|
Alaska politics has once again looked at the national weirdness meter and said, “Hold my bunny boots.”
The latest U.S. Senate drama is not just Sen. Dan S. Sullivan versus Mary Peltola and a crowded field, it also includes Dan J. Sullivan, the Petersburg challenger with the same first and last name who has filed to run in the same race.
On Monday, Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher formally disqualified Dan J. Sullivan from appearing on the ballot, saying in a three-page letter that she believed he filed in an effort to confuse voters.
That is a lot to digest, no matter where you land politically.
On one hand, voters certainly deserve an uncomplicated ballot, and few appreciate political maneuvers that feel like they were pulled from a campaign playbook. It becomes a genuine issue when a candidate appears to be running primarily as a human clerical error.
On the other hand, this raises a pretty big question: How much power should one Division of Elections official have to decide a candidate’s intent? If two people have the same name, and both file to run, is that automatically confusion? Or is this a case where Alaska voters can read a middle initial, a hometown and a candidate statement and sort it out for themselves?
That’s what I want to hear from you. Was the division right to boot Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot? Or does this feel like a slippery slope, even if the whole thing smelled politically funky from the start?
Send me your take at letters@adn.com or via our web form because this one is Alaska politics at its weirdest, and I suspect you folks have thoughts.
— Gary Black, opinion editor
Anchorage Daily News
gblack@adn.com |
