Editor's note: The below excerpt from this interview is not the full transcript and has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Listen to the full interview with Click Bishop by clicking on the audio link.
Click Bishop: “My name is Click Bishop, 68 years old. First came to Alaska when I was 18 months old, and my dad worked construction, and my wife and I - we've known each other since childhood, and our dads worked together. So, anyway, I worked, bounced all over the state as a construction brat kid, and Fairbanks was always kind of home base. I graduated from Lathrop in December of [19]74 and went to work on TAPS and did construction in the field pipeline work in the winter and civil construction in the summer. Then I managed my union's apprenticeship program statewide for 20 years, and then Governor Palin called me to ask me if I would like to come be commissioner of labor, and, and so that's how I got involved with the state government.
Davis Hovey, KMXT: Well tell me a little bit about what your priorities are and what you would focus on if you were elected as governor.
Bishop: First thing is cheap energy. I just want to emulate Kodiak on the rail belt. I mean, if people in Kodiak were paying what we were paying at Fairbanks, they would be screaming off the rooftops here. So cheap energy, and I have an energy plan that it is ready to go on day one when we get, if we get elected. And also the second thing is growing the economy, and actually cheap energy and growing the economy they're joined at the hip, you know. So anytime you can lower your electric rates, and I'd like, I'd love to cut them in half on the rail belt. Third thing is education, you know. I just had this conversation two days ago with a group of educators in Anchorage, and in the data hasn't changed. 75% of the kids that graduate the high school, right up here, 75% of them are better served to go into an apprenticeable occupation or two-year AA degree. The other 25% are destined for higher ed, you know, doctors, lawyers, engineers, what have you, but we don't put enough into the BSA increment to expand career and tech ed. And I want to expand career and technical education inside the base student allocation. You know, when you got the CEO of a Ford Motor Company, Jim Farley, saying “I'm 5000 mechanics short,” it's right on point. We need more trades people, and we needed them yesterday.
Last thing is fisheries, fourth. So energy, the economy, education, and fisheries.
KMXT: We're here in Kodiak, commercial fishing town. All gear types, all sectors, though, are kind of struggling right now, whether you're a processor, jig fishermen, or trawler, whoever, but you know, the global markets, the Russian seafood, the price at the docks of fuel, it's all not great. What would you kind of focus on to help address, you know, the needs of the commercial fishing industry?
Bishop: The fastest thing I think that we can do to help the seafood industry, especially because we're competitive on a global market, right. We've got to end, that war in Ukraine's got to be over with, and it's got to be over with yesterday. And we've got to get diplomatic relationships open back up in Asia, and that includes Russia. So that’s part one. Part two is I want to, I want to work with the White House, the State Department, our delegation to try to open up those diplomatic relations to expand into data sharing on bycatch, right, or. If we're catching 50% of their chum by genetic testing, I want to know how many of our chum they're catching, right? Or Chinook salmon. We're all eating out of the same breadbasket. But diplomatic relations first and foremost, get back to sharing the science. Third thing is we got to be competitive on a global stage, that means fund an ASMI’s budget, Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, to what it needs to be funded.
KMXT: Obviously everyone loves to talk about the permanent fund dividend and what level that should be set at. Where do you stand on supporting the full statutory PFD?
Bishop: Oh, if you could pay it, if that's if you could pay it, that you know, and you've got the bank account to pay it without breaking the treasury, that's fine. I've been in those debates, in those, in those slogs, and we had it, a formula passed in 2018 right? And obviously the house couldn't get there. And we only got half of the that bill passed, and that was the structured POMV draw, not to overdraw the ERA, so yeah, that's where I'm at. I'll tell you what, I'll tell you right out of the gate, I'm not going to introduce a budget that's a billion and a half dollars underwater, it'll be a balanced budget."
The primary election is Aug. 18 and the top four candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will advance from there to the general election on Nov. 3. Here is a full list of all gubernatorial candidates running in this year's election as of this month:
- Gregg Brelsford (Independent)
- Former state Sen. Tom Begich (Democrat)
- Former state Sen. Click Bishop (Republican), and Lt. Gov. candidate Greta Schuerch
- Former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Josh Church (Republican)
- Former state revenue commissioner Adam Crum (Republican)
- Current state Sen. Matt Claman (Democrat)
- Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom (Republican)
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries (Republican)
- Organizer Meda DeWitt (Independent)
- Kasilof resident Jessica Faircloth (Independent)
- Anchorage podiatrist and state medical board member Matt Heilala (Republican)
- Former state Sen. Shelley Hughes (Republican), with Lt. Gov. candidate Blake Gettys
- Former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (Democrat)
- Author Hank Kroll (Registered Republican) with Lt. Gov. candidate Tommy Nicholson (Undeclared)
- Angoon resident and former teacher James William Parkin IV (Republican)
- Former Attorney General Treg Taylor (Republican)
- Palmer resident Bruce Walden (Republican)
- Businesswoman Bernadette Wilson (Republican) with Lt. Gov. candidate Mike Shower (Republican)
