A government for some of the people

The Alaska Division of Elections office. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Rich Moniak

Jose Tagle is a business owner who wants to serve East Anchorage residents in the Alaska House of Representatives. But it seems he didn’t understand the state law that requires candidates for public office to file a financial disclosure statement. He submitted a completely blank form. 

Tagle is a registered Republican. The Alaska Democratic Party challenged his candidacy, but their complaint was rejected. Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher argued reviewing financial disclosure statements was outside of the Division of Elections’ jurisdiction. 

It’s just one example of our government being for only some of the people. 

The story of Dan J. Sullivan running against Alaska’s incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan is pretty well known. It didn’t end when Alaska’s Supreme Court ruled the Division of Elections wrongly disqualified him. The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly investigating him for “conspiracy to make the election process unfair.”

For now, the Division of Elections has him listed on the sample ballot alongside 15 other candidates. The rest are also identified by party affiliation or as nonpartisan or undeclared. But because Dan J. Sullivan only recently registered as a Republican, the Division of Elections decided it was better to leave his affiliation blank.  

Carol "Kitty" Hafner is one of those 15 candidates. She’s listed as a registered Democrat. Apparently, it’s OK to assume she’s registered to vote in Alaska even though she resides in South Dakota. 

Her son, Eric Hafner, is listed as a registered Democrat in the race for Alaska’s lone House seat. He’s currently a resident of a federal prison in New York. 

Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom put a different kind of hand on the partisan scale last December when she gave Alaska voter registration data to the U.S. Department of Justice. Had the request been made while Joe Biden was president, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and every other Republican official in the state would have screamed it was federal overreach. 

DOJ sued states that refused to comply with its request. Last month, a federal appeals court upheld the district Court’s dismissal in Michigan. Fourteen other cases have been dismissed.

The problem isn’t just with upcoming elections. 

In keeping with his lie that the 2020 election was stolen, President Donald Trump pardoned everyone who was convicted of violently assaulting the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. 

Consider that injustice next to the unfortunate plight of David Hearn. For picking up a piece of the liner that broke away from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, he was charged with destruction of government property. 

Trump had bragged about the pool company that got the no-bid contract to install the liner. “It’s going to last a long time and you’ll have no leak—guaranteed," he said before the water turned green. Then when the liner started coming apart, he did what comes naturally to any pathological liar. He blamed vandals. 

Having no qualms about lying is a prerequisite for working in his administration. In January, it was the instinctive response by officials in the Department of Homeland Security after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed two protestors in Minnesota. 

Neither Renee Good nor Alex Pretti posed a threat to ICE agents. That didn’t stop DHS from immediately claiming the shootings were in self-defense. Videos taken at the scene of both crimes prove without a doubt that those were lies. 

Until this week, efforts by state prosecutors to investigate the Good case had been stymied by the refusal of federal officials to turn over key evidence. It’s also worth noting that soon after she was killed, several federal prosecutors resigned because they felt pressured to investigate her widow. 

And don’t dare send an email angrily criticizing anybody in Trump’s administration. That’s what New York State resident David Streever did after Good was killed. He called Acting Director Todd Lyons “a monstrous human being” who “will never know peace.” DHS considered that a threat and delivered a warning notice to his home. 

I could add many other examples about our federal and state governments applying different standards for people who challenge Trump and his party by speaking truth to their lies. And to those who stand behind him or silently acquiesce to his rule.  

If we want to return to a government for all of the people, then we’d better go to the polls in November and vote out every Republican who makes believe everything about this administration is normal.

• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.