Yeah, I know that it’s difficult to feel sorry for a sexual predator, but bear with me for a bit as we take a short walk through democrat party politics here in Alaska over the last couple years.
Last weekend, Representative Dean Westlake, (D, District 40) tendered his resignation from the legislature over sexual harassment / abuse allegations. This resignation was done without benefit of an investigation, trial, conviction, or anything else. As an aside, the notion that anyone can be forced from office without due process is troubling. Either the Rule of Law works or it doesn’t. And in Westlake’s case it doesn’t.
Westlake was selected by democrat party insiders to run against incumbent Ben Nageak in the 2014 democrat primary. Nageak often caucused with Republicans in the House and was not sufficiently reliable for democrats, Governor Walker, and their supporters. Westlake was a known sexual predator but nobody in the democrat hierarchy bothered to ask locals about their selected candidate.
These include Mark Begich, Robin Brena, Bill Walker, Vince Beltrami, Byron Mallott, and other party luminaries, all of whom attended fundraiser(s) on his behalf.
Westlake wins a hotly contested election where voting fraud in Buckland and Shungnak was enough to give Westlake a small victory. Of course, Byron Mallott’s Director of Elections found nothing untoward with the notions of multiple party ballots voted by the same individual or an outrageous number of “personal representative” ballots cast, and certified the election. http://mustreadalaska.com/election-predator/
With this seat firmly in hand along with three Musk Ox Republican turncoats (LeDoux, Stutes and Seaton), and a pair of “independents” (Grenn and Ortiz), the 18 democrats had enough to organize a majority in the House.
Mr. Westlake went to Juneau, taking his animal act on the road. And apparently did not disappoint, with the first harassment complaint filed against him in March a mere two months after he showed up in town. That number was up to seven by the time he resigned last weekend. http://mustreadalaska.com/westlake-woman-problem-grows-seven-step-forward/
Here’s where it gets interesting, as the March letter went to House Majority Leader Chris Tuck and Speaker Bryce Edgmon, who sat on it. The aide’s boss, Scott Kawasaki also knew about the complaint. Suzanne Downing wrote in Must Read Alaska that threats by House leadership were used to keep a wavering Westlake in line for votes toward the end of Session last year. Westlake voted correctly and the letter never saw the light of day. Blackmail is hardly a family value, though it apparently is an acceptable tool for discipline for the democrat-led House leadership.
A fun thought experiment would be to figure out how many in the House majority knew about the letter, the blackmail, and Edgmon, Tuck and Kawasaki sitting on the investigation for months. My guess would be substantially more than those three.
While all this was going on, someone in the legislature, likely on the majority side started a whispering campaign against Senator David Wilson of Wasilla. Gabby LeDoux appears to be involved, demanding Wilson’s resignation.
The House majority also went after Representative David Eastman after he inartfully noted that people from the Bush were getting pregnant so they could fly to Anchorage for abortions. Speaker Edgmon and Westlake were among the four signatories on the letter demanding a public apology. Ivy Sponholtz also found the nearest camera and microphone to demand apologies from Eastman and his resignation.
Creating and maintaining the current house majority was important enough to the Walker administration, the democrat party here in Alaska, the unions, and elected democrats in the legislature to look the other way while the following actions were committed:
- Select a locally known sexual predator as a candidate for the House
- Commit and excuse voting fraud in at least two District 40 villages
- Certify an election after clear evidence of voting fraud (oopsie, mistakes were made)
- Sit on a letter complaining of sexual harassment by a democrat member of the House majority for at least six months
- Tolerate his predatory actions for the entire year in Juneau
- Use the letter and lack of investigation as leverage to blackmail Westlake into voting the way that the House leadership wanted him to vote
We haven’t seen this level of corruption in Juneau since Bill Allen’s Corrupt B@$t@rd’s Club. Thank you to democrats, unions, and the Walker administration for bringing the Good Old Days back once again (/sarc).
Some victories should be too expensive. And a victory that requires all this lawbreaking and looking the other way ought to be way too pyrrhic to tolerate.
Keep this in mind when democrat candidates and their media cheerleaders trot out serial sexual harassment allegations against everyone who is running as a Republican next year. Apparently sexual harassment only applies to those of us on the right side of the political fence, as democrats and their cheerleaders look the other way as long as they are able to reach their political goals.
Addendum: As I finish writing this, the Walker administration determined that Westlake would not be charged for fathering a child with a local 15-year old because the law was not in effect at the time he did the deed. And the hits just keep on coming out of this Governor and his political appointees, not to mention the people who put him into office. Do we really want to put up with this for four more years? http://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Westlake-wont-be-charged-465576953.html
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He is a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
