Search the site...

SOL DE MEDIANOCHE
  • MARCH 2023
  • FEBRUARY 2023
  • JANUARY 2023
  • DECEMBER 2022
  • NOVEMBER 2022
  • OCTOBER 2022
  • SEPTEMBER 2022
  • AUGUST 2022
  • JULY 2022
  • JUNE 2022
  • MAY 2022
  • APRIL 2022
  • MARCH 2022
  • FEBRUARY 2022
  • JANUARY 2022
  • DECEMBER 2021
  • NOVEMBER 2021
  • OCTOBER 2021
  • SEPTEMBER 2021
  • AUGUST 2021
  • JULY 2021
  • JUNE 2021
  • MAY 2021
  • APRIL 2021
  • MARCH 2021
  • FEBRUARY 2021
  • JANUARY 2021
  • DECEMBER 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2020
  • Advertise with us!
  • OCTOBER 2020
  • SEPTEMBER 2020
  • AUGUST 2020
  • JULY 2020
  • JUNE 2020
  • MAY 2020
  • MAR - APR 2020
  • JAN - FEB 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2019
  • SEPTEMBER 2019
  • JULY 2019
  • MAY 2019
  • MARCH 2019
  • FEBRUARY 2019
  • NOVEMBER 2018
  • SEPTEMBER 2018
    • Yes on Salmon
    • Become a citizen
  • JUNE 2018
  • APRIL 2018
  • FEBRUARY 2018
  • DECEMBER 2017
  • SEPTEMBER 2017
  • JULY 2017
  • MAY 2017
  • Spring 2017 - No. 5
  • Winter 2016 - No. 4
  • Fall 2016 - No. 3
  • Summer 2016 - No. 2
  • Spring 2016 - No. 1
  • Contact
  • MARCH 2023
  • FEBRUARY 2023
  • JANUARY 2023
  • DECEMBER 2022
  • NOVEMBER 2022
  • OCTOBER 2022
  • SEPTEMBER 2022
  • AUGUST 2022
  • JULY 2022
  • JUNE 2022
  • MAY 2022
  • APRIL 2022
  • MARCH 2022
  • FEBRUARY 2022
  • JANUARY 2022
  • DECEMBER 2021
  • NOVEMBER 2021
  • OCTOBER 2021
  • SEPTEMBER 2021
  • AUGUST 2021
  • JULY 2021
  • JUNE 2021
  • MAY 2021
  • APRIL 2021
  • MARCH 2021
  • FEBRUARY 2021
  • JANUARY 2021
  • DECEMBER 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2020
  • Advertise with us!
  • OCTOBER 2020
  • SEPTEMBER 2020
  • AUGUST 2020
  • JULY 2020
  • JUNE 2020
  • MAY 2020
  • MAR - APR 2020
  • JAN - FEB 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2019
  • SEPTEMBER 2019
  • JULY 2019
  • MAY 2019
  • MARCH 2019
  • FEBRUARY 2019
  • NOVEMBER 2018
  • SEPTEMBER 2018
    • Yes on Salmon
    • Become a citizen
  • JUNE 2018
  • APRIL 2018
  • FEBRUARY 2018
  • DECEMBER 2017
  • SEPTEMBER 2017
  • JULY 2017
  • MAY 2017
  • Spring 2017 - No. 5
  • Winter 2016 - No. 4
  • Fall 2016 - No. 3
  • Summer 2016 - No. 2
  • Spring 2016 - No. 1
  • Contact

Alaskans File Complaints
​Against David Eastman


​by ivan hodes

Picture

Last week, along with many other Alaskans–including at least two of his fellow-legislators–I filed an electoral eligibility complaint against David Eastman, the notorious pro-child marriage, “anti-anti-racist” (that is to say, racist) legislator from Wasilla.

A lot of people think that’s not right. They think that, even if Eastman is a really bad guy, voters of the district should decide whether or not he’s fit for office. They say that trying to challenge Eastman’s eligibility through the Department of Elections goes against the idea of democracy, and that liberals just want to control who is or isn’t on the ballot.

First, not everybody who’s challenging Eastman is a liberal by any stretch of the imagination. One person, Randall Kowalke, even voted for Eastman in the last election! Randall was a Republican all his life, until he decided last year that his party was embracing fascism.

Second, this isn’t about whether Eastman is a bad guy. He definitely is. He’s a white supremacist, and everybody knows it. His West Point classmate, Edward ReBrook, wrote an essay about all of Eastman’s right-wing connections. My friend Betsy Peratrovich, granddaughter of civil rights icon Elizabeth Peratrovich, wrote an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News describing Eastman’s horrible voting record when it comes to Alaska Natives, Black Americans, and other ethnic and racial minorities.

But that’s not why Betsy and I, and many other Alaskans, filed petitions last week. We filed because of the Alaska Constitution. The Alaska Constitution says: “No person who advocates, or who aids or belongs to any party or organization or association which advocates, the overthrow by force or violence of the government of the United States or of the State shall be qualified to hold any public office of trust or profit under this constitution.” Eastman is a member of Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia that was intensively involved in the attack on the Capitol on January 6th. Its leader and a dozen other members have been indicted for seditious conspiracy. It is an organization that advocates–and attempted to carry out–the overthrow by force or violence of the government of the United States. Therefore, as a member, Eastman is disqualified from public office in this state.

We live in a representative democracy, but that democracy is controlled by rules. We live in a democratic republic, and the “republic” part of that refers to those rules. In a republic there are laws, and everybody must follow those laws. The law doesn’t say that Eastman’s membership in Oath Keepers is criminal, but it does say that he can’t be a member of Oath Keepers and in the state legislature at the same time.
​

My dad was a professor of constitutional law, and I grew up believing–and I still believe–that our Constitution, the rulebook, is the one thing that makes our country great; the one thing that makes us Americans. As an officer in the US Army, I swore an oath to protect and defend that Constitution, and that responsibility weighs on me still, though I’ve been out of uniform for more than a dozen years.
That’s why I won’t give up in my efforts against David Eastman–because I too have an oath to keep.

PROUDLY POWERED BY SOL DE MEDIANOCHE NEWS, LLC.
Sol de Medianoche is a monthly publication of the Latino community in Anchorage, Alaska