Stealth Influence in Governor’s Office Includes Carlyle Group, Rogoff

A KTUU investigative report shows that Governor Bill Walker is not actually implementing a hiring freeze in his own office.

Instead, he’s using high-priced consultants in pricey no-bid contracts to convince lawmakers and the public about his plans for taxes and his “sovereign wealth fund.”

One of the most interesting aspects of the report reveals the involvement in the deep workings of the Governor’s Office by Alaska Dispatch Publisher Alice Rogoff, raising the question now being asked in the halls of the Capitol: Shouldn’t Rogoff be registered as a lobbyist, considering the ongoing, documented influence she has had over the Executive branch?

Rogoff has met with the governor dozens of times in the last year, and has communicated with him by email and text, according to our sources.

She is not registered as a lobbyist, although she has been pushing for Walker’s “sovereign wealth fund” and advancing her Arctic port project with her family’s Carlyle Group connections.

Carlyle is the No. 1 private equity company in the world. Rogoff’s husband, David Rubenstein, manages a portion of the Alaska Permanent Fund through Carlyle, which he co-founded.

The laws governing lobbyists are clear. Since Rogoff has substantial financial interest in the Permanent Fund through The Carlyle Group, and since she has inserted herself into the restructuring of the fund, she has a conflict of interest. However, because she purchased a newspaper, she may have found a loophole to exclude herself from having to register as a lobbyist because of the “newspaper” clause.

“This may be something the Legislature wants to take up, because the influence of one person who owns the major media in the state, and now appears to be working extremely closely with the governor on restructuring our state’s savings account challenges the very concept of transparency that our laws seek to protect,” said Suzanne Downing, communication director of the Alaska Republican Party.

“Transparency is not something Governor Walker has become very good at,” Downing said. “Will he get there — or will he continue to try to fool all the people, all the time?”

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