A retired teacher named Dan Sullivan is fighting to get back on Alaska's Republican primary ballot after state election officials removed him days before voting begins. His legal team argues the decision by the Division of Elections violates both state and federal law and that nothing in the U.S. Constitution prevents him from running for Senate.
Sullivan, from the small fishing community of Petersburg, filed his candidacy just before the June 1 deadline. The move immediately triggered accusations from Sen. Dan Sullivan and national Republicans who branded him a spoiler candidate planted to help Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola. Democrats and Peltola's campaign denied any coordination.
On June 15, Division Director Carol Beecher disqualified Sullivan, concluding his candidacy was filed "not in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy" but rather "with a purpose to confuse or mislead." She cited several factors: his recent registration as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., his switch to Republican affiliation, similarities between his campaign website and the senator's site, and his work with a consultant who has Democratic clients.
Sullivan's attorneys Jeffrey Robinson, Bryn Pallesen, and Zoe Eisberg contend in their court filing that the Constitution sets only three requirements for Senate candidacy: age, citizenship, and residency. "Nothing in Alaska law regulates in any way the private motivations that draw individuals to declare or campaign for office," they wrote.
The legal challenge highlights a tension in Alaska's election system. The regulation Beecher cited prohibits candidate names that are "confusing or misleading to voters or compromise the fairness or neutrality of the ballot." But a legislative attorney concluded last week that the regulation does not actually forbid placing both Sullivans on the ballot. Instead, he said the elections division could design the ballot to clearly distinguish between them, allowing voters to tell them apart.
Sullivan, when asked by the Associated Press if he had any contact with Peltola's campaign, answered flatly: "zero, none, zilch."
The timing is tight. Ballots are due to be printed Sunday. The Alaska Department of Law said it will defend Beecher's finding and is looking for a quick court decision.
Alaska uses open primaries where the top four finishers regardless of party advance to a ranked-choice general election. Sen. Sullivan and Peltola are the highest-profile candidates in a race with more than a dozen contenders. National Republicans consider this one of their most competitive races this midterm cycle.
The state elections division declined to comment on the ongoing legal proceedings.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "This case exposes the murky line between protecting ballot integrity and suppressing candidacy based on suspicion. Sullivan's legal team has a solid constitutional argument, and if the courts side with him, it raises hard questions about when election officials can really kick someone off the ballot."
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