By AlaskaWatchman.com

Behind every elected official, whether governor or school board member, lies a powerful network of entrenched governmental employees who direct the day-to-day operations of representative democracy.

These commissioners, secretaries, assistant directors, sectional heads and voluminous support staff interpret, adopt and enforce the numerous laws and regulations promulgated by our elected officials. They also organize taxpayer funded conferences, programs and public outreach campaigns.

The problem, however, is that these bureaucrats often have their own agenda, which does not always reflect the will of our public servants or those who elected them to office.

Part of the solution is for elected officials to thoroughly vet and evaluate – department by department – just who works for them.

We see this happen when conservative school board members discover that long-time educational bureaucrats are pushing controversial curriculum through lesser-known school district committees and subcommittees. This dynamic may also be in play with an upcoming health summit being organized by the state in partnership with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. While Gov. Dunleavy claims to be a pro-life conservative, his bureaucratic underlings have managed to include Planned Parenthood abortion advocates and LGBTQ activists as speakers at the February conference.

Part of the solution is for elected officials to thoroughly vet and evaluate – department by department – just who works for them. Do these bureaucrats actively subvert their goals? Do they harness public funds for an agenda opposed by the administration or elected body?

Draining the so-called “swamp” is not only about electing candidates with conservative platforms, but rather men and women who have the courage and backbone to actively pull the tangled weeds from vast bureaucratic webs they inherit from previous administrations and governing bodies.

This difficult and time-consuming work is critical if politicians are to avoid being actively undermined by enemies within the ranks.

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Alaska’s entrenched governmental bureaucrats must be weeded out

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


18 Comments

  • Ed Martin Jr says:

    Joel you hit the nail squarely on the head!
    It’s time to make each & everyone one of them after we weed most of them out, to be Personally BONDED (with their own money), while working for the people of Alaska ie. Public Official BONDS ! These bonds are sold at most any Surety Company right here in our STATE! I also recommend only a 5 year retirement payout after leaving . No more lifers on our tab! We can’t afford them… Pass as soon as possible a “RIGHT – TO – WORK LAW ” converting out of endless UNION CONTRACTS hamstrings our government & elections! ! This is my NEW YEARS WISH!

    • John B Humphries says:

      Wholeheartedly agree!! No public official retirements unless a 30 year or age 60 state or federal service retirement. No more single term retirements for representatives or senators!!

  • Neil DeWitt says:

    Very well said! It’s time people start taking responsibility again for decisions they make. It’s not the other person’s fault, it’s yours. You created it now deal with it. I see a bunch of vacant seats in a lot of governmental offices.

  • Dean says:

    Very true. The Deep State in DC is just the most powerful of many municipal Deep States across our country. Our universities produce bureaucrats. Those bureaucrats enjoin themselves within the system. How to counter that…I would request all existing staff to submit resume as if they were re-applying for their jobs. I would require them to complete three essay type questions with their ‘resume’. 1) What makes America great? 2) What do you believe is the purpose of your job? 3) Why has Socialism killed more people in human history than any other ideology? Would be pretty easy to see where people are coming from. The Left loves ‘thought experiments’ like these don’t they?

    • david Boyle says:

      Here are today’s questions for a bureaucrat job: 1) What’s your race?, 2) What’s your gender?, 3) What’s your religion?

      • A. N. Gottschalk says:

        Comrade, they better be able to demonstrate that they know how to say amen, count to 3, and know the first letter of the ABCs!

  • Terri Hill says:

    Thank heaven that the interests of students and all Alaskans are protected by Gov Donleavy from wacko reactionary conspiracy theorists like you. You and I will both be happier as soon as I block you from my FB feed.

  • John J Otness says:

    Praise. GOD….. Ty for this absolute common sense piece.. Now we are cooking with Hot Grease…

  • Diana H. Graf says:

    It takes the grass roots to pull the dead roots. We need to find out who they are and get them out.

  • david Boyle says:

    Great article exposing the Deep State in Alaska. And this is why so many good conservative governors cannot implement their policies. Governor Dunleavy has the same problem that President Trump had because Alaska State government is merely a microcosm of the DC swamp.

  • Slew Dweller says:

    Political unity always lead to effective governance. One party rule works well in China. The success of the Chinese model has shown that the age of liberal democracy has passed. Their economy will surpass the USA, they own a majority of US Bonds and they spend a fraction on defense, choosing infrastructure and social programs instead. A generation ago they had hundreds of millions suffering in poverty, now they have a growing middle class and longer life expectancy than us and our middle class is rapidly declining. We must ensure that all levels of government are on the same page in support of the leaders. It is our unfortunate plight that we have leftist that occasionally get elected, but we can do everything in our ability to ensure their time in office is short and unpleasant and see participation as futile. Participation in public forums by acronym people and free sex practitioners should not be tolerated when the leaders don’t hold those values.

    • Terry Tiree says:

      I could not follow your train of thought. Sounds like you admire the Chinese system of governance yet somehow blame the Left for America not being like them?

  • hj says:

    The SICK, lying leftist commi, woke stupidity Democrats are keeping the lock down China covid mandates and keeping the “geno” covid shot mandates because the upcoming midterm elections are coming up.
    The leftist wants to keep the lock downs and keep the vaccine mandates, to make sure you cannot get a job.
    Their plan? The lying leftist democrats want to allow mail in ballots (because we have lockdowns) ONLY to STEAL the votes again. The lying leftist democrats are exerting their power.
    They are trying very hard to prevent Trump from winning again!
    HI-LARIOUS, because they are making sure Trump DOES win AGAIN because they are destroying America!
    Time to defeat the ENEMY OF AMERICA: Medical Dystopia (faulty), Critical Race Theory, the DUMBING down of ALL education, the Pfizer led agenda, Corporations, Twitter and Social Media, etc..
    We can never, never allow America to be destroyed by communism!

  • jh says:

    Saving America starts by saving the GOP from RINOs, (Republican in Name Only – liberal beliefs) from sellouts, and from “known LOSERS!”

  • jh says:

    Red state Alaska wants all the cows go back home.
    Cows- CA, Oregon, Washington

  • kingdom of Heaven says:

    Actually NGOs are violation of actual Law, good thing they operate under a corporate rule structure called legal… Oh wait, you didn’t know….? Jesus clearly described this deception in Romans. And all his parables. Wake up, realize this day whom you serve and repent.

  • Terry Tiree says:

    Seems to me that Jesus was a charitable man. What’s the beef here?