Same-name candidate disqualified from key Senate race over alleged Dem scheme to confuse voters

A top Alaska election official booted a same-name Republican challenger to Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, from the primary ballot Monday, ruling the campaign appeared designed to confuse voters. 

Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher disqualified Dan J. Sullivan from the state’s hotly-contested Senate race over concerns that his candidacy was "filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality," in a letter published Monday.

Dan J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher who filed as a Republican Senate candidate despite having no prior affiliation with the GOP, can appeal the ruling, Beecher wrote. 

The letter caps weeks of outrage from the GOP, who argued the political newcomer’s entry into the race just days before the filing deadline was a covert attempt by Democrats to recruit a "sham" candidate into the race to confuse voters.

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Under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, if Dan J. Sullivan had been allowed to remain on the August primary ballot, both he and Dan S. Sullivan, the incumbent, could have advanced to the general election among the top four vote-getters.

Democrats are eying Alaska as a potential flip opportunity as the party mounts a longshot bid to retake control of the upper chamber during the midterms. The incumbent Sullivan is running for a third Senate term against former Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, who was recruited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., into the battleground contest.

Beecher cited several details about Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign that led to her conclusion that it was not filed in "good-faith."

The political newcomer requested to appear on the ballot as "Dan Sullivan" despite registering to vote under the name "Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.," according to the letter. The longshot candidate also attempted to register with the incumbent's initial on one occasion, according to Beecher's letter.

"‘S’ is Senator Sullivan’s middle initial, not yours," Beecher wrote.

The election official also noted that Dan J. Sullivan had not registered as a Republican before launching his Senate campaign and that his new website used a "color scheme and overall theme" similar to the incumbent’s campaign materials. 

Additionally, Beecher discussed Dan J. Sullivan’s connection to Amber Lee, an Alaska Democratic consultant who has previously supported Peltola. Metadata from the campaign’s launch identified the Democratic operative as its author, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

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"This consultant’s work on your behalf is, in isolation, innocuous," Beecher wrote. "Alongside the other facts I have catalogued in this letter, however, it suggests a determined effort and a deliberate attempt to use the similarity of your name to confuse Alaska voters in the upcoming primary election."

Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The incumbent Sullivan previously blasted his same-name challenger as a "far-left liberal" who was complicit in Democrats’ efforts to "rig" the election.

"Is Schumer or Gillibrand and their staffs or the DSCC or the staff at the DSCC — were they aware? Were they coordinating, orchestrating?
I mean, if that's the case, that would be a huge scandal," Sullivan told Fox News Digital last week.

Democrats have denied any involvement with Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign. 

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, took a victory lap after urging Beecher to investigate the same-name challenger’s candidacy.

"Alaskans saw right through Chuck Schumer and Mary Peltola’s tricks to confuse and deceive them with a sham candidate," NRSC Regional Press Secretary Nick Puglia said in a statement. "Nobody delivers for Alaskans like Senator Dan Sullivan, which is why Alaska Last Democrats like Mary Peltola are stooping so low."

Dan J. Sullivans’ attempt to qualify for the primary ballot also sparked sharp criticism from Senate Republicans, who are expected to aggressively campaign to defend Sullivan’s seat.

"Even by Chuck Schumer's low standards, this was an outrageous attempt to trick Alaska voters and rig the election," Senate Republican Conference Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Monday.