Alaska Republicans in District 27 are telling an Anchorage Superior Court judge to step away and quit interfering in the District 27 House race.
Superior Court Judge Jack McKenna has already ruled that it’s likely that Rep. David Eastman is ineligible to hold office due to his membership in the group known as Oath Keepers, which is described by Democrat-aligned media as a far-right group.
Judge McKenna has ruled that the Division of Election can’t certify the election if Eastman wins his Wasilla district on Nov. 8, until the court case against Eastman’s eligibility is resolved.
The voting officers of the Alaska Republican Party District 27 committee passed a resolution earlier this week that says Eastman has broken no laws, and in 2020 won his district with 73.70% of the vote — more than any other candidate for the Alaska State House in a contested race that year.
Rob Youndt, chairman of District 27, is a homebuilder in the Mat-Su Valley who also serves an an elected official on the borough Assembly. But in his role as chairman of the district, he and the other officers have called on Judge McKenna to cease election interference from the bench.
The resolution points out that Eastman has not been charged with any crime, and that the lawsuit filed by the Northern Justice Project on behalf of Randall Kowalke is based on a wrong interpretation of the Alaska Constitution, which has a clause in it that prohibits anyone from serving in the Legislature if they belong to a group whose purpose is to overthrow the U.S. government. The Republicans say that the Northern Justice Project/Kowalke lawsuit has weaponized the judicial system against Americans.
At the same time, the national leader of Oath Keepers is on trial for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 rally that went rogue inside the U.S. Capitol, when a couple of hundred supporters of President Donald Trump attempted to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College vote that sealed the victory for President Joe Biden.
Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the group, took the stand in his own defense in Federal District Court in Washington, where he is charged with seditious conspiracy. But he has not been convicted and it will be many months before his case is resolved, should whatever decision the jury comes up with be appealed. Meanwhile, the Northern Justice Project/Kowalke lawsuit is attempting to tie Eastman to Rhodes.
“The public campaign to remove me from office for ‘violating the constitution’ began two years ago. At that point it was for asking for investigations into the 2020 election and for attending the president’s speech. That’s all they could accuse me of at the time. They flogged that horse for 8 months without success,” Eastman said. “They next changed to arguing the exact same thing but added Oath Keepers into it after they found out I joined years ago. Kowalke has been part of that from the very beginning, even publicly tweeting that I needed to be removed from office. Same group. Same attack. Now just flogging a slightly different horse.”
Eastman has a lifetime membership in Oath Keepers. On Jan. 6, 2021, he went to Washington, D.C. to hear President Trump speak and just hang around outside the Capitol, not as a part of Oath Keepers, just as an interested citizen. He took part in no vandalism, violence, and never went inside the Capitol. But Kowalke and the Northern Justice Project say it’s his membership in the Oath Keepers that disqualifies him from serving in the Legislature.
Earlier this year, a coalition of leftist groups led by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) tried to get Eastman expelled from the Legislature. The group has labeled Eastman a “fascist.”
“Over the course of the last month, a grassroots movement against fascism in Alaska has united around the Coalition to Expel David Eastman. This coalition, formed by the Anchorage branch of the PSL, Sol de Medianoche, Growing Alaskan Leaders, the Anchorage NAACP and several other unaffiliated community activists, has seen a growing amount of public support around one goal: expelling state House Representative David Eastman from office.”
The resolution by District 27 Republicans ties the Party for Socialism and Liberation to attorney to Scott Kendall, the campaign ally of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and points out that the plaintiff, Randall Kowalke, ran against Eastman in 2020, and previously ran against Sen. Mike Shower, both without gaining much support. Since then, Kowalke left the Republican Party and declared it to be “fascist.” The resolution also ties in the Alaska Democratic Party’s efforts to have Eastman removed from office.
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The resolution by District 27 Republicans follows:
