Suzanne Downing: A word of wisdom for former Gov. Bill Walker: ‘Don’t.’

By SUZANNE DOWNING

May 29, 2026 – Bill Walker has filed a letter of intent to run for governor. Again.

To review: Walker first ran for governor in 2010 and lost. He came back in 2014 with his much-publicized “Alaska First Unity Ticket,” pairing with Democrat Byron Mallott and won the governor’s office. Four years later, facing bleak poll numbers, he suspended his re-election campaign just weeks before Election Day rather than face what appeared to be a certain defeat. He returned in 2022 with former Labor Commissioner Heidi Drygas as his running mate and finished a distant third behind Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Democrat Les Gara.

That’s one victory in four attempts. Now he’s preparing for a fifth run.

My advice to him is simple: Don’t complete the filing. Seriously, Bill. Spare yourself the embarrassment.

Does Walker really think Alaskans have forgotten? Has he somehow convinced himself that voters don’t remember who took a chainsaw to the Permanent Fund Dividend?

Indeed, it was Walker who normalized taking the PFD away from Alaskans. In 2016, he vetoed roughly half of the dividend. Once that precedent was established, the damage was done. Alaska has never fully recovered the statutory dividend that generations of Alaskans considered their rightful share of the state’s resource wealth.

Walker is the PFD destroyer. A tax on Alaska’s children and elderly was the Walker fiscal plan.

And it didn’t stop there. In addition to taxing every man, woman, and child by taking half of their PFD, Walker also proposed a state income tax. In December 2015, he unveiled his plan to impose a tax equal to 6% of a person’s federal income tax liability.

Think about that. Alaska had eliminated its state income tax in 1980. Generations of Alaskans had grown up without one. Walker wanted to bring it back.

Oh, and let’s not forget, it was 10 years ago in July that he signed Senate Bill 91 into law. That was the omnibus crime bill that sparked a major crime wave across Alaska. SB 91 became a household word in Alaska, as criminals ran rampant.

Then along came Sen. Mike Dunleavy.

People forget that Dunleavy was hardly the establishment favorite. He wasn’t part of the Republican power structure. In fact, he left the Senate Republican binding caucus majority so he could oppose budgets that spent too much and cut too deeply into the PFD. He was viewed by many insiders as a political nobody from Wasilla.

The political class may have dismissed him, but he knew the voters. In 2018, Alaskans delivered a blunt verdict on Bill Walker’s record. Walker withdrew from the race before Election Day because the writing was already on the wall. Dunleavy went on to win decisively. And who did Walker endorse?

Democrat Mark Begich.

But perhaps the most troubling chapter of the scandalous Walker Administration wasn’t about taxes or dividends or even out-of-control crime. It was China.

In November 2017, Walker traveled to Beijing and signed a Joint Development Agreement involving the Alaska LNG project and three major Chinese state-controlled entities: Sinopec, the Bank of China, and the China Investment Corporation.

The proposal envisioned China providing approximately 75% of the financing for the massive project. In return, China would receive approximately 75% of the LNG export capacity. Walker promoted the agreement as an economic breakthrough.

Alaskans, however, saw a governor willing to place one of the most important infrastructure projects in Alaska history under the influence of entities ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

He signed a government-to-government framework agreement in Beijing, at the Great Hall of the People, with President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping present.

Today, with the benefit of hindsight, the proposal looks even worse than it did at the time.

At the time, China was aggressively promoting its Belt and Road Initiative across the globe. The strategy involved financing major infrastructure projects in Third World  countries, often leaving governments heavily dependent on Chinese capital and influence. We’re talking ports, airport, railways, energy infrastructure.

Around the world, countries discovered that accepting Chinese financing often came with long-term strategic consequences. The Chinese own infrastructure across the African continent and South America. Walker wanted Alaska tied into that network.

Fortunately, the agreement was nonbinding and ultimately died immediately after Dunleavy took office. Killing the China deal was Dunleavy’s first major act as governor.

The Alaska LNG project was restarted as a private-sector project, being debated now in the Legislature.

And now Bill Walker wants another chance? Why? What unfinished business remains? Does he want to reroute the gasline to Valdez again to feather his business interests? More catch-and-release crime policy?

Perhaps Walker believes enough time has passed that people have forgotten. Or maybe  he thinks a new generation of voters doesn’t know the history and that those who do will give him another chance.

I think he’s about to discover that Alaskans remember more than he realizes. They remember who cut their dividends, proposed an income tax, and bowed to President Xi in China.

Bill Walker, who is 75 years old and who would be 80 at the end of a four-year term, should save himself the trouble. There’s so much more to tell regarding the Walker reign. We’re not going to let voters forget.

Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.