By DAVID EASTMAN
It was almost exactly three years ago that the Department of Justice announced it had brought a dangerous individual to justice when it convicted conservative influencer Douglass Mackey of tweeting a meme telling Hillary Clinton voters they could vote from home on their cell phone.
On the day Mackey was sentenced to seven months in prison, the DOJ celebrated with a press release and declared “This groundbreaking prosecution demonstrates our commitment to prosecuting those who commit crimes that threaten our democracy and seek to deprive people of their constitutional right to vote.” That particular line has not aged well for the Biden administration.
The flyers here are a small sampling of the, to date, more than $1.4 million that has been spent to try to convince Alaska Republican voters to vote for one of the two Republican spoiler candidates recruited by the Democratic Party and the Mary Peltola Campaign in her race against Sen. Dan Sullivan.
If you look closely at these flyers, you might notice that one of the candidates running in this year’s election is notable absent from the published “Voter’s Guide”. Can you see it?
If you guessed the incumbent you would be right!
Sen. Dan Sullivan’s name appears nowhere on the list when voters are invited to “Meet The Candidates.” In his place appears Dan. J. Sullivan Jr., otherwise known as Decoy Dan.
And therein lies the legal problem the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and the Peltola Campaign are currently caught up in. Is it legal to try to deceive a voter who is trying to vote for Sen. Dan Sullivan into voting for Dan J. Sullivan Jr?
The prosecution of Douglass Mackey would indicate that it is a criminal act deserving of a prison sentence, and implicating any individual who knew of the conspiracy and engaged in one or more acts in furtherance thereof. Will Chamberlain lays out the legal argument here.
Governor Dunleavy has directed the Alaska Department of Public Safety to investigate. President Trump has also encouraged the FBI to investigate as well, which is almost certainly what led agents from the Bureau to travel to Wasilla earlier today.
I sat down with two agents from the FBI at their request this afternoon and told them what I knew about the man who called himself “Zane Stevens.” Zane, whose real name is Jerid Kurtz, was the “technical specialist” employed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) to “fix” Alaska’s ballot for the U.S. Senate race between Sen. Dan Sullivan and Mary Peltola. The Peltola Campaign called it their “Ballot Composition Project.”
According to reporting from the New York Times, the Democratic Party despaired over a head-to-head contest between Dan Sullivan and Mary Peltola so Kurtz was assigned the task of recruiting additional candidates to help siphon votes away from Sullivan on Election Day. Palmer resident Gerald Heikes was recruited in March, though he never got around to sending his photo into the Division of Elections, or creating a campaign website, and his page in the state elections pamphlet does not exist.
That fact did not stop Democrat-aligned organizations from spending more than a million dollars to promote his candidacy to conservative voters. Mailers like this have been filling pro-life voters mailboxes for months in an effort to help elect the candidate previously endorsed by Planned Parenthood, Mary Peltola.
However, one spoiler Republican candidate on the ballot was not enough for the Democratic Party, so Kurtz made continued trips to Alaska to help recruit additional candidates. In April, he visited Fairbanks. He also traveled to Petersburg and other parts of the state. During one of his visits in April he drove to Wasilla, which is how I came to meet him.
I met with “Zane” at the suggestion of a constituent. He claimed to represent a number of wealthy conservative donors. When he first contacted me he said nothing about the U.S. Senate race. Later on, the conversation turned to the topic of the Murkowski race in 2028 and the Sullivan/Peltola race this year. He didn’t seem surprised when I told him that my focus was limited to the Alaska State House. After a text later that same day, I didn’t hear from him again.
After striking out in Wasilla and Fairbanks, Kurtz eventually found one of the candidates he was looking for in Petersburg, where he recruited “Dan J. Sullivan Jr.” in May. When Democrat David Leslie came in fourth place in the state primary election, Kurtz again returned to Fairbanks where he met with Leslie at a local cafe and persuaded him to withdraw from the race. Leslie’s withdrawal automatically moved Gerald Heikes into 4th place, triggering even more of the same mailers to conservatives that had been sent during the August primary.
The Democratic playbook is now laid bare.
- Vote for Dan J. Sullivan if you want Mary Peltola to be your next U.S. Senator.
- Vote for Gerald Heikes if you want Mary Peltola to be your next U.S. Senator.
- Vote for Mary Peltola if you want Mary Peltola to be your next U.S. Senator.
This is the legacy of Ranked-Choice Voting, three ways to vote for the Democrat, and only one way to vote for the Republican.
The governor’s race is a different version of the same thing, with even more ways to elect the Democrat, and effectively only one way to elect a Republican.
- Vote for JKT if you want the Democrat candidate to be your next governor.
- Vote for any one of the Republican candidates if you want the Democrat candidate to be your next governor.
- Vote for any two of the Republican candidates if you want the Democrat candidate to be your next governor.
- Vote to rank all three of the Republican candidates if you do not want the Democrat candidate to be your next governor.
Essentially, only if more Alaskans rank all three Republican candidates than rank the Democrat candidate will Alaskans end up with a Republican governor.
There is another aspect to the race for governor this year. If JKT is elected governor as a Democrat, he will face unrelenting pressure to immediately halt the investigation into any election improprieties by the Democratic Party, and refuse to cooperate with the FBI’s ongoing investigation. If you want the truth to be buried, electing a Democrat governor may just be the surest way to accomplish that.
And please, no matter which candidate you vote for, please Vote Yes on Ballot Measure 2 to repeal Ranked-Choice Voting and stop the endless mailers and the perpetual gaming of future U.S. Senate and governor races. Future generations will thank you for getting rid of ranked-choice voting when you had the chance.
David Eastman is a former representative in the Alaska House and a current candidate for Alaska House for District 27, Wasilla.
9 thoughts on “David Eastman: Knock-knock. Whose there? The FBI, in Wasilla”
> Vote Yes on Ballot Measure 2 to repeal Ranked-Choice Voting
Most important vote I cast this cycle.
Yes. THIS example is why Ms Bernadette Wilson needs the by majority 1st place vote! To block the Governor’s office from AKDemocrat control.
If Bronson or Taylor were the favorites, then it’ll be them needing the First place votes. But this 2026 race for Governor is not their time nor not their time.
Future elections under RCV Republican voters and everyone else who think of themselves undeclared or “independent, we still have to consolidate behind One candidate.
Whichever backstage leaders on the right thought IF Republican gubnatorial candidates outnumbered Democrats that there wouldnt be enough votes to get a Democrat in one of four slots. They were wrong plus their bad play may cost Republicans the Governor’s seat.
For future RCV state elections, we on the right have to be unified behind one candidate. That means if Ms Wilson wins Governor for 2027-2030 that means just like Gov Dunleavy she needs to be the right side’s sole Governor candidate for Re-election in 2030.
Eastman lays it out perfectly, quickly and simply. Let us hope he gets back into the state house and grinds away. The first thing that ought to occur is to introduce a bill to dissolve the “Ethics” Committee, which is nothing but a political weapon for the Left/RINOs. They will unquestionably immediately initiate a new complaint against Eastman as soon as he is elected.
This is the best commentary Mr. Eastman has given. While he includes himself in it, as he is wont to do, he himself was not the central theme as there was a reason for his involvement in this story that has overtaken the national news this election cycle.
Yes on 2. Let’s get the rank out of our elections.
Good job, Eastman. You are a truth finder.
Interestingly, some of your fellow Republicans have bad-mouthed you over the years. I’m especially thinking of the current state house member from District 33. He has spoken ill of you for years. Now we have a chance to get rid of this little *sshole. Hopefully, for good.
How polite. You are talking about Mike Prax.
Pretty sleazy stuff but not surprising. Thank you David for a concise overview. I truly hope we can rid ourselves of RCV and am praying to that end.
Mr. Eastman leaves out a part of the story in the Mackey case – the conviction was overturned on appeal by the Second Circuit. As it turns out the basis for that reversal was that the government failed to establish a conspiracy. In the Zane/Kurtz/Peltola/Decoy Dan case, the conspiracy is fairly well established based on the available facts. The really scary part for Zane/Kurtz/Peltola/Decoy Dan is that through the Mackey case, a criminal action for violation of 18 USC 241 has precedent. The Legal Information Institute says this statute “…makes it a crime for two or more people to agree to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate anyone in the free exercise or enjoyment of their constitutional or federal rights.” While the details of the exact crime and the application of the facts await the potential criminal indictment, making false statements and engaging in other deception during the electoral process can subject the bad actor to up to TEN YEARS in federal prison. (I would hate to see additional Alaskan Leftists caught up in this mess. -sarc)
Our elections have become a joke! I don’t know how to change it, but it is obvious that something must be done.