Hot off the appointment of his former chief of staff, Tuckerman Babcock, Gov. Mike Dunleavy continues to reshape the University of Alaska’s Board of Regents with Republican activists.
On Thursday, Dunleavy announced he had appointed Fairbanks Republican political activist and business owner Seth Church—who not only doesn’t have a degree from the University of Alaska, according to the Anchorage Daily News’ report, but has no college degree at all—to an eight-year term overseeing the state’s university system.
While a big-ticket Republican donor, Church’s biggest claim to fame in the realm of politics is as the head of a group called Alaska Policy Partners. The independent expenditure group ran flat-out false attack ads against Democrats and moderate Republican candidates in the 2022 election—including the claim that Sen. Scott Kawasaki lives in his mother’s basement—and will be hosting a fundraiser later this month where Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor is the main event.
On social media, Church has posts celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade, attacking Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for supporting the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and several posts about Hunter Biden. He also has pictures of attending Mar-A-Lago where Donald Trump hosted a fundraiser for Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Kelly Tshibaka.
In a prepared statement, Dunleavy praised Church.
“The University of Alaska plays an essential role in equipping Alaskans with the skills they need to meet workforce demands,” said “Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy. “As a business owner, Seth brings a perspective to the Board of Regents that will ensure the University of Alaska is effectively preparing students for productive careers.”
The Alaska Legislature narrowly rejected the governor’s appointment of far-right Republican Bethany Marcum earlier this year, with several legislators arguing that she was the wrong fit for the job because, as the head of the right-wing Alaska Policy Forum, she praised the governor’s 2019 vetoes. Those vetoes included an attempt to deeply gut the University of Alaska and were ultimately softened.
Church previously sat on the Alaska Policy Forum’s board of directors.
The Legislature could very well reject both Church and Babcock, but both will get to serve and weigh in on decisions on how to run the University of Alaska until then. The Legislature typically doesn’t weigh in on appointments until late in the legislative session.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.