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Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is in a predicament.
The lawmaker, who is seeking a third term in the upper chamber, is staring down a tough challenge in former Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska. But first, he’s got to beat Dan J. Sullivan, a same-name rival running against him in the Republican primary.
The senator contended in an interview with Fox News Digital that the other Dan J. Sullivan, a political newcomer with few ties to the GOP, is a Democratic plant.
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“His primary purpose is not to win an election, it’s to confuse Alaskans and rig the vote for my opponent, the Democrat,” Sullivan said. ”He’s not in it to win it. He’s in it to rig it.”
The name confusion could prove particularly consequential in Alaska given its ranked-choice voting system, where voters list candidates in order of preference. If Dan J. Sullivan is allowed to stay on the primary ballot, both he and incumbent Dan S. Sullivan could advance to the general election in which the top four vote-getters will appear.
Sullivan, the senator, is not the only one looking into Dan J. Sullivan, the candidate.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, requested that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) investigate an alleged “coordinated scheme” between Dan J. Sullivan and Amber Lee, an Alaska Democratic consultant tied to the nascent campaign.
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Earlier this week, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, R-Alaska, sent a letter to Dan J. Sullivan citing “credible allegations” that he launched his candidacy to confuse voters at the ballot box and siphon off votes from the senator.
“Specifically, it was alleged that you filed for office with the intent to use your identical first and last name and newfound affiliation with the Republican Party to confuse or deceive voters who intend to vote for Senator Sullivan into mistakenly voting for you instead,” Dahlstrom wrote Monday. “If true, this would be an unprecedented situation.”
Dahlstrom, who is tasked with overseeing Alaska’s elections, said Dan J. Sullivan must clarify several details about his political background and campaign announcement to determine whether he can appear on the August primary ballot.
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The election official asked Dan. J. Sullivan to submit a sworn affidavit by Wednesday clarifying whether he had affiliated with the Republican Party before his Senate bid.
Dahlstrom is also scrutinizing Dan J. Sullivan’s ties to Lee, who has supported Peltola during her prior House races.
Metadata from the campaign’s announcement showed Lee as its author, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Sullivan, the senator, contended that his primary opponent was a “far-left liberal,” with a track record of donating to Democrats.
Dan J. Sullivan, a former schoolteacher and U.S. Forest Service employee, previously donated to former Rep. Mary Peltola, the top Democratic contender in the race, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.
The lawmaker has asked his Democratic colleagues about the situation, and he said that they had no idea what’s going on. He’s turned his ire to the top, accusing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the chair of Senate Democrats’ campaign committee, of colluding to defeat him.
Alaska is among several battleground states that Democrats are aggressively targeting as part of their efforts to retake Senate control.
Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer for comment. When asked about a coordinated effort to insert Dan J. Sullivan into the race, or if they were aware of his candidacy, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) said, “No.”
“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 said.
“Think about it. Schumer has talked about flipping the Alaska seat, he hand-recruited and handpicked Peltola as his top recruit for Alaska, and now he’s trying to rig the election in Alaska by deceiving the voters,” he continued.
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