With a dozen Republican candidates vying to become Alaska’s next governor, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson has launched an innovative, freewheeling and slightly edgy podcast to separate his campaign from the pack.

The “Who Hates Dave” podcast posted its first episode on Jan. 8 with the aim of letting Bronson’s critics air both their questions and insults while giving him a chance to respond. When asked why he thought that was a good idea, Bronson admitted that some people think he is nuts.

“Other politicians say that doesn’t make any sense,” Bronson said on the podcast. “You’re only supposed to list the positive things about you, but at the end of the day, in the interest of transparency, I think we need to air out everything in public.”

Over the course of one hour and 15 minutes, Bronson’s campaign team read dozens of comments, questions and even insults that Alaskans have posted online in the lead up to the show.

In addition to being called a thoughtless, bigoted, ignorant, spineless, moronic, grifting nut job, commentors also asked some hard hitting questions about Bronson’s past challenges as Anchorage Mayor, his views on Christian values, how he would protect Alaska’s fisheries from trawlers, his ideas on oil and gas development and tourism, why he opened Anchorage up for business during Covid, why he supports President Trump after the Jan. 6 events, how he would tackle homelessness, his approach to law enforcement and the whether he thinks a full statutory Permanent Fund Dividend is realistic.

At times, the comments were flat-out insulting, but Bronson let his staffer read them, all the same.

For the most part, Bronson took each comment and question in stride, thanking the person for submitting their opinions and then proceeding to address the question or concern.

The podcast began with a question about why he didn’t immediately announce that he was planning to run for governor upon resigning from his post as director of the Ted Stevens International Airport last year.

Bronson noted that, as a state employee, he had to resign from the job and be completely clear of it prior to announcing his campaign for governor. He defended his initial comments, at the time, when he said he just wanted to spend more time hunting, fishing and hanging out with his family, noting that running for governor does not preclude enjoying life.

Another questioner asked about his thoughts on deep water trawling – a destructive fishing method that uses large, weighted nets that drag along the seafloor to catch species like cod, haddock, and deep-sea sharks, but devastates ocean habitats and catches vast amounts of unwanted species.

Bronson said he opposes trawling and would work to ensure the State Fishing Board was not stacked with pro-trawling advocates, as it currently is.

Several questions asked him to explain the circumstances surrounding his decision to fire his former Anchorage city manager Amy Demboski in 2023, a decision which prompted Demboski to claim her firing was retaliatory and unlawful. She also asserted that Bronson slandered her before city staff. After Bronson left office, the Assembly agreed to pay Demboski roughly $500,000.

In the podcast Bronson said he stood by his decision to part ways with Demboski, and that he disagreed with the Assembly’s decision to pay her more than half a million dollars.

Bronson avoided attacking Demboski directly but did offer some thoughts on why he fired some employees during his stint as mayor.

“At the end of the day, there were certain standards of behavior and decorum that I expect everyone to adhere to,” he said. “Some people don’t do that and when they didn’t they were gone. There were a few examples of that. I expect the best behavior. You have to get along with people. You’ve got to lead people well. You can’t tear down the team. You simply have to perform at a very high level, and I demanded that and some people were just incapable of that.”

At times, the comments were flat-out insulting, but Bronson let his staffer read them, all the same.

One question asked whether he would take testosterone or get hair plugs.

“I’m 67 years old. It is what it is,” Bronson responded.

Another stated: “Just go away dude. No one wants you back.”

Bronson defended the conservative grassroots group – Save Anchorage – which arose in response to citywide shutdowns on businesses, restaurants and even churches during the height of Covid.

“I appreciate your opinion. I just don’t agree with it,” Bronson quipped.

Other comments were a bit too inappropriate and were excluded from the show.

When asked about the fact that so many foreign interests are behind key natural resource development projects in Alaska, Bronson said the state needs to both proceed with current developments by outside companies while working to ensure there is more Alaska ownership in the future. He called it a “both/and” strategy.

He applied the same reasoning to a comment that claimed Alaska should focus less on promoting tourism and seasonal jobs and more on resource development and long-term economic stability.

Bronson defended the conservative grassroots group – Save Anchorage – which arose in response to citywide shutdowns on businesses, restaurants and even churches during the height of Covid. He said Save Anchorage members were rightfully afraid that city shutdowns would put them out of business.

“It was a good group of Alaskans,” he said. “A good group of Americans.”

In response to another Covid question, Bronson said masks were not effective and he defended his decision to not mandate that city employees get the “problematic” Covid shots.

When asked if he supported President Trump after the Jan. 6 disturbances in D.C., Bronson admitted that some protesters were certainly out of line, but that the media also engaged in “inaccurate reporting.”

He noted that security guards actually welcomed people into the Capitol building, and that the vast majority of those did nothing illegal.

When accused of being a bigoted Christian, Bronson defended his core beliefs.

“At the end of the day, they had people that did literally nothing wrong that were prosecuted and their lives were ruined by the federal government because of the lawfare of the Biden administration,” he said. “I think Trump is trying to rectify that with his pardons.”

Responding to a comment on the chronic problem of homelessness, Bronson said he favors a path that enforces laws, while focusing on treatment before housing.

He criticized the liberal supermajority on the Anchorage Assembly for thwarting his efforts to establish a navigation center for the homeless and noted that certain worldviews simply don’t work when it comes to solving homelessness.

He said the focus on “housing first” is a mistake, arguing that the homeless first need effective treatment.

When accused of being a bigoted Christian, Bronson defended his core beliefs.

“Traditional American values, yes, I do promote those,” he said, adding that he’s against abortion and the LGBTQ ideology that encourages minors to identify as the opposite sex. He also said Alaska needs to do away with all DEI initiatives and ESG programs.

One comment blasted him for hiring well-known conservative activist Judy Eledge to lead the Anchorage library system. The commentator claimed Eledge was unqualified.

Bronson defended Eledge, citing her 40-plus years as an educator and saying she was “very qualified to be a librarian.”

The controversy she endured was due to her beliefs, not her abilities, he maintained

“She was a conservative and the staff was quite liberal,” Bronson said. “At the end of the day it was a conflict of ideology.”

Towards the end of the podcast Bronson responded to a criticism on how he handled snow removal during the winters of 2022 and 2023 in which Anchorage roads were clogged for weeks.

Bronson admitted it was a “big problem,” which was partly created by the previous mayor’s decision to stop buying new snow removal equipment.

Those winters saw the second and third largest snowfalls in the history of the city and its municipal crews were hampered by old equipment and a limited fleet. He also noted that there was some confusion on the part of the public about the fact that Anchorage includes both state and city maintained streets.

Bronson briefly spoke to the issue of Grand Jury rights, a topic that has sparked protests, rallies and public comments by a growing group of advocates who believe the Alaska Supreme Court has unconstitutionally limited the ability of citizen Grand Juries to investigate corrupt judges and officials.

“It’s getting to be a big problem, especially on the Peninsula,” Bronson said. “I haven’t made a public decision on that. Because I haven’t done my research yet.”

He next addressed a comment regarding a challenge issued by fellow gubernatorial candidate Bernadett Wilson. Last year, Wilson said all Republican candidates for governor should pledge to drop out of the race if they are not the top GOP vote getter in the jungle primary.

Bronson doesn’t favor that strategy, especially if a RINO Republican is slightly in the lead.

“I’m not signing that,” he said. “It’s naive and I’m not going to play the game.”

On the PFD question, he said he supports a full statutory payout to Alaskans but acknowledged that there simply isn’t enough money to do so right now.

Bronson explained that a statutory PFD would entail about $4,000 per person, multiplied by roughly 600,000 Alaskans. That adds up to $2.4 billion. Even if Alaska fired every single state employee, that would only amount to a savings of $1.2 billion.

Bronson said Alaska must grow its revenue over the next five to eight years before it is able to pay out a statutory PFD, which is his ultimate goal.

At the end of the podcast, Bronson invited Alaskans to send in more comments for the next show.

“We’re just looking for cold hard questions,” he said.

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