Governor and city mayor in the state’s biggest city have remained an unpopular conservative ally in spite of her past previous history of homophobic, racist and transphobic remarks.
The infuriating remarks made by the library director’s deputy, Judy Eledge, were recently reported in a report by The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica which included audio recorded secretly from one of her subordinates. In the recording, Eledge calls Alaska Native people “woke” and “racists” and transgender individuals “very disturbed.”
Then, when library employees expressed their concerns about Eledge to the state and city agencies that are charged with investigating discrimination, their complaints were either not considered or stuck in a backlog created due to the insufficient staffing of the institutions.
Anchorage Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins has written the latest story about Eledge an educator from the past who is the leader of the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club and a key actor in Alaska’s conservative political landscape.
Listen:
The transcript below has been lightly edited to improve clarity.
Kyle Hopkins: If you go to 2021, you’ll find the city elections. There’s the conservative group trying to win the election together in be a part of the (Anchorage) Anchorage School Board. There’s a lot of opposition research on both sides and people are searching for information about their rivals. Screenshots of Judy’s posts on Facebook were shared, and there were even stories written about the posts. One example was one in which she stated, you know, I’m not going to attempt to use it as a quote however, it was to be about the idea of people of color who have lower self-esteem.
Casey Grove: She wasn’t selected to be on the School Board, and then was appointed to the position of second-in-command in the library. Because the library director was not appointed, the library director was essentially in the library’s charge. Also, as I said she had not even been employed until a while before there started to be allegations of other homophobic, racist, remarks she made in the workplace. staff at the library began raising red flags and going to various offices to try to address the incident. What did that mean?
Kyle Hopkins: What I learned from the library staff was that she did not hesitate to share her opinions, was she? Employees would then claim that if it wasn’t their first meeting with Eledge the first time, it was within the first few days of encountering her. She would then kind of outline her beliefs, or her beliefs, which included her being there to remove awoke culture and that the library was not awoke enough and that there were too many women picking the books and that she didn’t believe in the concept of equality, and that she was not happy with the plans. She’d noticed that plans were in place to completely revamp in the Alaska Room and kind of modernize it. Alaska Room on more of the lines of an Indigenous historical narrative rather than an account of the colonial period that was white-centered. Then she would go on to say things the plans, like “That’s never going to happen. It won’t happen until a new mayor is elected,” because, you know she was clear that the mayor had hired her to stop this sort of conduct. There were a lot of employees who were recording her. She would go into their office and would speak in a manner that appeared to them, at the very least that they were (Human Resources) violation of Human Resources. They would also make the recording, or simply recorded to get some proof of what was stated.
Casey Grove: This was, as you stated the people were trying to find evidence that she actually said what it was she claimed to have said?
Kyle Hopkins: Yes, I’m talking about what my employees told me, it was a the combination of being scared that people wouldn’t believe in what she was stating, but possibly more importantly, they were afraid that there would be no action regarding it. Since you had a second ally to the Mayor, Niki Tshibaka who was at the time the HR director. HR. So when they’d visit HR — and what they would say, and what has been reflected in lawsuits, complains made to the mayor, and threats of lawsuits the fact is, that when they spoke in to HR, HR said, “Yeah you’re in luck. Sorry.” It’s true that initially HR’s response was that, okay it’s time to complain. And then you get HR’s head for instance, wearing T-shirts that reads “I’m along with Judy,” at the (Library) advisory Board meeting. You’re wondering what message that convey to employees at libraries? Absolutely not that HR will be eager to hear about your complaints the behavior of Judy Eledge.
Casey Grove: Yes. However, there was another place to take these allegations, theoretically and who was it and what transpired?
Kyle Hopkins: A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights as well as how the commission had secretly altered their position on the kinds of LGBTQ-related issues they would be investigating. In essence, they been unable to investigate the majority of LGBTQ complaints, based on the advice of (Gov. Mike) Dunleavy’s attorney General Treg Taylor. One of the most important events in the news was this conversation with one of the librarians encountered while talking to an investigator of the state commission. He states in a recorded interview, “Well, the LGBTQ things, which is a lot of the things Eledge is discussing, we’ve been instructed not to look into the majority of kinds of categories.” That’s a bit of a non-starter. It’s also a delicate issue which the governor is able to handle. You know the investigation is declaring, “We just recently got an authentic complaint from the city which was turned down due to political reasons, mainly due to the political implication on the part of governor.”
Casey Grove: And, by that I mean when you look at the various stories that have been published throughout the years regarding the statements she’s made did you get any clues as to why the mayor or the governor remain so close to her despite all that?
Kyle Hopkins: First off Dunleavy and Bronson aren’t going to do interviews. They don’t. They’ll never discuss with you in person about this issue. Even if you encounter them but they won’t even speak to you. You know we sent in the questions, and we received an official statement from the Mayor’s Office that they are unable to comment due to this lawsuit that is pending. This, of course is just fair. However, a lot of the things we asked about was nothing to do in the case. It was related to her past experiences with social media and the relationship between the mayor with her and their relationship with fundraising. The mayor then makes an announcement through his spokesperson, “We can’t comment, however, we will not tolerate discriminatory remarks.” That was the response of Bronson. He has however, at the Assembly meeting, stated “Look it’s someone whom I’ve been with for more than more than 25 years. I have my full support for her.”
Gov. Dunleavy has an event that was co-hosted with Judy Eledge. She’s sitting next to Dunleavy when he won in the State Republican primary. It’s been open about their friendship. They share lengthy political connection. In his State of the State speech that he gave, he said “Look it’s someone who represents the spirit in Alaska,” right? He’s also pretty consistent on not responding to questions about what the specifics of that relationship. Does it influence his decision-making process to choose her to an official of the nation? That’s why, short story and he’s not even answering questions regarding her.
