Governor Recall Campaign Kicks off Tomorrow!

The Recall Dunleavy campaign officially kicks off tomorrow! (Details on why here.)

It is being spear-headed by Joseph E. Usibelli Sr. and Peggy Shumaker, Arliss Sturgulewski, and Vic Fischer.

Usibelli is chairman of Usibelli Coal Mine, Inc.
Shumaker is a poet and author, and was Alaska State Writer Laureate from 2010-2012.
Sturgulewski is a businesswoman and prominent Republican who represented Anchorage in the Alaska Senate from 1979 to 1993.
Fischer served in Alaska's territorial Legislature and its state Senate, and was a delegate to the 1955 Alaska Constitutional Convention.

It is being championed by The Anchorage Daily News and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. (The Juneau Empire has not advocated for the recall as of today, but every opinion piece it has published regarding the budget and the vetoes is anti-Dunleavy.)

Simultaneous kick-off events are scheduled in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Juneau, Kodiak, Ketchikan, and Wasilla, as well as smaller communities from Sitka to Unalaska to Nome.

Link to live map here.

In addition to collecting more than 28,500 signatures, the group must also prove one of the following grounds for recall: lack of fitness; incompetence; neglecting duties; or corruption. "We’re going to be going with: Neglect of duties, incompetence, and lack of fitness," said Recall Dunleavy chair Meda DeWitt.

During the first signature collection drive, 28,501 Alaskans need to sign in order to advance it to the Director of the Division of Elections for review. After that, the petition would need signatures from 25% of the electorate that turned out in last year’s election, which would be 71,252 signatures of registered Alaska voters. His approval ratings are not high, and there is a lot of anger toward him, so I am hoping it all comes to pass.

I'm very pleased that the recall campaign is so well-organized, and backed by big names from both sides of the political spectrum. And most of all that signatures will be collected in a certifiable way, requiring ID and proof of Alaska voter registration. This will be WAY more credible than an internet petition, or even an in-person petition, which you so commonly see collecting signatures from any warm body, whether or not they even live or vote in Alaska.