It was nearly unanimous in the Alaska House of Representatives on Monday, when the body voted to remove Rep. David Eastman, a Republican from Wasilla, from the House Judiciary Committee. Eastman was the only vote against his removal from the committee.
Eastman is not a member of either the majority or minority caucus in the House. He is a caucus of one, but conservative critics see him as being of more help to Democrats, even though he is one of the most conservative members in the House. Last week, he teed up a vote to override a veto by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is also a Republican, and he got all the Democrats to go with him, as well as two Republicans. That effort failed, however, but it is the kind of thing he is known for, which makes him a difficult member for any caucus.
The House Committee on Committees approved the removal and 39 members of the House agreed. In his place on the committee is Wasilla Rep. Jesse Sumner, also a Republican.
Eastman has been censured by the House on three occasions and has been criticized by liberals on many occasions for speaking his mind or even for asking rhetorical questions. In 2022, he was kicked off of his committees, and Democrats have hounded him for being a member of the Oath Keepers, which they say show that he supports an insurrection.
In 2022, liberals took him to court to contest his ability to be an elected official due to his membership in Oath Keepers. A Superior Court judge ruled in his favor, saying that Eastman being a member of Oath Keepers, “does not and did not possess a specific intent to further the Oath Keeper’s words or actions aimed at overthrowing the United States government.”
The people who see Eastman as more of a help to Democrats don’t seem to have any problems with Kelly Merrick, who is there explicitely to push her union Democrat husband’s agenda.
Just saying. I get why they don’t like Eastman, I just wished they cared about conservative principles as much as they care about their own fragile ego.
100% correct. Merrick is not a Republican. She does the bidding of unions and no one holds her accountable. Let’s hope the voters of ER do.
Wasilla and Eagle River are supposedly two of the most conservative parts of the state, add in Senator Bjorkman from Nikiski and there are three of the supposedly most conservative parts of the state who elect representatives who pretend to be conservative Republicans but carry the water for Democrats. Imagine just how different our legislature would look if there were conservatives in those three seats.
What passes for conservative in Alaska is different than most of the rest of the country.
All Alaskans should care about this a lot. Eastman is punished for his opinions, not his behavior. Consider where this slippery slope ends?
The purge of anyone with any political or moral backbone marches on.
Morons, morons, morons….
Republicans, THE STUPID PEOPLE
Democrats, The EVIL PEOPLE
Alaska Republicans, you m***rtf***ing RINOs, are DEMOCRATS.
You have all now left no doubt whatsoever. you are EVIL.
+1, Molly
“That effort failed”. Actually, it succeeded completely. That’s why Juneau immediately went on the warpath.
Surprisingly, the legislature altered course on Thursday night and (for the first time in my tenure as a legislator), agreed to follow the Constitution and hold the joint session.
Note: Juneau doesn’t get terribly upset when you are ineffective. Usually they just laugh at you or ignore you. When they pull out the big guns it’s only because someone intruded on their agenda. Going forward, it will be much more difficult for a single legislator to do what Sen. Coghill did and prevent the legislature from taking action in response to Gov. Walker’s veto of the PFD.
Going forward, legislators may still make the wrong decision when it comes time to vote. That is the cost of a government run by human beings. But they will find it much more difficult to prevent their fellow legislators from being able to vote. That is a win for all Alaskans, even if some do not yet see it that way.
You are wrong. That version you claim they followed your version of the constitution which in this case, like many others, is flawed. In fact, they simply took the quickest, best path to mitigate your lack of understanding of the words and the meaning.
The last two sentences of Article 2 section 16 of the constitution were added in 1976. If you really understood the english language you would know about subordinate clauses in sentences and understand that the “shall reconsider” (which SCOTUS recently said means “may” reconsider) sets the limit to five days to reconsider the veto. It does not require a meeting within 5 days.
If there is no meeting within 5 days then the veto is upheld. The only requirement is if the legislature wants to override a governors veto made during the interim, they must do it within the first five days. In any case, I asked my rep and he said you were removed because that seat belongs to the majority and they had someone ask to fill it. Nothing more.
So you’re all in on a corrupt judge that wanted the PFDs to be “appropriated”.
Shall and may do not have the same meaning. Only a moron of a judge would issue an order allowing for two laws, 180 degrees opposite, too be on the books at the same time, when there’s only one mission to be accomplished.
Time to buy tar and feathers and clean the courts and government up.
The judges are either idiots, illiterate, or changing word meaning to suit their own agenda. ‘Shall’ is aligned with ‘will’ and ‘must’ according to most actual dictionaries, not ‘may’, which indicates a choice.
Eastman: Do the noble thing – resign.
Eastman is the only one actually doing his job. How about every other rep resign and the people will bring in a whole new group of reps that will represent Alaskans as they should be?
What color is the sky in your world?
Eastman won’t play the political games. I like him for that. He’s also the strongest pro life member of the house.
Uni-party turds need to be flushed out to sea.
Blowhard. All Eastman cares about is getting attention.
For all his alleged “conservative” credentials, his accomplishments are very few and far between.
It is difficult to accompplish anything in a legislature when there exists an agreement among the rest to get theirs, in spite of what it does to the regular citizen. At some point all you can do is shine a bright light on the lack of good government and hope enough voters see it.
I believe you are correct Avenger, zero achievement’s from what I can tell.
Unless of course you count discord, advocating for and advancing the leftist cause all while locking up a seat in the legislature that could and probably should be a reliable conservative vote…if you count those things his accomplishments are many and he has achieved much., albeit not for the conservative cause.
You are so jealous of him!!
A thriving democracy needs legislators like Rep Eastman to balance the scales, by going against the Party machine, he truly represents his constituents that vote. Taking Rep Eastman off of the Judiciary committee further documents the conservative disdain for our State Constitution
Frank, I agree with you wholeheartedly on this one. I believe that conservative voters unwittingly elect Cuckservitive representatives who are in many respects exactly like their commie leftist counterparts in that they are only interested in the pursuit of political POWER and the furtherance of their careers.
For what it is worth, I have never met David Eastman, nor am I a big supporter of Eastman. I supported David financially during his legal troubles however because I thought the case brought against him was abhorrent and designed to limit his right to free speech. The case against Eastman invoked a Martin Niemoller response within me not because we are aligned politically but because of Niemoller’s warning, especially the bit about who would then speak for me?
So many smart people commenting. Only one who took time to run win and serve. If hes such a moron and in your district, run against him. If you have not personally done anything to bring positive change to your neighborhood or larger community. Well, I guess keyboard warrior is the next best thing 🙂
Curious: what do you view as positive change? And how do you judge what counts as a contribution?
Jay, you could add several (R’s) in addition to Merrick. Ron Paul voted many times in Congress , 434 to his one vote. He was out- numbered but true to our constitution and his oath to honor it.
Just when we need NO MORE rollovers in a committee like Judiciary. It will end up just a “go along to get along” no backbone, the bunch of them! Hang in there David, they will be gone & you will still be there, fighting the evil they create.
It looks like voter intimidation running the House.
Voter intimidation on everything on every level! Rep Dave Eastman’s constituents are not getting the fair representation that they are supposed to be getting because of the law-breaking demonrats and rinos in the House. The constituents need to start filing complaints!
Eastman’s district gets exactly the representation they deserve. He is a self important blowhard would will not play with others, even when his voters would benefit.
It’s not like this is news. It’s his brand.
So if his district wishes to continue to elect a man with no real legislative accomplishments, and inability to work with anyone, and more disliked than Ted Cruz, they are getting EXACTLY the representation they deserve.
Alaska is a colony of the Federal Government which pays most of its bills. You can’t be “conservative” or “independent” when you live in a welfare state. Some of the people may be conservative but AK’s legislators sure as hell aren’t. They know which side their cheese is buttered.
I don’t follow Eastman very closely, but if he is getting this much flak from the Uniparty quislings in Juneau he must be doing something right for Alaskans!
Every year the squanderers remove Dave Eastman from a committee chair as their first group activity which appears to be a slap in the face of every conservative and especially those who elect him. There must be an obligatory study of the US Constitution seminar as a prerequisite to signing the oath of adherence to the US Constitution spigot turn on ceremony.
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