A senior policy advisor for Gov. Mike Dunleavy has retired, effective immediately.
Tuckerman Babcock’s resignation letter went out late Friday along with a statement from Dunleavy thanking Babcock for his service.
In it, he says he wants to focus on his wife, eight children and nine grandchildren.
Babcock was a controversial figure as chair of the Alaska Republican Party before he was asked to be chief of staff for Dunleavy.
As Republican Party chair, he led a GOP push to unseat Republican legislators who joined a Democratic-led majority caucus in the state House. As chief of staff, he maintained a Facebook page where he shared links to conservative media outlets.
And he has drawn criticism from former state workers who named him in lawsuits along with Gov. Dunleavy, alleging they were unconstitutionally fired.
The governor’s spokesman, Matt Shuckerow, said Babcock is traveling and likely unavailable for comment.
Babcock was chief of staff for Dunleavy until July when he was replaced by Ben Stevens. In his retirement letter, Babcock says the “ship of Alaska will sail on, and with the experienced mariner Ben Stevens as your Chief of staff, your administration is in excellent hands.”
Stevens joined the Dunleavy administration in late 2018.
He is a former Alaska Senate president who was investigated by the FBI for corruption along with five other state legislators in 2006. He was never charged.
Rashah McChesney is a photojournalist turned radio journalist who has been telling stories in Alaska since 2012. Before joining Alaska's Energy Desk, she worked at Kenai's Peninsula Clarion and the Juneau bureau of the Associated Press. She is a graduate of Iowa State University's Greenlee Journalism School and has worked in public television, newspapers and now radio, all in the quest to become the Swiss Army knife of storytellers.
