People tell me things. Sometimes these things are harbingers, early warnings of coming attractions. Sometimes they are fears, suspicions, and promises of coming events, good and otherwise. Most are garbage. A few aren’t. I generally try to keep my eyes and ears open for inbound traffic, filtering them all through Sturgeon’s Law, which states that 90% of everything is garbage (he used a shorter, blunter term that is generally not safe for work).
With that in mind, the latest whispering campaign out there is that retiring Anchorage School District Superintendent Deena Bishop is mulling a run for LtGov on the Republican ballot. The kicker is that there are those out there that believe that the Dunleavy campaign is supportive at some level.
This rumor was denied in a Must Read Alaska piece Nov 3, a piece that blamed it on left-wing bloggers. Yet it persists 60 days later.
With Kevin Meyer’s announcement that he will not run for reelection the position will be open in the August primary, and there are a lot of names floating around.
Should Bishop run, her campaign could be pure comedy gold. Why? In the words of the sadly departed Desi Arnez, his character Ricky Ricardo: She has some ‘splaning to do.
Deena is not without baggage in this race. Granted, she is smart, professional, and presents well in front of the camera, all good opening bids. But she carries significant baggage into the race, especially for conservatives.
First and foremost would be presiding over the failed social justice experiment that is the Anchorage School District (ASD) since 2016, a school district which seems not to excel in much other than failing to educate its students. If you can’t do something as simple as ensure students in the largest school district in the State of Alaska get a proper education given the enormous resources at your disposal, how are you going to ensure state elections (her primary job LtGov) are completely transparent and instantly auditable?
Add to the failure of ASD, dabbling with gay porn, Critical Race Theory (CRT), and the great masking wars, it would appear that the actual educational mission has morphed into one of leftist indoctrination, all paid for with our property taxes.
There was an internal investigation into the book, which was quietly pulled from the library shelf. All efforts to find out who authorized its purchase, its display, which school it was displayed in, how many times it was checked out, and most importantly how many similar books are still sitting on the shelves remain unanswered. As Richard Nixon discovered half a century ago, it is not the crime, it is the coverup afterwards that matters, though to topics of interest to the leftists infesting local media, not so much.
Following discovery of a CRT reading list on the ASD website, that page was quietly removed. No public response was made to a number of current teachers publicly stating they both support CRT and will resist any and all efforts to remove it from their classrooms. Nothing like teaching the kiddos to hate one another based on nothing more than the color of the skin to ensure a good education. This one quietly went away too.
We haven’t even started a discussion on the coddling of trans activists via restrooms, locker rooms and women’s sports, all fun topics for a statewide campaign.
So, go ahead and run for LtGov, Deena. Choose any party or run as an indy. It will be rollicking good fun campaign. I hope you and your supporters are ready to answer a few questions falling out of your employment at ASD. Perhaps you can. Perhaps not. Either way, they will be asked.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
