to best support the industry and to help those communities grow in the process. And then defend Alaska salmon against those foreigners labeling their salmon as, as Alaska salmon. Thank you, Treg. Uh, going to Jonathan.

Well, my background's in coastal Alaska, so this question is, is near and dear. And, um, I mean, fishing is, is the, the powerhouse of coastal Alaska's economy. Um, a couple of things: port and harbor infrastructure, already discussed. It's, it's incredibly important. Every harbor in every coastal community has dozens or hundreds of small businesses, which is each individual commercial fishing boat.

In that, in that harbor. And that's, that's an incredibly important investment. Marketing Alaska wild salmon and, and seafood, incredibly important. And making sure that there's a reasonable ASMI budget is, is a priority. Um, in terms of federal fisheries management, making sure that the 6 voting members on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council are looking out for Alaska and Alaska communities and trying to make sure that a maximum share of the value chain from federally managed fisheries are benefiting Alaska.

So I think that's sort of all of the above approaches is how the next governor should approach seafood. Thank you, Jonathan. Dave. A lot of this comes back to the oath the governor is going to take to Article 8, Sections 1 through 4 again. It's manage for sustainability and manage for the max benefit essentially of Alaska fishermen.

I want to see Alaska Commercial fishermen fishing for generations to come and making a lot of money at it and being very prosperous at that. Unfortunately, too often we have out-of-state-owned trawlers that come in and they process our fish on their ships. They leave us almost nothing. They leave us almost nothing. Our onshore processing plants are being abandoned.

And that's just got to end. The governor, you know, I want everybody to do well in Alaska and I don't care who they are. But you take an oath to the people of Alaska, and the resources are— whether it's mining, whether it's logging, whether it's fishing, it's for the people of Alaska. And we're like a resource colony, and we're starting to think of ourselves as that. We've got to stop that.

We've got to start fighting for what is ours. Alaskans need to make money and live their lives, whether it's professionally or subsistence-wise. They've got to start living off our resources Not outsiders. I'm sorry. Thank you, Dave.

Bernadette. All right. Well, I think it's incredibly important that the governor pick a darn good commissioner of Fish and Game. Most certainly, we need to talk about the Amendment 80 fleet. That's the boats that are, you know, 295 feet roughly long and 3,000 horsepower that are dragging the bottom of the ocean floor.

We need to talk about how we keep midwater trawlers actually in midwater. But when you look at the seafood industry, so Alaska provides nearly 60%, roughly 60% of the seafood for the entire rest of the world. I believe it's the largest private— what do I want to say— for people who work in the seafood industry, right? Largest private employers, the words I'm looking for. So given those numbers, it's shocking to me that the state of Alaska does not host a seafood symposium themselves where we bring in all of the interest groups across Alaska potential buyers from out of state.

I would love to see the state under a department of— excuse me, under your head of your Department of Fish come in and say, you know what, the state of Alaska is going to host a seafood symposium. I would love to see our governor working with our federal delegation, putting out joint press releases and things, much like we do for the oil and gas industry. All right, thank you, Bernadette, and thank you, Nicole. Uh, for those keeping track, we have 3 more organizations. Next up, we'll have Jamie Benson with the Alaska Trucking Association, and her question will go to Jonathan first.

Good afternoon. Trucking moves nearly every essential good Alaskans rely on, from groceries to consumer products to fuel materials supporting resource development. The condition and reliability of our transportation system directly affects safety, operating costs, and ultimately the cost of goods for Alaskans. If elected governor, what specific actions would you take during your first term to improve Alaska's transportation infrastructure and reduce regulatory burdens on the trucking industry? Specifically, how would your administration address year-round road maintenance, including winter, winter maintenance and conditions on the critical freight corridors such as the Dalton Highway?

And how would you prioritize projects and funding within Alaska's Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, or the STIP. Jonathan. Well, this question feels like it weaves into the AGC question, and I definitely would stand by my previous comments in terms of the state of DOT leadership and the state of the STIP and our failure to get every federal transportation dollar and get those dollars on the street and be investing in our roads. So just plus one on what I said before. I think the other thing that I'll highlight more specific to the trucking industry and more specific to having roads and basic infrastructure you can rely on is that it all ultimately rolls up to our budget and our ability to have a balanced budget.

And this might be a point of respectful disagreement between me and Bernadette, but I do think a balanced budget and a sustainably balanced budget is important for the state because it ensures our ability to provide services that Alaskans and the economy rely on in the long time— long term, including plowing our roads and keeping them free and clear in the winter so that industry and commerce can use them. So I think that broader compromise in terms of getting a balanced budget that Alaska can rely on for decades is important. Thank you. Jonathan, Dave. Yes, specifically I talked about the STIP.

That's got both the STIP, like I said, the 2730 STIP that we're considering right now, and then certainly the amendment and modification process has all got to be done as quickly as possible. And the state has a big part of that, obviously, as does AMATS, as does FAST. We've all got a bite at this apple. But we've got to move these things forward quickly so you get the money and the projects get on the street. Because the projects are coming in seasonally way too late.

Way too late. And that's impacting it. Certainly, the Hall Road has gotta be a priority because the average speed is about 8 miles an hour. That includes stops, but it's still, it's only about 8 miles an hour and it's an absolute nightmare. That's gotta be done because, you know, industry came in and built it for it, gave it to us years ago, and then we just stopped maintaining it.

That's what really has happened. Now there's politicians that say we want to do a poll tax. Of the users of that. And they said, wait a minute, we abandoned our responsibility to that road years ago, and now we've got to assume that responsibility because that's a critical lifeline. There's a lot that can be done.

We've got to build the roads and the bridges, and we've got to do it methodically with a strategic financial plan. Thank you, Dave. Bernadette. All right, well, Jonathan, I didn't say that the budget didn't matter. I said most Alaskans don't wake up every day thinking about it.

But at least you didn't twist that as much as you did that 100% renewable letter that you signed to Pelosi. Here's the deal. We got to go after the federal dollars. Absolutely. So we need to make sure that Alaska is staying on top of it, that we're out ahead of the game when it comes to getting those federal dollars in.

I talk about this administration, day one, through executive order, we're going to implement a shot clock so that, you know, when you go to build those roads, you can plan out what is your labor costs, where do you need to have equipment, all of those things so that not only are we investing in new roads, But we have got to maintain the roads that we have. Absolutely. They're in dire condition. The other piece to this, though, is you can have all the beautiful roads in the state that you want. We have a severe shortage of CDL drivers.

I know I grew up in a CDL family. We've got CDL drivers that work for us. I told you I grew up in a dirt family. It used to be that, you know, Dad could train the boys how to drive. Grandpa could teach the grandkids how to drive.

And you can't do that anymore. So we also have to talk about how are we going to get drivers out on those roads so they can go service all of your projects. Thank you, Bernadette. And Tregg. Anyone sensing a theme here today with all the different industries?

Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. So vital to us having the ability to unlock our resources. You know, I, as the Attorney General, I defended against a lot of the Biden-era EPA rules that were going to weigh down trucking even further. We even went after a couple in California because because of the, the how big that market is. What California does, a lot of the industry just implements, uh, US-wide.

And so we, I teamed up with several attorneys general in the lower 48, uh, and, and went after both the Biden era emission standards, diesel additive issues that they were trying to push forward that would have devastated the trucking industry in the United States. And the second part of this is you got to give DOT the resources, whether it's federal dollars, state budget, That should be a top priority of any governor of Alaska. I, I've talked to recently a bunch of truckers in Kenai, and they're constantly having to re-weld their rigs based upon the conditions of the road that they drive daily. That shouldn't be the case. Um, we've got to do better.

All right, thank you, Craig, and thank you, Jamie. Next up, we have Eric Felstad representing the Kenai River Sport Fishing Association. Good afternoon. Um, starting with the premise Alaska's Alaskans love fish. I think few things evoke more emotion and passion than fish.

The Alaska Board of Fish is one of the primary bodies in regulating fisheries resources. So my question is, what specifically would you be looking for in your nominees to the Alaska Board of Fish? Starting with Dave first. Well, if there's one thing that's— well, the most complicated thing I've found in this campaign is fishing. I have never seen anything more complex than fishing in this state, but at the end of the day, we're running short on fish.

Um, the Kenai River, you know, people say, is it trawling, is it not trawling, is it water temperature in the high seas, is it not? I just asked, where's the fish? And we keep doing the same thing over and over every year, every year. And the sport fishermen, the subsistence fishermen, uh, the personal use, keep taking cuts and cuts and cuts, and these out-of-state trawlers do not take cuts. And that's got to end because we've got to find a place of stability where we can find out where these fish are going and why they're not coming back into the rivers.

Because I hear this all the time, we don't know what's causing the loss of kings and chums and whatever, whatever fish. We just know it's not factory trawling. We just know— how's that the only thing you, you don't know? To answer your question specifically, we need representation of the user groups, and sport fishing brings in about $2.5 $5 billion a year into the state. That's a lot of money.

We need to start respecting the sport fishermen a little bit more in our decision-making structure and processes. Thank you, Dave. Bernadette. Yeah, so we need to have a robust process in place to make sure that no one that is getting on there has a conflict of interest. So we need to make sure that that is established first and foremost.

We need to talk about if there is any conflict How do we make sure that the process is very clean and out in front of the public to make sure that they are recusing themselves? Yes, we need to have better representation on those boards. It needs to better represent everyone in all of the different industries, uh, that come to the table. There is no more hotly contested, uh, heated issue in Alaska than fish. And so I think a lot of that reflects the idea that we have not been I'm making sure that we get people in there who do not have conflicts of interest and that it is indeed well balanced.

Thank you, Bernadette. Craig, because this goes back to my sort of thoughts on fisheries, my policy, which is Alaska fish for Alaskans first, right? And, uh, the Fish Board I think does need rebalancing, right? We can't have a situation where one user group benefits at the expense of all other user groups for our fisheries. We have multiple user groups for our fisheries, whether it's sport, whether it's guided, whether it's commercial, whether it's subsistence.

We have to balance those better. And so the people that I appoint to the Fisheries Board are going to have integrity above all else, right? They're going to do the right thing for Alaskans, not for a specific user group, but for Alaskans. And they're going to follow that Alaskan fish for Alaskans first. I think we also need— I think we're missing some opportunities too.

I think we need to have our Fisheries Board coordinate with the 6 members on the North Pacific Fisheries Council, right? Because there is yet another user group out there. And so we need to have some of that coordination where they need to be talking to so that they can better regulate the industry in which they're supposed to be regulating. Thank you, Craig. Jonathan.

3, 3 Answers for what I'm looking for in the Board of Fish. Number 1, Board of Fish process and board members who are driven by science and data. And, and have a real appreciation and a willingness to, to do the time and the homework to really understand the complexity of the issues before them at the Board of Fish table. Number 2, a prioritization for conservation. And regardless of what user group you're from, the first and highest priority should always be the resource and the long-term, uh, future of the resource.

And if that means short-term pain for long-term, sort of healthier stocks. I think we should always take that trade-off.

And the third priority for me is making sure that there's balance in all three user groups— sport, commercial, and subsistence— have fair representation at the table and the process is not dominated by any one user group. Thank you, Jonathan, and thank you, Eric. We're now going on to our final question of the day. We'll have Nicole Borromeo. With ANCSA Regional Association, and her question will— we start with Bernadette.

Thank you, candidates. Alaska Native corporations hold significant land ownings in Alaska and may be affected by state and federal decisions on land and in particularly subsistence. As governor, how will you work with our ANCs to ensure that our interests are represented and protected, not only at the not just at the state level, but at the federal policy level. Thank you. Well, absolutely.

I think that it's not just how do we make sure for our Native corporations, while it is indeed that, it's how do we make sure it's for all of Alaskans that are here. So this is obviously a huge concern, right? The federal government, what does federal government overreach look like? Where do the feds have jurisdiction? Where do they not have jurisdiction?

At the end of the day, it's going to take a governor who is incredibly bold with strong leadership, who's not worried about going down and getting in a battle every now and then, that can stand up and say, you know what, we're going to fight on behalf of our ANCs. We're going to fight on behalf of Alaskans because we do have the rights to these resources. And if it means that we got to take you to court, then so be it. If it means that you're going to have to come after us, then so be it. But we've got to get much more aggressive in standing up and fighting for each other.

I've talked a little bit about, you know, you see a lot of collaboration between the governor and our federal delegation when it comes to oil and gas. We need to start having that collaboration between our governor and our federal delegation on any number of issues, this being one of them also. Thank you, Bernadette. Craig.

Yeah, um, this is a big issue. Land issues in Alaska are almost as, uh, as controversial as fishies using Alaska. But these— this is an easy one, right? I mean, we've got to work together. We've got to communicate.

We have to have that open-door policy between the Native corps and government. Obviously, the Native corps own huge parcels of land out there, and allowing them to beneficially use those lands is a benefit to all Alaskans. And, you know, I'd like to also talk about— The importance of these lands, as Attorney General, I actually filed a lawsuit against the federal government for the contamination that was preexisting on Native Corp lands before the federal government gave them over. The federal government still has never cleaned that up. And of course, the federal government's pointing this way and that way.

Oh, it's Transportation. Oh, it's Department of War. Oh— and so those are the types of issues that we got to work together to clean up both our state lands from federal contamination and our Aksa. Lance. Thank you, Craig.

Jonathan. Well, I've met with two of your members just this morning, so this feels like a very front and center question. Um, I mean, number one, recognizing that, that Aksa corporations are a huge powerhouse in the Alaska economy, and, and one of really, you know, looking at recent history, sort of one of the, the brightest spots in the Alaska economy, and, and giving that recognition and making sure that they're are direct channels of communication between state government and ANCSA leadership. Um, second thing that comes to mind is the importance of ANCSA and what happens in the federal government for ANCSA corporations. And I feel like the state of Alaska is not where it needs to be in terms of federal advocacy, and I want to return to the, the John Katz era of that presence in Washington, DC, where there is a robust and muscular advocacy on the Hill and sort of a proverbial fourth member of the delegation working hand in glove with our two U.S. senators and our congressmen, including to advance the interests of ANCSA corporations.

And the last thing I'll say is making sure that the state of Alaska's corporate reporting requirements sort of recognize the unique realities of ANCSA corporations. Thank you, Jonathan. Dave. Old military guy, look at our Native corporations as a force multiplier. They have a competitive advantage we need to take it, which we need to enforce and support because it gives us a competitive advantage in the state that no other state really has.

And I support that. I worked well with a tribal corporation, a Klutna corporation, on a project, a building project that freed up 1,200 building sites in Eagle River across the highway from, it was the Powder Ridge thing. And we signed a modified methane gas agreement with the landfill there to allow us to do that. They were very cooperative. And I'm just telling you, we talk about housing, that's the housing.

Those 1,200 sites are the housing that the Fighter Town folks, when they come in, when they all PCS in, that's where they're going to have to live because we have almost no other housing left in the city. And that, and Eklutna Tribe, or Eklutna Corporation, came in and worked very well with us. And I was glad to help them. Thank you, Dave, and thank you, Nicole, and all of the other trade associations that were able to participate today. We're going to now move into closing remarks, and thank you all for your patience in getting through so many topics today.

We really appreciate it. So we're going to start with Treg Taylor, and it'll be 60-second closing remarks. Well, you've heard about the fight, fight, fight that I have, and that I'm a proven fighter on behalf of Alaska on more than just resource development, right? When the, when the teachers union tried to get rid of our public correspondence school program that 22,000 kids in Alaska utilize, I fought back and I won on behalf of Alaska, preserving the parental right to choose their child's education. When it came to crime, as the chief prosecutor for the state, working closely with law enforcement to get crimes down to 40-year lows, sexual assaults down 26%, which is a big push for me, and I felt a big weight of that responsibility.

But along with the fight, you have to also be able to work across lines, party lines. I was unanimously elected by the Democrat and Republican attorney generals to chair the Attorney General Alliance, which is a bipartisan group. And together we worked to solve problems that we all care about, right? We took on the big manufacturers of opioids that lied about the addictive natures of opioids, and I won $100 million for Alaska to fight addiction recovery here in the state. We took on big tech for privacy issues and social media companies for a lack of parental controls, and we won on behalf of Alaskan families.

That's what I promise you as the governor. I will, I will continue that. Thank you, Craig. Jonathan. If you feel like Alaska has gone in the right direction over the last 8 years, you should not support me.

If you feel like Alaska has gone in the wrong direction over the last 8 years, I would encourage you to consider supporting me and Zach for governor and lieutenant governor. I want to put the Dunleavy era of Alaska in the rearview mirror. I want to restore an atmosphere of collaboration and problem solving and working across party lines in Juneau. I want state government to work well to capture every federal dollar, to knock down the Medicaid eligibility backlog. Every problem, there needs to be a ferocious problem-solving mindset in state government to make it work better and make it work for Alaskans.

And that is the spirit of governance and energy that Zach and I will bring to Juneau. And if you want to see that in Juneau, I would encourage you to support us for governor and lieutenant governor. Thank you, Jonathan. Dave. When you hire people, universally you go and you look at their resume, and that's what you're doing up here is you're going to hire one of one of four of us here, and look at a resume.

Political executive experience is a unique environment. It's the presidents, it's the governors, and it's the mayors. That's what you gotta look at. That's what this job is. I've already held the job that's closest related to the governor in this state.

The notion that you would hire someone with no experience is nonsensical. You don't want to do it. They have to have the right philosophy, but they have to have that experience. Some people come in and say, "Well, if I don't like that person in government, I'll just fire 'em." I think you all know in government you can't fire anyone. It doesn't work that way.

Because of the legal protections that they have. You've gotta work your way around that. The notion that I will go down and work well with the legislature, I'm proud of that notion. But too, I have fought. I have fought with the Assembly.

I took the Assembly to court. It was called Bronson versus Assembly. And I won. It was over executive authority. But by and large, the Assembly and I, Zach Johnson being one of 'em, we agreed on about 80% of the things.

And we got a lot— we got a lot done, even though the appearance was that we were fighting all the time. We actually weren't fighting all the time. So thank you very much. Thank you, Dave. And Bernadette.

All right, well, I just want to set the record clear, uh, JKT. Just a quick reminder that previous to 8 years, uh, I don't think the Bill Walker administration treated anyone very well in this room. So we just want to be very clear about that. The question is this: you see a lot of alignment up here. This is the time of year everyone's going around and they're making big political promises.

So the question is, who is full of crap and who can actually deliver? The reality is history answers that question for us. Now I can see, I look out across this room and I see CEOs, I see presidents, I see business owners. I would not look at a single one of you and tell you that you weren't qualified to be governor. In fact, quite frankly, you do a hell of a lot better job than most of them that are down there right now.

But the reality is history answers the question. I would encourage you to consider the job that Congressman Begich has done. Everywhere I go, people say, Bernadette, your great uncle Wally was one of the greatest visionaries Alaska ever had. Those two men came from outside government. They had signed the front of a paycheck.

They've been through the ups and downs of owning a business. History answers the question. What will you do differently this time? All right, thank you, Bernadette, and I will now thank our candidates. We're concluding our forum portion of the agenda today, so please join me in applause for our candidates.

I will also release our candidates from the stage now. We're going to have some very brief closing remarks from the CEO of the Alliance, Rebecca Logan.

And if we could pull up her slides. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. I'm sure everybody really wants to stay here for 5 more minutes, so we'll make it 2 instead of 5. I actually just wanted to take a couple minutes to give you some things to think about as you're considering this election.

You've just heard from the 4 candidates, one of whom will be our new leader, and we've got Senate elections and we've got House elections. And so of course, we're all— all of our trade associations here are focused on the impacts that elected officials have on the business community. And so I'm going to refer you to this project that we're working on right now. It's called the Alaska Cost of Doing Business Legislative Tracker. So this is a project that we're hoping to go live with in January so that we can share with you all of the legislation that's being introduced and the fiscal impact that will have on the business community.

So this is just an example of one of the pages from the spreadsheet. So the first project was to go back and look at what's happened in the last 4 legislative sessions, right? So over 8 years with the administration that we have now and with the House and Senate that has been— have been in play for the last 8 years. So this is just— this is not an exhaustive— this is just representative of taxes and finances, anything that had to do with liability and regulation and insurance. So the next page is what's really important.

Next slide. Oh, I need my clicker. Randy is not my clicker. There's actually a— let's see if the clicker works. There we go.

So this is what's important. So this is the number of bills that was introduced in that time period. Just in those categories, 102 bills. And if you look over at the fourth panel or column, that's about the potential financial impact. That is significant.

That is the amount of money that could have been taken out of the private sector because of those bills. The most important column is the third column because none of that legislation passed. And that's because of the trade associations you see sitting up here, but also a lot of you who are involved in advocacy. So think about that. Think about who you're thinking about for governor right now, who's going to be appointing people, you know, commissioners and putting together an administration.

And then the people in the House and the Senate on what their policy is going to be. Are we going to have hundreds of bills that get introduced that are going to have a significant financial impact on the private sector. Not only are we know we're going to have them introduced, the question is, are we going to be able to hold them off? And so I would just challenge you to really think about that when you're thinking about the gubernatorial candidates and when you're thinking about who we have for our candidates in the House and Senate. And then the final thing I would say is, please understand how to use your ballot.

There's a lot of confusion about ranked choice voting. I doubt everybody in here in this room agrees on strategies on how to use it, but if you have questions, I know the trade associations have opinions. The Alliance will definitely be putting out a statement about suggested strategies, but reach out to your trade associations so they can help you understand the issues and also any strategies for how to use your ballot. And with that, I'll end. All right, and thank you.

And one brief note, we did— we didn't have time for Ballot Measure 2 sort of discussion, and so that's what the handouts you see on the tables are. Essentially, we asked both campaigns to answer the questions that are on that sheet. So if you want to educate yourself on Ballot Measure 2, we have that out there. So yeah, with that, thank you all so much for being here. Thank you to the candidates and the trade associations, and have a great rest of your day.