Dirty tricks in Alaska and likely good resolution

Dan J. Sullivan, who says he voted for at least the most recent 3 Democratic candidates for President and for Mary Peltola for Congress in 2022 and 2024,  changed his registration from Independent to Republican when, just before the window closed, he registered to run against Ms. Peltola and the incumbent Senator Daniel S. Sullivan.  He had never previously run for political office.  When the Alaska Division of Elections decided to list him on the ballot as “Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.” without a political affiliation, he changed his registration to “undeclared”.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Daniel J. Sullivan admits to using a political consultant who is a “known longtime supporter of Democratic candidates”, but there is no evidence that Peltola or the Democratic Party were involved, and they deny involvement. 

 There is also some documentation that Democratic funders paid for mailers to encourage Republicans to vote for the fourth candidate, Republican Gerald Heikes, without his knowledge.

Supporters of either the Democrats or the Republicans should understand that neither party supports democracy.  I’ve seen ample evidence of what I consider to be unethical behavior in search of power. 

Note: In the August 28^th primary election, Peltola received 49.5% of the vote; Senator Sullivan (41.4%), Daniel J. Sullivan (2.5%) and Gerald Heikes (1.1%) combined for only 45.0%.

In a traditional election, siphoning votes from a major party candidate could easily turn the election.  Fortunately, Alaska has ranked-choice voting.  So, as long as voters pick Daniel S. Sullivan higher than Mary Peltola, any confusion or siphoning will have no impact.  Hurrah for ranked-choice voting!

Nonetheless, President Trump called ranked-choice voting a “scam” and urged Alaskans to vote for Prop. 2 to end it.  As noted in my 4Nov23 blog (Our political parties have abandoned the center and democracy.  What can we do about it?, no matter how tough they fight each other on other issues, the Democrats and Republicans work together to suppress democracy.  They both oppose ranked-choice voting because it dilutes their power.

Observation: I have heard CNN and Jimmy Kimmel claim that the Trump administration has sued to avoid certification of a Peltola victory.  I question the appropriateness of that lawsuit but it asks for decertification only if reclassifying Daniel J. Sullivan’s vote to be for Daniel S. Sullivan would have resulted in Daniel S. Sullivan winning the election.