Bill Walker (politician, 1951)

Bill Walker (2014)

William M. "Bill" Walker (born April 16, 1951 in Fairbanks , Alaska Territory ) is an American politician . He served as the governor of the state of Alaska from December 1, 2014 to December 3, 2018 .

He was the only non-party US governor in the state of Alaska to date , but his administration included both Democratic and Republican politicians . Initially a Republican, Walker resigned from the party in early 2014 and was then able to defeat Republican incumbent Sean Parnell in the November 2014 gubernatorial election after Democrat Byron Mallott withdrew his bid in favor of Walker. Mallott became lieutenant governor .

Career

Earlier years and political advancement

Walker attended Lewis and Clark College and studied law at the University of Puget Sound . As the successor to Bud Shuster, Walker was mayor of Valdez from 1978 to 1979 . After that he was a member of the Valdez City Council for a while. He was also the local prosecutor for a long time .

Walker was a member of the Republican Party until 2014 . In August 2010, he challenged incumbent Governor Sean Parnell , who had only moved up to this post the previous year, in the internal party primary of the Republicans. However, with a 34 percent share of the vote, he had to surrender to the incumbent, who was then nominated for his party and re-elected in November 2010.

Candidate for governor in 2014

In the spring of 2013, Walker announced his intention to run again for governorship in Alaska in November 2014. At the end of 2013 he announced that he wanted to run as a non-party applicant. On September 2, 2014, Bill Walker and the Democratic candidate Byron Mallott surprisingly announced that they wanted to run together for a so-called Unity Ticket . Mallott then withdrew his own application for governorship and acted as Walker's running mate : his candidate for the post of lieutenant governor . The background was that both the ex-Republican Walker and the Democrats had a common interest in replacing incumbent Sean Parnell from the Republicans . By standing together for Walker and Mallott, the voices of Parnell's political opponents were to be bundled and not divided between two candidates. Since a simple majority is sufficient for the election of governor, a Republican election victory was seen as very likely if Walker and Mallott ran separately.

The outcome of the election was considered completely open in advance, as the two opponents were in a head-to-head race in surveys. Although Alaska leans more towards the Republicans, Walker and Mallott's electoral platform was able to count on approval from the left-wing liberal and moderate, as well as from conservative camps. Parnell had also made himself unpopular with a series of tax cuts for oil companies. His handling of various incidents of discrimination in the National Guard also recently damaged his reputation. The gubernatorial election on November 4, 2014, Walker and Mallott won 48.1 percent of the vote with his share of the vote. Parnell received 45.9 percent; which made a difference of around 6000 votes. The outcome of the election was initially unclear for several days as a close race was emerging and not all votes had yet been counted. After Walker's lead increased continuously in the course of the count, he declared himself the winner on November 11th. Three days later the election result was officially confirmed and Parnell admitted his defeat.

Alaska Governor

On December 1, 2014, Bill Walker (center) takes the oath of office to governor

During a visit by President Obama to Alaska , he and Governor Walker leave Air Force One (August 2015)

On December 1, 2014, Bill Walker was sworn in as the new governor of the state, while Byron Mallott took the office of lieutenant governor. The following day, Walker appointed nine commissioners, roughly equivalent to ministers , to his cabinet. From his predecessor he was the only one to keep the Minister for Public Security. The governor's appointments were confirmed by the State Senate in January 2015 .

In the legislative process , the new Walker-led government is still dependent on the Republicans, who have a majority in both houses of the State Legislature . However, this majority is not enough without the Democrats being able to reject a veto by the head of government with two thirds of the vote.

Two weeks after taking office, Walker announced his campaigning intention to expand the Medicaid health care program in Alaska as part of the 2010 health care reform initiated by US President Barack Obama . After his predecessor Sean Parnell rejected such a plan, the new head of government joins all Democratic and a handful of Republican governors who have already implemented similar plans. According to Walker's concept, around 40,000 people should benefit from the program in the future. Republican MPs, whose approval is inevitable due to the majority situation, announced a willingness to compromise.

In a government statement from the end of January 2015, Walker announced that it would make savings in all areas in order to close the budget deficit of 3.5 billion US dollars in the last fiscal year. Only in the education sector should the cuts of 2.5 percent from the last budget be the smallest. However, there is resistance from both parties in the legislature to cuts in the school system.

Walker initially announced that he would apply again as a non-party member for a second term in the 2018 gubernatorial elections . On October 19, 2018, however, the governor announced his exit from the race and spoke out in favor of the Democrat Mark Begich . As a reason, Walker cited that it was not possible to win the election against both Begich and the Republican Mike J. Dunleavy . Indeed, polls had shown that Walker and Begich would split the votes of the political center and the left-wing liberals, making a Republican victory extremely likely. Days before Walker's election campaign, his Democratic lieutenant governor Byron Mallott had resigned after being accused of making inappropriate comments. Walker's Democratic candidate, Begich, lost 44% to 51% of the 2018 election to Republican Mike J. Dunleavy. Walker's term of office ended on December 3, 2018.

Private life

Walker has been married to his wife Donna since 1977, with whom he has four children. He lives in Anchorage with his family .

Web links

Commons : Bill Walker  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Walker in the National Governor Association
• Walker at Curlie with many links to himself online

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Walker, Mallott to join forces in governor's race (English)
2. ↑ Bill Walker, an Independent, Wins Governor's Race in Alaska (English)
3. ↑ Walker cabinet features at least 9 new commissioners , adn.com, December 2, 2014
4. ↑ Alaska's Governor Eager To Expand Medicaid , npr.org, December 16, 2014 (English)
5. ↑ In Walker's budget proposal, Corrections and Health take biggest hits , JuneauEmpire, January 25, 2015 (English)
6. ↑ Alaska Gov. Bill Walker suspends re-election bid , CNN, October 19, 2018 (English)