Anchorage, Alaska mayor takes oath of office from Hawaii

The recently re-elected mayor of Anchorage, Alaska, defended his choice Monday to take his oath of office via Skype while on vacation in Hawaii.

Dan Sullivan had scheduled the family trip before he knew he’d been re-elected to a second term, and city law calls for a mayor to be sworn in on July 1 or as soon as is practical.

Sullivan stood in a lawyer’s office in Honolulu and was presented with a lei from a representative from that city’s mayor’s office.

The L.A. Times reported that the mayor disagreed when asked if he through the ceremony "looked bad" from a PR standpoint.

“What really matters is the words that you swear and affirm to…not so much where you are,” he said.

Some Alaskans disagreed.

From the Times:

"Wow. How tone deaf is this guy?" wrote Sheila Toomey in an Anchorage Daily News editorial on Sunday. "If the rumor mill is right, he's planning to run for governor. Maybe his staff should clue him in to the fact that Alaskans are kind of state-proud, as in, you should actually be in the state when you take the oath of office as mayor of the largest city in the state."

Sullivan said he’s planning on taking another oath when he returns to Anchorage.

KIRO