Gov. Bill Walker faces a potential campaign to recall him from office.
Joe Miller backs the effort. He was the runner-up in the 2010 U.S. Senate campaign and 2014 Senate Republican primary.
In explaining why he supports ousting the governor, Miller cited Walker’s veto of half of Permanent Fund dividend funding.
“Cutting the people’s money before really much substance in anything else; the fact he misrepresented what he was going to do when he ran for office; you know, basically his devotion to basically the crony capitalist interests as opposed to the people’s interests, I think, fall squarely within the recall parameters,” Miller said.
State law provides for four grounds for recall: lack of fitness, incompetence, neglect of duties or corruption.
The recall application must have nearly 29,000 signatures to start the formal recall petition process. The petition then must gather roughly 70,000 signatures in 180 days before the recall would be placed on the ballot.
Miller said there’s no organized group behind the recall effort.
For his part, Walker said in an emailed statement that he respects the recall organizers’ right to voice their objections to his budget vetoes. But it doesn’t sway his decision on how to address the state’s fiscal challenges. He added that the Permanent Fund dividend will go to zero in four years without significant changes.
There have only been two successful recalls of governors in U.S. history: North Dakota Gov. Lynn Frazier in 1921 and California Gov. Gray Davis in 2003, when Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced Davis.
Correction: Joe Miller was misquoted in an earlier version of this story. He said “crony capitalist interests” not “crony capitalist centrists.”
