{"id":215,"date":"2026-05-29T04:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=215"},"modified":"2026-05-29T04:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:36:08","slug":"former-alaska-gov-bill-walker-considers-fifth-run-for-governor-as-deadline-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=215","title":{"rendered":"Former Alaska Gov. Bill Walker considers fifth run for governor as deadline approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Former Gov. Bill Walker is considering another run for governor. Walker, an independent and former Republican who served one term as governor from 2014 to 2018, filed a letter of intent with Alaska campaign regulators Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

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It would be Walker\u2019s fifth consecutive run for governor. He lost the Republican primary in 2010, won the gubernatorial race in 2014, suspended his reelection campaign in 2018 and finished third in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have an unquenchable love for my state,\u201d Walker said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Walker hasn\u2019t made a final decision on whether to run for the state\u2019s top elected office, he said. The 75-year-old said he\u2019ll wait until the filing deadline on Monday. But Walker said he would \u201cmost likely\u201d join the race.<\/p>\n

Similar to previous runs, Walker said the state\u2019s longrunning budget issues would be his primary focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlaska needs a fiscal plan,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to have a plan that we’re not drawing down our savings every year, and \u2026 a long-term plan for the future and a stable fiscal regime, rather than the ups and downs tied totally to oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oil is no longer the largest source of Alaska\u2019s general-purpose revenue, due in part to Walker\u2019s signature fiscal reform during his term as governor, the annual 5% draw from the Permanent Fund to pay for dividends and government services.<\/p>\n

Walker pushed the Legislature to pass the percent-of-market-value draw in 2018 on the heels of a steep drop in oil prices that led to a fiscal crisis resulting in Walker vetoing half of the Permanent Fund dividend in 2016.<\/p>\n

Oil is still a large source of state revenue, and it\u2019s by far the most volatile. Last year, before the war in Iran, senior budgeters in the Legislature warned of lean times ahead due to a persistent mismatch between the state\u2019s spending and revenue. That\u2019s despite \u2014 and to some extent, because of \u2014 an ongoing surge in drilling on the North Slope.<\/p>\n

Alaskans are living with the consequences of that structural deficit, Walker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re seeing people leave our state, an education system that is being significantly underfunded, a marine highway system significantly underfunded,\u201d Walker said. \u201cWe’re just hanging on in so many areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Walker outlined a few changes he\u2019d like to see. He\u2019d like to repeal oil tax reforms implemented just before his first term under 2013\u2019s Senate Bill 21, he said, and move to what\u2019s known as a gross tax, a tax on each barrel of oil, rather than a tax on net profits.<\/p>\n

The oil and gas industry is \u201ca huge part of our economy, but I think we just need to have better alignment on our resource development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Walker said he\u2019d also like to see the state apply taxes to large privately held companies that don\u2019t currently pay corporate taxes.<\/p>\n

Notably, Walker did not propose broad-based revenue measures like income or sales taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have already gone to Alaskans twice\u201d by reducing the dividend and tapping the Permanent Fund for state revenue, Walker said. \u201cI think we need to look at other streams of income that make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker doesn\u2019t plan to hold large fundraisers or chase down a long list of endorsements, he said. He instead intends to spend most of his time speaking to Alaskans about the need for a fiscal plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis really isn’t about running against anybody,\u201d Walker said. \u201cIt’s really about, you know, bringing a fiscal plan into the dialogue during the campaign and see(ing) what Alaskans want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker is the 19th candidate to indicate they\u2019re running for governor. He\u2019s secured a running mate in his former revenue commissioner, independent Randy Hoffbeck, Walker said.<\/p>\n

Read more Legislation would prevent state from using psychiatric hospitals as makeshift foster placements<\/a><\/p>\n

Candidates have until 5 p.m. Monday to officially join the race.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walker, who served as governor from 2014 to 2018, said he’d focus his campaign on a familiar priority: the need for a fiscal plan to stabilize the state’s budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer Alaska Gov. Bill Walker considers fifth run for governor as deadline approaches - Alaska Moving Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=215\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Alaska Gov. 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