Republican primary: Parnell, Samuels and Walker

Gov. Sean Parnell, left, faces challengers Bill Walker, center, and Ralph Samuels, right, in the Aug. 24 Republican primary.

Voters in the Republican primary have three very different choices for governor this year. But it's still coming down to oil, gas and oil and gas taxes.

Mostly, the GOP debate has been overshadowed by the gas line. That's because one candidate -- Anchorage attorney Bill Walker -- is pushing hard for an LNG line to Valdez, to be built by the state and starting now.

Gov. Sean Parnell, who is running for election to the seat he inherited a year ago from former Gov. Sarah Palin, wants to stay the course Palin and the Legislature set with the state-supported gas line through the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, or AGIA.

Ralph Samuels, a former lawmaker who's now a travel industry executive, doesn't like either of those ideas. He wants to build the much smaller in-state pipeline from the North Slope to Fairbanks and Southcentral known as the "bullet line." And he's the only one trying to turn the conversation to what he warns are necessary budget cuts as oil revenue declines.

Samuels and Walker have been traveling the state, appearing at public forums and meeting with employee groups and business organizations. They have been open about their agendas and are fairly available for an in-depth interview or a quick phone call back on issue.

Parnell has played the campaign game quite differently. He's appeared at only a few public forums, and Walker and Samuels are quick to point out that those involve formats where he only has to give brief responses to questions, not talk at length about his ideas or explain why he should be governor.

"This is my 15th one," Walker told the Resource Development Council lunch forum in Anchorage recently. "He's been at four or five."

Parnell did attend the RDC lunch, but he skipped a planned debate in Ketchikan more recently despite being in town for a fundraiser. Walker said Parnell left town 45 minutes before the debate.

"He had all of the time in the world to collect checks at a fundraising event on Friday, but could not find an extra two hours in his schedule to participate in an important public forum that he had previously committed to attend?" Walker said in a press release, adding that marked the 13th of 18 public forums that Parnell has missed.

Last week, Parnell cancelled public campaign appearances following the death of former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens and four others in a plane crash near Dillingham. The Parnell campaign said the governor was suspending campaign activity out of respect for Stevens and the others. A Commonwealth North debate planned for last week between the three GOP gubernatorial candidates has been re-scheduled for Monday, the day before the primary, at noon.

Alaska Dispatch has been requesting an interview with Parnell since June, but he has refused to make himself available. His campaign manager, Michelle Toohey, said in an email a couple weeks ago that "unlike the other candidates, he is actually doing the job of being governor and trying to balance a campaign on top of that." Still, despite frequent continued requests, including while Parnell was in Anchorage for a few days recently, the governor has yet to schedule an interview.

On both the governor's office website and his campaign website, his priority issues are listed as economic growth and families. He generally refers to the proposed gas line as the key to economic growth and job creation. He's also keeping the bullet line as an option, he's said recently.