Lieutenant gubernatorial
candidate Dan Sullivan stopped in Wrangell May 15, part of a wider campaign swing through Southeast
Sullivan is the current Republican mayor of Anchorage and says he wants to continue public service in an executive capacity.
"I'm in my second and final term as mayor," he said. "I'm termed out."
With a background in lobbying and work as a small business owner – Sullivan owns an Irish-themed restaurant and bar in Anchorage – he decided to run for Lieutenant Governor because his past executive experience leading Alaska's largest city seemed like a better fit for that position than the legislature.
"We did a good job in Anchorage," he said. "We inherited a really tough financial situation, and we've turned it around. I think the state's really at a similar crossroads right now."
His primary focus was in maintaining the budget, primarily the use of $2 billion in state reserves to pay for operating expenses.
"In Anchorage, that thought would just kill me if I thought we had to dip into savings to pay for operation expenses," he said. "It means there's gonna be cuts. You can't keep dipping into your savings, that's just unsustainable."
While operating expenses may not be a wise move for reserve expenditures, Sullivan doesn't oppose capital expenditures.
"I don't mind using those savings for good capital projects that might bring economic development," he said.
Sullivan also praised SB 21, a bill designed to boost oil production by changing the formula for taxing production. The variety of producers has increased, and the rise of smaller companies to exploit fields originally considered unfeasible by larger concerns has boosted production, Sullivan said.
"I think SB 21 is starting to work," he said. "It (oil production) has turned around. They're already predicting that instead of 6 percent the decline will only be 1 percent."
"The big players in Cook Inlet quit looking," he added. "They're looking for big fields, the Chevrons. Thanks to some good incentives coming in 2010, the independents are coming in. There's a nice renaissance going, and we need that renaissance all over Alaska."
A wise investment for the reserves might be to construct sustainable energy projects for rural communities, Sullivan said.
"While we've got the $10, $12 billion left in the bank, we've got to do the best we can getting sustainable energy projects built," he said. "It's got to be a well thought out comprehensive plan."
On education, Sullivan said the highly publicized push for school choice in Alaska may well be a rail-belt issue.
"Bottom line, school choice is not something that would be mandated on smaller communities, but an option," he said. "It really is more of a larger district problem. I think there's another way to go about this. One of the reasons people talk about school choice is that it creates competition."
That competition, correctly applied, can motivate schools to elevate their game, Sullivan said. He cited Finland, which drastically tightened standards for teachers only to see a corresponding rise in international standards, as an example. He was also careful not to be overly critical of teachers for matrimonial reasons.
"My wife's a teacher, I would never speak ill of a teacher," he said. "But the bottom line is they (Finland) raised the bar and it's worked."
Sullivan proposed spending up to $200 million to create a fund to pay college tuition for prospective teachers on the condition that they work one year in a classroom for each year their tuition is paid.
The Alaska primary election will be Aug. 19.
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