This article was republished from dermotcole.com.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s expert on promoting family values turned out to be a guy who thinks rape and Hitler have gotten a bad rap, while Martin Luther King Jr. was a “serial rapist” who accomplished nothing in his life but got “himself shot like a dumbass and died before he accomplished anything.”
Before publication of a story by Alaska Public Media and American Public Media Tuesday that revealed the twisted tale of Dunleavy’s family values expert, Jeremy Cubas resigned from his state job. Cubas, who has a photo business in Anchorage, worked as a photographer for Dunleavy before the governor gave him a raise to $110,000 and a policy analyst job.
This excellent piece of investigative journalism by Nat Herz and Curtis Gilbert instantly forced the family guy out of state government, but it prompts more important questions that have to be answered:
Why did Dunleavy hire this guy to lead the way on family values?
Why did Dunleavy not ask about Cubas’s views on family values?
Why did no one in Dunleavy’s office know of this guy’s public record?
Who created the “Office of Family Life” that Cubas claimed to be the head of, getting paid $110,000 a year, another office that exists in name only?
What are the ties between Dunleavy and Cubas? On the portfolio of photos Cubas has on his website, the first two photos are portraits of Dunleavy, while the third is of Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom.
Why did no one in the governor’s office listen to his podcasts, in which Cubas claims Hitler has been misunderstood and rape didn’t become a real problem until the rise of feminism and MLK was a loser.
The governor’s office released a sanctimonious statement about how Dunleavy would never align himself with the views espoused by his family guy, but since Dunleavy chose not to fire Cubas, but allowed him to resign, the statement is meaningless damage control by his PR staff.
“Rape, in the end, is pretty low on the totem pole of grave immoral actions,” Cubas said on his podcast, Herz and Gilbert revealed. “Because in the end, I mean, if you produce a child through rape, you’ve ontologically fulfilled the act to a pretty good capacity.”
Cubas had been one of many people on the bloated Dunleavy public relations staff since 2022. He had been listed as a “digital media specialist” earning $40 an hour last year.
“In an interview last month, Dunleavy said Cubas’ primary responsibility was assembling a pro-family website. He said he chose Cubas for the role because of his experience with web development, and because he’d already served as his staff photographer for more than a year,” Herz and Gilbert wrote.
“Cubas said he submitted to a background check and provided access to his social media accounts as part of the hiring process, and he assumes someone checked them.”
“They didn’t really ask me specifically about things,” said Cubas, who has referred to Dunleavy as his “good friend.”
Cubas, 40, and Dunleavy attend the same Catholic Church in Wasilla. Both attended Misericordia University in Pennsylvania, where Cubas earned a degree in philosophy.
Dunleavy gave him a raise to $110,000 a year in the spring. The financial disclosure form Cubas field with the Alaska Public Offices Commission is incomplete and does not include his state income from 2022 for Dunleavy.
His financial disclosure form claims his Anchorage photo business Madmen Studios, earned $20,000 to $50,000. He said seven of his nine dependent children collected the PFD.
Cubas complained on his May 13 podcast about having to file a financial disclosure form with the state. “So I had to put that out there. It’s dumb. It’s a crock.”
It appears that Cubas was part of another imaginary Dunleavy office, similar to the Alaska Office of Food Security, which exists in name only.
On his May 13 podcast, Cubas spoke about being the head of Dunleavy’s alleged “Office of Family Life” and how he had been assigned by Dunleavy to speak to the Alaska fundraising dinners of the right-wing Alaska Family Council.
Cubas said that one of the wealthy Catholics who wanted to hear guest speaker Will Witt opened his home so that others could enjoy alcoholic beverages in advance of the family council gathering, which was at Changepoint Church, where alcohol is not allowed. Witt was also planning to attend the “pregame” meeting, Cubas said.
Cubas appeared to suggest that reporters might sneak into the Alaska Family Council dinner in Anchorage.
“One of them already wrote about me,” Cubas said, referring to a one-paragraph newsletter item by Herz published May 10 that said he had nine dependent children and was, in Cubas’s words, to head the “Office of Family Life.”
“I have to go in there and have to give a talk about the office, and just introduce it,” said Cubas. “I did a prerecording for the Fairbanks dinner because I couldn’t be there. He told me that it was well received at least,” Cubas said, without identifying “he.”
He said it was hard to write a piece for the Alaska Family Council dinner about the Office of Family Life.
“Something like this, like what the fuck am I saying? I’m introducing an office and I’m saying, ‘Yeah, fuck the left.’ That’s pretty much what it has to be,” he said on his May 13 podcast. He said with this kind of event, “what else do you really say?”
On Wednesday, Cubas posted a video on social media responding to critics of his comments. He said he would not apologize for anything he said. Dunleavy’s former family values expert said his message to critics is, “Go fuck yourself.”
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Dermot Cole has worked as a newspaper reporter, columnist and author in Alaska for more than 40 years. Support his work here.
