Alaska Democrat campaign pulled a fast one

Report says Alaska Democrat Senate campaign deliberately tried to confuse voters

JUNEAU, Alaska —The New York Times reports that the Democratic campaign for Alaska's U.S. Senate seat was involved in efforts to place on the ballot a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan in a bid to confuse voters.

The newspaper obtained text messages between members of Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign discussing recruiting other people with the same name as the two-term Republican their candidate was running against. They eventually landed on a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community of Petersburg named Dan J. Sullivan. He made it through the state's August open primary and is one of four candidates on the ranked vote ballot for next Tuesday's general election.

Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola's campaign: “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.

He did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday from The Associated Press.

A top state elections official ruled Dan J. Sullivan ineligible for the ballot after he declared his candidacy, claiming it was “filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

read about it...