A man with the same name and party affiliation as Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan is eligible to challenge the senator in the August primary, a judge ruled Friday.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews’ ruling overturns a June 15 decision by Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher to disqualify the challenger and keep him off the primary ballot. Matthews’ ruling can be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Attorneys for the state have said Tuesday is the deadline for a final ruling so that ballots for the Aug. 18 primary can be printed.
The judge ruled that the Division’s decision to exclude Dan J. Sullivan because his candidacy was not “in good faith” was not based on the Constitution, Alaska law or the Division’s own regulations. The retired teacher from the small fishing community of Petersburg filed to challenge the incumbent.
"Instead, the decision was based upon a new, previously unstated, ‘good faith’ criteria,” the judge wrote.
Attorneys for the state did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday’s ruling. Jeffrey Robertson, Dan J. Sullivan’s attorney, said in an email he expects the Division to appeal the ruling and couldn’t comment until the Alaska Supreme Court rules on the case.
The controversy over the two Dan Sullivans has underscored the stakes involved in the incumbent’s reelection campaign. The Alaska race is one of about half a dozen U.S. Senate races expected to be highly competitive in the fall, and the seat is one Democrats are trying to flip in their efforts to try to regain the majority.
No mention in the article of this exact thing being done BY the Republicans in the past.
I love it. We need more spoiler candidates fucking with the right.
This reminds me of that Eddie Murphy movie, The Distinguished Gentleman. But hey, if it helps get rid of maga supporting dipshits, go for it.
It also sounds like Republicans are upset that they might get their very own John Fetterman, who always votes against their own party’s interests. Fight fire with fire!
Ahemm USA, have you heard about assigning candidates numbers. Then it doesn’t matter, if people have same name. Since there is one certainly unique thing always: The ballot number assigned by the election commission upon registration as candidate and then candidate simply campaign “Vote John Doe, Number 7, in November”. No confusion, no problems, there is certain unique identifier.
