It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there’s a phone in the lieutenant governor’s residence and it’s ringing. The state seal is under attack. Who do you want answering that phone?

The lieutenant governor’s position in Alaska doesn’t carry a lot of responsibility. He or she runs the division of elections, administers the citizens’ initiative process, commissions notaries public, protects the state seal, and distributes the constitution. And that’s about it.

But the lieutenant governor also can unexpectedly become governor, as current Governor Sean Parnell and Keith Miller long before him (who succeeded Governor Wally Hickel when President Nixon appointed Hickel Secretary of the Interior) can attest. (In Miller’s time, the position was called secretary of state; it was changed to lieutenant governor in 1970) As Steve Haycox, a professor of history at UAA, writes in an email, “the lite-guv is essentially a political position, i.e., most of the people holding it are angling for statewide visibility to help position themselves for a larger run at governor.”

But so far in Alaska’s history as a state, that’s only worked out for Parnell and Miller, when their predecessors left the governorship. At least one went on to serve in lower offices: H.A. “Red” Boucher, lieutenant governor under Governor Bill Egan, afterward served in the Alaska House of Representatives, and later the Anchorage Assembly.

A couple former lieutenant governors in recent history have considered vying for the top spot in the executive branch—Loren Leman, lieutenant governor under Governor Frank Murkowski, considered running in 2006, and one, Fran Ulmer, lieutenant governor under Governor Tony Knowles, actually did. She won the Democratic nomination in 2002, but lost to Murkowski.

(A thought: It seems that being mayor of Anchorage is perhaps a better stepping stone to statewide or national office; consider former Governor Knowles and U.S. Senator Mark Begich.)

Despite the lack of prescribed duties for the lieutenant governor, they campaign on concrete issues—this year the natural gas line, energy and the economy are what you’ll hear them talking about.

“They pretty much have to campaign on substantive issues,” Haycox emails. “They can’t very well campaign on a promise to read all initiatives carefully and stay out of the Governor’s way, though they need to make the first clear publicly and the second in private.”

The drop-dead filing date for entering statewide races is June 1, so there may be more candidates jumping into this particular Republican primary for lieutenant governor. But as it stands, Fairbanks Representative Jay Ramras, former conservative talk radio host Eddie Burke, and, just recently, Arctic Research Commission Chair Mead Treadwell are the contenders. (Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Mark Ewing dropped his bid once Treadwell announced his intent to seek the position.) They’re each vying to be on a ticket that, as things are now, will include either Governor Parnell, former legislator Ralph Samuels, Alaska Gasline Port Authority veteran Bill Walker, or relative unknown Gerald Heikes.

The businessman

Representative Jay Ramras—owner of Pike’s Waterfront Lodge in Fairbanks (he’s ubiquitous in its television ads) and several other food-related businesses—was the first Republican to announce his candidacy for lieutenant governor. At the time it was presumed he would be challenging sitting Lieutenant Governor Craig Campbell, but Campbell has since withdrawn from the race. Ramras started campaigning in mid-October of last year, and before the legislative session began in January (sitting legislators can’t raise funds during the session) had amassed a war chest of $162,000, second statewide only to sitting Governor Sean Parnell.

Ramras acknowledges the limitations of the lieutenant governor’s role—“the compulsory duties as assigned in the state constitution are zero”—but he says, “I think for an original thinker, it allows a reasonable amount of latitude to be, A, a team player with the governor, but B, to talk to Alaskans and help crystallize what direction we want to go in as a citizenry.” He says the best legislation he’s seen in his six years in the legislature has originated from the bottom up, not from the top down: from community councils, from small communities and large communities. “I find those kind of ideas create more meaningful change for Alaska, so I’m anxious to participate in the process as lieutenant governor from that point of view.”

In addition to the commercials for his hotel, Ramras has used television to advocate for an in-state gas line, primarily to relieve Fairbanks of its dependence on diesel fuel for electric power generation. “Fairbanks remains the largest, oldest community still on diesel in the circumpolar globe,” Ramras says. Referencing the depletion of gas reserves in Southcentral Alaska, he says, “that solution will either be very expensive exploration and development in Cook Inlet, or more expensive importation of LNG [liquefied natural gas], or an in-state gas pipeline that comes from the North Slope to where the people are. That’s what I remain most hopeful for. I think it’s maybe an initially less economic solution, but politically the best solution.”

Energy, the food supply, and international trade are Ramras’s primary issues. He’s been an activist for the Alaska Food Bank for some two decades, and refers to recent fuel shortages in rural communities where residents had to choose between buying heating fuel and buying food. “It’s tough to be on diesel in Fairbanks,” he says, “but it’s even tougher to be on diesel in 300 villages across the state. I think food supply remains a very compelling and significant issue for a lot of Alaskans. I think we should be judged on how we treat the most vulnerable among us—I think food falls inside of those parameters.”

Economically Ramras envisions Alaska becoming a trading partner with Pacific Rim countries, rather than simply remaining a virtual colony and importing the bulk of the products Alaska needs. “Can we create a different suite of products that are part of the value-added economy for the Pacific Rim, whether it’s seafood or minerals or raw resources or timber or limestone?” he wonders. He hopes Governor Parnell leaves in the capital budget a $57 million allocation for the initial legwork on a Mat-Su port, which could function as the shipping lane for exports.

Ramras agrees our state’s budget is too big, but says it’s the operating, not the capital budget, that’s bloated. He likes “unimaginative, basic” projects like railroads, roads, bridges, cheaper energy and the gasline—simple infrastructure expenditures that don’t have a high operating price tag.

“It’s early,” Ramras notes. “And I’m glad we’re focusing on energy costs. I’m interested in solutions that return the state’s wealth to Alaskans in the form of lower energy costs and a healthier economy—I like a government that shapes itself that way, and that’s what I’m interested in talking about. The key thing here isn’t who we elect in 2010, it’s who’ll be serving in 2014. In 2014 we’ll have fewer excellent choices before us and more choices that are choices of necessity rather than the privilege time and money affords us, which we have now.”

The radio talker

Most conservatives in the state know Eddie Burke from his stint—recently ended—as the furthest right-wing conservative talk host on the air, a proud tea partier and mega-supporter of former Governor Sarah Palin (Ramras once called Burke Palin’s “pimp” on the air). During his radio career he was known for inciting rage against the left—in one instance, calling the organizers of an “Alaska Women Reject Palin” rally “socialist, baby-killing maggots,” then giving out their cell phone numbers on-air. (Disclosure: This reporter was a regular guest on his program for some time.)

Burke calls himself the only true conservative in the lieutenant governor’s race, referring to his opponents as “limousine Republicans” or RINO’s (Republicans in name only), and he’s aware his incendiary rhetoric on the radio is how many people know him. But he says there’s a difference between the entertainer on the radio and Eddie Burke the candidate. “Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t show up with a machine gun wrapped around his torso and driving a tank his first day in office, and I’m surely not going to have the radio antics I had at KBYR,” he says. “There is the radio personality and the candidate, so what I’ve done is conducted myself in a manner which is appropriate to the lieutenant governor’s office.”

Burke decided to get into the race when Lieutenant Governor Craig Campbell announced he was exiting it, “because I really think he left a conservative void in the race,” he says. He’s upset with the state’s Republican Party leadership, and thinks his candidacy appeals to rank and file conservatives. “I’m kind of the outsider,” Burke says. “This race reminds me of the national scene—you’ve got these more establishment type Republicans, then you’ve got the outsiders, more of the tea party type candidates. I think I represent that movement in America and hopefully here in Alaska.”

The AGIA gasline process instituted under Palin is Burke’s favored approach to getting Alaska’s natural gas to market, and the other elements of his platform reflect basic right-wing values: He’s a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights (Burke is known to pack a Glock nearly everywhere he goes); he’s anti-abortion, supporting Proposition 2, the Parental Notification Initiative; and he believes the state’s spending is out of control.

“That’s something I feel strongly about—these budgets are unsustainable and wrong; in fact, it’s immoral,” he says. Though Burke—and the other candidates, for that matter—smartly don’t endorse any of the GOP’s gubernatorial candidates, he says overspending is one area where he would stand up to the governor if he were in the number two spot. “I recognize the governor is the leader of the state and I would uphold and respect the offices of both the lieutenant governor and the governor, but when it comes to the budget I think that’s a significant enough issue where something should be said. Whether or not I’m listened to remains to be seen if I’m elected.”

The initiative process—which the lieutenant governor oversees—is also a passion of Burke’s, and he’s not happy with the initiative reform bill sponsored by Representative Kyle Johansen (R-Ketchikan) that the legislature recently passed. “Whether people like what comes out of it or not, it’s the only way people have to directly change their government and provide law. By them doing what they did, making it more cumbersome to pass initiatives, it smacked democracy in the face. We should never think the legislature and the lieutenant governor and the governor are smarter than everybody else in the state. Let the people decide.”

As for his connection to Palin—a frequent guest on his former radio show—Burke says he has not and will not call Sarah or Todd to ask for their support. He’ll ask for her vote, he says, but he’s not asking her for anything else. “It’s no secret, people know I like Sarah Palin,” he says. “And that can work for me or against me.”

The Arctic man

Mead Treadwell is the latest entrant in the GOP’s primary race for lieutenant governor, and he too says his decision hinged on Campbell’s exit from the race—but for a different reason than Burke. Treadwell, an entrepreneur and, most recently, chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, has worked with Campbell in the past on missile defense issues. “I’m a team player,” he says. “I have some ambition, but I’m not going to try to knock out good Republicans.”

Treadwell’s résumé includes technology startups as well as public policy positions; he served in Governor Hickel’s second administration as Deputy Commissioner of Alaska’s Department of Environmental Conservation. President George W. Bush appointed him to the Arctic Research Commission in 2001, and last Friday he submitted his resignation to President Obama in order to run for lieutenant governor.

Given his most recent job, Treadwell predictably has an Arctic-centric focus on the future of Alaska’s economy. “The Arctic matters,” he says. “We fuel America; we are center to transport via aviation today; we’re soon to be the center of shipping tomorrow. Aviation is an Arctic enterprise. Shipping will be an Arctic enterprise. Fishing comes out of the Bering Sea. Some 16 percent of oil reserves are in the Arctic and 30 percent of gas is in the Arctic.” Treadwell says his nine years of experience dealing with Arctic matters, both on the Research Commission and as senior fellow at the Institute of the North focusing on strategic and defense issues facing Alaska and the Arctic, along with management of Alaska’s commonly owned resources and transportation infrastructure, give him the knowledge necessary for Alaska to capitalize on its role in the Arctic. “When the state has fights with the feds on science, I can weigh in and help considerably,” he says.

At the state GOP convention in Juneau last month, Treadwell gave a speech he called, “Mr. Obama, Fill Up This Pipeline.” He says he’s heard natural gas talked about for years and years, and worked extensively on getting a pipeline himself, but the fact is the Trans-Alaska Pipeline needs to be fed by oil from the National Petroleum Reserve-A leases that the federal government is hampering. “[The oil companies] make a discovery, and the Corps of Engineers says you can’t build a bridge. We have a bunch of small satellite fields we need to get going. One thing I think the lieutenant governor can do, with someone who’s comfortable—I’ve testified in front of congress a half-dozen times—I feel like I can be a good spokesman for Alaska if the governor wants that. If the governor doesn’t want that I’ve got plenty to do, but Alaska needs to start having some wins.”

Treadwell says he’s pro-life and for limited government, although he believes when the state owns an asset the government should behave to maximize the value of those assets.

He’d also like to see an increased focus on new technology being developed in the state. His companies developed a digital watermarking system used in currency worldwide and on DVD’s, which is also incorporated into Adobe’s Photoshop program. Another company of his invented the multi-view camera that was used by Google for its “street view” filming and is now being used by MapQuest for its 360 View street imaging project.

“I’ve been part of the new economy,” Treadwell says. “Let’s suppose oil doesn’t fly much longer; if it doesn’t, what’s our next export? Technology is coming. There’s no industry in Alaska that doesn’t require cutting edge technology.”

“I’m not into politics for glorification or power, that’s not the issue,” he says. “We’re in trouble right now.”

Analysis

Burke is the long shot in this race, but with rumors of more candidates filing before the June 1 deadline, he hopes as many get in as possible. His theory is that with a large field of mainstream Republicans in the race, his far-right tea party-type supporters could pull off enough percentage points to win.

But not every political observer agrees that’s a likely scenario. Republican pollster Dave Dittman doesn’t even mention Burke. “I think Mead is credible; he’s got a bit of the Hickel legacy, that’s certainly attached to him,” Dittman says. “And [Mead] is new; it’s fresh and new in this season and mood for genuine newness. Ramras is kind of like Paris Hilton, he’s famous for being famous, and as the only candidate [for the first few months of his candidacy] he’s been spending a lot of money. He could win by default or momentum, but I don’t see an eruption of support.”

Ivan Moore, a pollster who tends to work for Democrats more often than Republicans, says, “Jay Ramras and Mead Treadwell are two very well qualified, capable candidates, and it’ll be a terrific race between them. The only thing for certain is that Eddie Burke is not going to win. It may be a crowded field—everyone understands that the office of lieutenant governor can go places, particularly if the governor quits, so you’ve got all sorts of pretty high-profile people jumping in.” Paraphrasing Palin, Moore jokes, “just what is it exactly that a lieutenant governor does?”

If the motivation is indeed a jumping off point for higher office, UAA’s Haycox notes, “today’s field, which may get still more crowded, has two people with serious potential for the governor’s office: Ramras and Treadwell. Treadwell has said he has contemplated running for governor, but apparently everyone thinks Parnell is unbeatable. It’s often that kind of field.”

bjk@anchoragepress.com