Alaska Democrats aren’t giving up on their dirty trick of attempting to help elect Mary Peltola by running a second candidate named Dan Sullivan in this year’s U.S. Senate race. Last week, their effort appeared to be stopped in its tracks when the Division of Elections declared the candidacy invalid, but the Democrat controlled Alaska legislature is trying to save the scam. Only their attempt to do so is so blatantly partisan that even the normally accommodating Juneau Republicans are unwilling to go along with it.
This all started two weeks ago when a retired schoolteacher from Petersburg, named Dan J. Sullivan, entered the race for U.S. Senate against sitting Senator Dan S. Sullivan, in what was an obvious attempt at election chicanery. Lt. Governor Nancy Dahlstrom was quick to investigate the effort, and last week, Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher ruled that the candidacy of the fake Dan Sullivan was not filed in good faith to declare a candidacy for office. She noted that the fake Sullivan had never previously registered to vote using that exact name of Dan Sullivan, had never been affiliated with the Republican party, and had hired a Democrat political consultant to assist in his efforts. Beecher noted that the fake Sullivan modeled his campaign website after the real one by Senator Dan Sullivan. Her letter would seem to suggest that the fake Sullivan was running a sham campaign in a blatant effort to assist Mary Peltola’s Senate run.
The Democrats tried a political dirty trick, they got caught, and that should have been the end of the matter. Nice try, guys, but think of something better next time. However, never underestimate the lack of integrity of a Democrat legislator.
In an effort to keep the scam alive, yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee Chair Andrew Gray (D-Anchorage) attempted to subpoena Elections Director Beecher to appear in front of a joint session of the House and Senate Judiciary and State Affairs committees. They intend to “investigate” the situation. Fortunately, Lt. Governor Dahlstrom dared to stand up against the House Dems and threatened to sue them, causing the subpoena to be dropped as of yesterday.
In addition to the Republican Dahlstrom pushing back against this attempt at election interference, it is notable that the subpoena was not signed by the Republican minority members of the two committees that Gray chairs, Republicans Sarah Vance, Kevin McCabe, and Laddie Shaw.
They recognized that this subpoena, besides being an attempt to preserve an odorous pile of stinking dog dung, is problematic for two major reasons.
First, the Legislature is currently in special session to work on a tax bill to facilitate the construction of a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to tidewater. It is the single most critical issue the Legislature will handle this decade. The gas line is a critical piece of infrastructure that will benefit this state in many different ways. However, instead of working on this complicated and challenging issue, Rep. Andrew Gray and his idiot Democrat colleagues on the Judiciary and State Affairs Committees are wasting time trying to breathe life into a phony campaign dirty trick. Every hour that they waste supporting the fake Sullivan’s campaign is an hour of productive time that could have been spent resolving the important pipeline legislation.
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Then there is the second reason that their efforts are problematic; their investigation is unconstitutional. Article 2, Section 9 of the Alaska Constitution says that “At special sessions called by the governor, legislation shall be limited to subjects presented by him.” The governor’s special session proclamation required the Legislature to focus only on bill HB 381, relating to taxation issues for the new gas line, and nothing else. That means the only business they can conduct is the gas line bill. It is actually unconstitutional to waste their time trying to prop up the sham election campaign effort of the phony Dan Sullivan.
It is time for the phony Dan J. Sullivan to go back to tending his garden, supporting Democrat causes and writing checks to Mary Peltola, or whatever else this retired liberal schoolteacher does with his spare time. As far as the partisan Democrats in the Legislature, they need to realize the jig is up. They lost, and their scam has been exposed. Maybe they can start doing something constructive for a change that doesn’t involve stealing our Permanent Fund checks or cheating in elections.
The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.
