June, Alaska — A top Alaska election official has threatened to disqualify a U.S. Senate candidate from the state’s August primary who has the same name and party affiliation as the incumbent. Republican Dan Sullivan.
Elections Director Carol Beecher said in a letter to challenger Dan Sullivan that her office received two complaints about his eligibility and determined “that the preponderance of the evidence does not support your eligibility for the office of United States Senator.”
It gave him a deadline of Thursday to provide “any additional information and evidence” in response.
Sullivan, the challenger, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on Beecher’s letter. Registered Republican Who has donated in the past to Republican groups and campaigns. Her letter, dated Wednesday and published by the Anchorage Daily News, did not specify what evidence it found that he could be removed from the primary ballot, and her office did not respond to requests for comment.
Sullivan’s nomination caused an uproar in one of the country’s most prominent US Senate races. It’s a seat that Democrats have targeted as they are Try to regain the majority In the council in the midterm elections this year.
Senator Sullivan accused his rival and namesake of working with Democrats to try to deceive voters and boost the chances of his main opponent, the former Democrat. Representative Mary PeltolaIt is a claim they both deny. Challenger, who lives in the small fishing community of Petersburg south of Juneau, He told the Associated Press earlier this week that the decision to run was “my choice.” He said he had no contact with Beltola’s campaign — “zero, none, nothing.”
This week, the challenger also responded in response to Republican Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom’s announcement that she had opened an investigation into his nomination.
“The law prohibits your office from denying me access to the ballot simply because Senator Sullivan and the NRSC would rather not allow me to run,” he wrote, referring to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
He called the investigation “an unprecedented insult to my rights as a candidate and to the rights of Alaska voters to choose their representation in the United States Senate.”
It was not immediately clear whether he had retained an attorney to help him stay on the ballot.
Some attorneys also raised questions about Dahlstrom’s investigation, which among other things demanded that Sullivan explain his party affiliation, how long he has been going by the name Dan Sullivan, his affiliation with a consultant and any interactions he may have had with other candidates in the race or the Democratic Party.
Dahlstrom, who oversees elections, said in her letter to the challenger that the investigation concerns “credible allegations” that he did not declare his candidacy “in good faith to seek office, but rather for the purpose of confusing voters and causing them to mistakenly vote for you instead of an incumbent with the same name and the same political party affiliation.”
The questions are consistent with allegations made in a letter to Beecher earlier this month from an attorney for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
The ACLU of Alaska said in a statement that it is “not aware of any other instance in which the lieutenant governor has investigated a specific candidate for reasons other than to determine whether the candidate meets federal, state, and local eligibility requirements.” The group said it was monitoring the situation.
Jana Lindemuth, who was Alaska’s attorney general under an independent governor, said an investigation into why someone ran for office “begins to encroach on free speech concerns and other protections under the Constitution.” She said Dahlstrom could classify the senator as the incumbent on the ballot if she was concerned about voter confusion.
The Constitution requires that senators be at least 30 years old, be US citizens for at least nine years, and live in the state they chose to represent at the time of the election. Sullivan, who turns 69 this weekend, told the AP that he moved to Alaska in 1980 and worked for the U.S. Forest Service before changing careers and becoming a teacher. He is now retired.
The declaration that the elections department requires candidates to fill out asks candidates their name, the party affiliation they want on the ballot, their addresses, and how they want their name to appear. When signing the declaration, candidates are asked to confirm that they meet the nationality, age and residency requirements.
The department had previously endorsed challenger Sullivan’s candidacy, registering him as Dan J. Sullivan. The senator is listed as Dan S. Sullivan and as the incumbent.
At least one group running ads in support of the senator, One Nation, has begun referring to him as Sen. Dan S. sullivan.