People are growing increasingly cynical about government: How money is spent, how hiring decisions are made, and how it seems there are few consequences for actions that hurt the public.
Yet too many elected leaders continue making bad decisions that add to the cynicism.
Such as Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointing to the University of Alaska Board of Regents his former chief of staff whose poor judgment — and illegal actions, according to a judge — cost the state at least half-a-million dollars.
Tuckerman Babcock, a longtime political adviser to the governor, had orchestrated what amounted to a purge of state employees who declined to sign a loyalty pledge after Dunleavy took office in December 2018. A federal judge ruled that demanding resignation letters while at the same time asking 800 employees to sign a “statement of commitment” to the new administration to keep their job violated the workers’ state and federal constitutional rights.
The cost to the state treasury of the illegal actions managed by Babcock is at half a million and growing — one case is still pending a damages award.
And yet, years later, Babcock cannot manage an apology for his illegal action or for sticking the state with the tab. “That’s certainly something that is in the past,” he told a reporter after his appointment to the university governing board.
No remorse, no accountability, no regrets for violating the law, and yet the governor believes this guy should make policy for the statewide university system, with thousands of employees and an annual budget of about $870 million in state and federal funds.
And in a bizarre personnel choice a month earlier, the governor’s office promoted its staff photographer to a newly created position as pro-family policy adviser, at $110,000 a year. It appears no one bothered to check out the guy’s podcasts or history of incendiary statements.
Jeremy Cubas in his podcasts — produced separate from his job while he was working for the state — defended some of Adolf Hitler’s views and said people should “get violent” in response to aggressive transgender activists.
In a March podcast a month before he was promoted at the governor’s office, Cubas talked of how society has exaggerated the seriousness of rape. “Rape, in the end, is pretty low on the totem pole of grave immoral actions,” he said. “Because in the end, I mean, if you produce a child through rape, you’ve ontologically fulfilled the act to a pretty good capacity.”
In an interview with a reporter on May 30, Cubas said, “an act like divorce is worse than rape.” He also said it’s not possible for a man to rape his wife: “When you signed the contract, you have already consented. You’re consenting until the end of time, until you’re dead.”
In one of his podcasts, he said “sometimes a woman needs to be slapped,” adding, “I don’t think there’s any sin there.”
He repeatedly defended Adolf Hitler in his podcasts. “He wasn’t just a lunatic who wanted to kill Jews. I think he was somebody who recognized the virtues of living homogeneously,” Cubas said in January.
In the same episode, Cubas said Hitler targeted Jews not because of their race but because they were “homeless people just taking over the country.”
Cubas told the reporter that he provided access to his social media accounts as part of the hiring process at the governor’s office, and he assumes someone checked them. It sure looks like no one listened to the podcasts before promoting Cubas to a six-figure job.
He resigned after reporters asked the governor’s office about the podcasts and hiring decision.
The governor can do better than Cubas and Babcock. Neither should be advising on anything at state expense.
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