The leading political issue within Alaska at the time was the territory's gaining statehood. At the beginning of his term of office he felt Alaska's efforts to become a state were "a little premature". After a year, he revised his opinion and instead called for dividing the territory and only granting statehood to the settled southern and southeastern portion while leaving the unsettled northern and western sections a territory. The proposal to divide the territory at the 156th meridian west was so unpopular among Alaskans that a petition drive was organized asking President Eisenhower to remove Heintzleman as governor. By 1956, the Alaskan governor no longer opposed statehood and supported the creation of a state constitution. Heintzleman signed the bill establishing the Alaska Constitutional Convention.