Walker and Rutherfiord grew up in Valdez together. That explains a lot.  Rutherford is John Kelsey daughter and Walker grew up under Kelsey's rah-rah- attitude about Valdez being the center of Alaska. Walker is all into "legacy politics" and symbolism from the pipeline days he thrived in the 70's when his family invested heavily in real estate in the area and still have many of those properties, which would be more valuable if he could get that gas line to Valdez.  Follow the money.