30 JUL 1974: Anchorage Daily News
Eleven candidates for governor and lieutenant governor spoke from the same podium here Monday, mostly telling their plans for managing the abundance of resources and revenues to be manipulated by the state in coming years.
But several candidates parted from the mainstream to promote such themes as moving the capital for free, separating Alaska from the mother country, and radically altering the state Constitution.
THE CANDIDATES spoke for five minutes each during a Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
Republican gubernatorial candidates Walter J. Hickel and Jay Hammond concentrated on their approaches to development of the state.
Hammond said the state must establish policies and guidelines to assure "we move into a future that most of us aspire to." He said the state should ask the people what they want in the way of development instead of telling them, and cited "arbitrary leasing" of oil sites in Kachemak Bay as an example.
HICKEL SAID THE kind of freedom and independence Alaska had in territorial days is going by the wayside. Alaska must recognize it is in business now, because the resources here basically belong to the public," he said.
"It is up to us to see to it that as we become a partner with business, we make sure we don't become the junior partner," Hickel said. He also said the governor should know where to fight the federal government in Washington when necessary, and his experience in Washington is "a key advantage in knowing where to fight."
Hickel said a petroleum refinery on the Kenai Peninsula is here today because he took the unprecedented action of telling industry "keep your money, we want our oil" when the Swanson oil fields were up for development.
DON HOPKINS of Fairbanks, also a Republican candidate for governor, said the capital should be moved as part of a total plan for "voters to gain effective control of our government."
Hopkins also has ideas for changing the structure of state government, and would like the issue of whether there should be a constitutional convention to be on the ballot. He said he believes there should be a "voters branch" of state government to recommend stands on state policy, the two-house legislature should be replaced with a single body, and elected officials should be limited to four years in office in order to avoid creation of "power addicts."
Among Democratic contenders for governor, Gov. William A. Egan and Eben Hopson of Barrow spoke Monday. Hopson said his campaign theme is promoting local government for rural Alaska. "I feel the bush has been taken for granted. Once we cast our votes in the bush we seem to be ignored," Hopson said.
THE STATE Department of Community and Regional Affairs can be a major department, and can "provide all the leadership that is necessary" to strengthen local government in rural areas, Hopson said.
Egan said the record of his administration shows "the demonstrated ability to develop our resources to the benefit of all Alaskans," The policy of his administration is that resources being developed much provide jobs, revenue and funds to invest in the enhancement of renewable resources, the governor said.
At this point, "Realistic leadership and day-to-day hard work are needed as never before," Egan said.
DEMOCRAT DONALD Wright and Republican Keith Miller and James R. Russell, also candidates for governor, were not present at the Monday luncheon.
Joseph E. Vogler of Fairbanks, Alaskan Independent Party candidate for governor on the general election ballot in November, advocated "friendly separation" of Alaska from the mother country, and said if he wins the election, "We will return the federal government to its constitutional cage." He said the Constitution was designed to limit federal powers," and the men who designed it would "drop dead out of horror and fright" if they could see it today.
"I don't know how much time America has, or Alaska has, but the young people of our country are going to live under a yoke of government control," Vogler said. He said he was glad he is 61 and won't have to be around a long time.
FIVE CANDIDATES for lieutenant governor spoke.
James K. Tallman, an Anchorage attorney opposing H.A. "Red" Boucher in the Democratic primary, said the capital could and should be moved from Juneau to Talkeetna at no cost -- maybe even at a profit.
"Bill (Egan) or whoever could move to a quonset but at Talkeetna, and the capital would be moved. It need cost only what the legislature and administration want it to cost," Tallman said.
Boucher and Lowell Thomas Jr., both of whom are aligned with gubernatorial candidates, spoke mostly in support of their choices for governor. Boucher called Egan "the greatest public official I have ever been in contact with" and said Egan has given him absolute freedom to assume his responsibilities.
THOMAS SAID he is a candidate because Hammond persuaded him to join in a team effort, and Hammond is "far and away the best qualified person to lead us during the next eight years." Thomas said the lieutenant governor should be a working member of the executive team, and Hammond and Thomas have developed the teamwork to make it happen.
Jo Ann Miller and Andy Warwick, also Republican candidates for lieutenant governor, addressed the problems of managing Alaska as a business. Miller said the federal bureaucracy has not allowed Alaska to achieve economic and industrial independence. "We need the proper administration that can run this state like a business," she said.
Warwick, a Fairbanks legislator, said by the 1980s, it is predicted the state will have a $3 billion budget surplus. "The big question is what are we going to do with that surplus? I would like to stress that the decision is yours," he said.