Joe Vogler - Legacy

Legacy

Having graduated from law school, though never formally practicing law, Vogler nonetheless engaged in actions through the courts for most of his years in Fairbanks. These ranged from his dispute with Paul Griemann, through battling the Fairbanks North Star Borough over a great many issues in its earlier years, particularly regarding subdivisions he developed, to attempting to enforce subdivison covenants, to launching the earliest salvo in the fight for ballot access for minor parties in Alaska, through to his efforts regarding seeking formal recognition of his case on statehood issues.

Vogler had launched many political and secessionist efforts behind the scenes in addition to his more high profile runs for office. Perhaps the best known of these was the lawsuit Vogler v. Miller in 1982, a ballot access case. Vogler v. Miller would be heavily cited in succeeding ballot access cases later in the decade, such as Sykes v. Alaska, which more directly widened ballot access and party recognition beyond the two major parties.

Vogler was noted for an antipathy toward aspens, to the point where he installed covenants in his subdivisions requiring homeowners to cut and destroy all poplar, cottonwood and aspen trees on a regular basis. This particular requirement would be challenged in court, with Vogler losing after a lengthy battle through the judicial system. The term "Voglerizer" has entered into the informal vernacular around the Fairbanks area to describe brush trimmers used on highway rights-of-way.

Interest in Vogler was briefly reignited during a period in the late 2000s (decade), when intense media scrutiny of Sarah Palin during her governorship and vice-presidential candidacy turned up a Palin family connection to the AIP. Other events of note happened during the same time period, though mostly particular to Fairbanks. Fairbanks-based singer-songwriter Caleb Aronson released his debut album, Livengood, in March 2006. The first track on Disc 2, "Moving Dirt," is a story song about Vogler's life and death. On July 7, 2006, Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know? broadcast live from the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. Vogler's name was brought up during the broadcast, the mention eliciting a significant cheer from the audience. Also in 2006, the AIP released a compact disc entitled Joe Was Right! Volume 1. The disc consists of an interview given on KFAR's long-running Problem Corner talk show on October 18, 1982, during his second campaign for governor.