GOP suffers big blow as red state ordered to list 2 Senate candidates with same name

Alaska Republicans' bid to keep a second Dan Sullivan off the U.S. Senate ballot has failed at the state's highest court.

The Alaska Supreme Court on Monday affirmed a lower-court order directing the state Division of Elections to include Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher from the fishing town of Petersburg, as a candidate in the August primary against incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R-AK), who seeks a third term. The justices sent the case back to the division to decide how the challenger will be listed under existing ballot-design law.

"We're disappointed in the court's decision because, as the sham candidate Dan J. Sullivan's lawyers made clear in their legal arguments, the only reason he is running is to deceive voters and manipulate Alaska's election system," Nate Adams, Sullivan's senior campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. "However, we are encouraged by the fact that the Director of the Division of Elections will be able to use her expertise to differentiate between the Petersburg fraud and the incumbent — Senator Dan Sullivan — to the benefit of Alaska voters."

The ruling caps a saga that erupted when the lesser-known Sullivan filed to run, prompting the sitting senator to accuse Democrats of planting a same-named candidate to siphon his votes and boost Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola. "He's not in it to win it. He's in it to rig it," Sullivan has said. Peltola, state Democrats, and the challenger all denied any coordination.

Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher, a Republican, disqualified the challenger in June, finding his candidacy was not filed in "good faith." The move quickly drew scrutiny, including from a nonpartisan legislative attorney who concluded the disqualification was probably illegal because the Constitution sets only three qualifications for the Senate: age, citizenship and residency.

An Anchorage Superior Court judge reinstated Sullivan last week, and the Supreme Court agreed, rejecting the "good faith" standard the state had applied.

The Republican Party of Alaska, a coalition of 14 GOP-led states and the Honest Elections Project, had filed briefs backing the division's effort.

Under Alaska's open primary, the top four finishers on Aug. 18 advance to November's ranked-choice general election.