April 1, 2021 — Alaska’s Governor Mike Dunleavy has received 11 requests for fisheries disaster declarations, said Doug Vincent-Lange, Alaska’s Commissioner of Fish and Game, in an update at the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce’s ComFish Expo.
Noting the good news of over half of Alaska’s population now vaccinated, and shots now available for anyone over 16, Vincent-Lange said, “I don’t see why you wouldn’t all be able to fish this year.”
October 23, 2020 — Health care was the issue that pushed Dr. Al Gross to challenge Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is running for a second term. But fisheries has been the hot-button issue as this senate race draws to a close.
Gross, from Juneau, has fished his whole life. His mother was the first executive director of the United Fishermen of Alaska.
Sullivan has the backing of the United Fishermen of Alaska in this race, though that declaration came in June, before much of the political fallout that has put Gross within striking distance of the seat. Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers endorsed Sullivan on Oct. 7. Gross is endorsed by the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, which has been an outspoken and vehement critic of the proposed Pebble Mine.
An Oct. 10 debate between the candidates hosted by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce and ComFish via Zoom saw Pebble Mine rear its head in the first 10 minutes.
October 14, 2020 — The Kodiak Chamber of Commerce’s U.S. Senate debate is the only Alaska political forum of its kind devoted exclusively to fisheries. Saturday night’s showdown between Sen. Dan Sullivan and his challenger, Al Gross, had some heated exchanges.
“If this was a Nascar race, you would have corporate sponsor patches all over your jacket,” said Gross, who accused his Republican opponent of being beholden to special interests and rattled off a long list.
“The plastics industry. Big pharma. Big oil on your hat, and I’d save this spot right here in the middle for Pebble mine,” Gross said.
“The Pebble Mine is dead, and I’m going to keep it that way,” Sullivan fired back.
Gross referred to a secretly recorded video, in which the head of Pebble Mine claims Sullivan silently supports the mine.
October 12, 2020 — After weeks of attack ads and snipes at each other in the media, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and challenger Al Gross laid into each other in real time during the 90-minute premiere debate in their race for a U.S. Senate seat.
The debate, hosted by ComFish Alaska and the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce, took place over Zoom and was centered around fisheries policy. The candidates early and often folded in central issues of the race, including campaign financing, the federal COVID-19 relief package and Pebble Mine.
Sullivan, the Republican incumbent, repeatedly characterized Gross as a threat to giving Democrats control of the Senate.
“He will … empower the radical left in the Senate, in the Congress,” Sullivan said in his closing remarks. “That has an anti-Alaska agenda. An agenda focused on shutting down fishing opportunities, more monuments, more Endangered Species Act designations. This is a huge threat to our state.”
Gross, standing outside and wearing a camo jacket, talked of his childhood in Southeast Alaska and growing up as a fisherman. He aggressively went at Sullivan for not denouncing the development of the Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska earlier in the process.
November 1, 2018 — If Republican candidate Mike Dunleavy wins his bid to become the next governor of Alaska on Tuesday, look for an all-out effort by the state to expand its seafood export markets but not a direct challenge of president Donald Trump’s tough trade policies.
“A governor of one state clearly doesn’t set trade policy for the nation,” he said in one of several responses to a survey on commercial fishing organized by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce.
Democratic candidate Mark Begich, meanwhile, would bring together a bipartisan group of governors from other states to pressure the federal government into changing course.
“As governor, I won’t sit on the sidelines when national policies hurt Alaska, like Trump’s trade war with China,” he said.
October 26th, 2018 — Rack up another empty seat on the Alaska debate stage for Mike Dunleavy.
The Republican candidate for Alaska governor bailed out of Kodiak’s traditional fisheries debate — after saying he’d show up.
“We plan on being there,” Dunleavy said on public radio’s statewide Talk of Alaska call-in show on Aug.31. But from then on, there was silence from the Dunleavy campaign as Kodiak organizers struggled to plan the Oct. 22 event that is broadcast live statewide on radio and television.
Days before the event, after weeks of unreturned phone calls and emails, organizers finally learned that Dunleavy would not be attending.
“Mike is unfortunately not going to be able to attend the debate as he will be visiting with Alaskans in Barrow. We wish you the best with you (sic) event,” wrote Gina Ritacco, deputy director of scheduling and events, in an Oct. 16 email to the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce.
The conflicting trip to Barrow was posted on the Dunleavy event calendar that same day.
“Certainly, it makes us in Kodiak feel like even though the fishing industry is so important to Alaska, it may not be that important to him,” said Frank Schiro, executive director of the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce which has hosted the debate since 1991.
Shiro added that he was not surprised.
“People had predicted from the beginning that it might not be to his advantage to come here. I think he believes he doesn’t need to pay attention to people down here and will walk into office anyway,” he said,
“We gave him two months to schedule it,” Schiro added. “The other two candidates for governor responded immediately and Dunleavy’s lag time made our planning extremely difficult.”
Since late March Dunleavy’s calendar shows that he has participated in a debate on rural issues in Naknek in early June and visited Juneau and Ketchikan. Besides that to date he had not visited any coastal communities beyond the Kenai Peninsula. Dunleavy also has not responded to requests for interviews by any media in coastal towns.
The seafood industry is Alaska’s largest private employer and second only to oil in the tax revenues it puts into state coffers. Seafood also is Alaska’s top export by far. Dunleavy has missed an opportunity to share his views and vision for Alaska’s oldest industry to a statewide audience.
October 24, 2018 — With U.S. election day on 6 November just around the corner, Alaska Governor Bill Walker shocked the state on 19 October by dropping out of his race for reelection.
Walker, an independent, said he realized he would not be able to win a three-way race, and has endorsed the Democratic candidate – former U.S. Senator Mark Begich – who faces former Republican State Senator Mike Dunleavy. Though Walker’s name will still be on the ballot, he urged supporters to vote for Begich.
“Alaskans deserve a choice other than Mike Dunleavy,” Walker said.
Walker was set to debate Begich in a debate over commercial fishing on Monday, but with Walker pulling out of the race, the debate organized by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce was canceled.
Dunleavy would not have appeared at the event anyway, which would have made him the first gubernatorial candidate in 27 years not to attend the historic debate. Instead, Dunleavy said he was “visiting with Alaskans in Barrow.”
Read the full story at Seafood Source
October 23, 2018 — Mark Begich, the Democratic candidate for Alaska governor, will not appear on a stage in Kodiak Monday evening to discuss his positions related to the state’s commercial fisheries.
Following Friday’s surprise announcement by incumbent Bill Walker that he was pulling out of the 2018 race, the planned debate has been cancelled, confirms Frank Schiro, executive director of the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce.
Walker, an independent, used the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, in Anchorage, on Friday, to announce that he would be leaving the four-way contest. He explained that his decision was based on the promise he made in his campaign to keep “Alaska first” and give Begich a better chance at beating Republican challenger Mike Dunleavy.
With the Nov. 6 election day looming, Walker, based on the latest polls taken two weeks ago, had just 27.0% of the Alaska vote while Democrat Mark Begich had 22.6% and Republican challenger Mike Dunleavy had 46.5%. Walker also has a Libertarian challenger, William S. “Billy” Toien, though he was not featured in the poll.
Only 3.9% of respondents were undecided, and the poll had a 4.4% margin of error.
On Friday, Walker, a former Republican, said he didn’t believe 18 days were enough for him to turn things around.