The primary election for governor is less than seven months away, on Aug. 16, with the general election in November. And though it’s only the end of January, there is no need to delay this endorsement call: Wasilla Rep. Christopher Kurka is not who a healthy Alaska needs as governor.
With an emphasis on healthy.
Candidates often have a hard time getting anyone to notice their announcements early in the campaign — especially during a miserable winter like this year, when there are roofs and boats and pipes to worry about. So they sometimes will amp up the Three C’s of Claims, Challenges and Complaints in an effort to get attention. Much like a child who stomps his feet because no one notices.
Kurka, a freshman in the state House perhaps best known for refusing to wear a face mask in the chambers last year, figured one way to awaken voters to his campaign for governor would be to take a strong stand against public health.
He didn’t put it that way, but that’s the direction the needle points.
The candidate this month issued a press release challenging Gov. Mike Dunleavy — one of Kurka’s opponents in the August primary election — to immediately fire the state’s chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink.
He claims the doctor, who works at the hospital that serves Kurka’s district, is spreading “scientific misinformation and propaganda” about the Coronavirus. All she has been spreading is accurate information that vaccinations can help keep people healthy, face masks can help keep people from getting sick, and staying home when you are sick can help keep your community safer.
And while trashing Zink, Kurka saved the last sentence of his press release to complain that President Joe Biden, not just Zink and Dunleavy, is to blame for the health crisis too.
The first-time candidate for statewide office makes no mention of the record number of COVID-19 infections sweeping across Alaska this month; or the more than 1,000 Alaskans who have died after getting infected with the Coronavirus; or the schools, businesses and public services closed because so many employees have gotten sick; or the cost to families and government of treating the almost 190,000 Coronavirus cases in the state since the pandemic started two years ago.
Kurka includes a pro-freedom, pro-rights, anti-government line on his campaign website: “It is the duty of government to protect the individual liberty of the people to make our own health care decisions.” But he fails to think through who pays for many of those poor health decisions: The government does, when it picks up the cost of treating unvaccinated people who refuse to wear a face mask.
He puts political flag waving ahead of public health. A healthy state does not need Kurka as governor. No need to wait for the election to make that call.
Wrangell Sentinel
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