Dem
47
GOP
53
No, not that Dan Sullivan, the other one. A guy from Petersburg, AK, named Dan Sullivan, filed to run in the all-party Senate primary. Then, Director of the Alaska Elections Division Carol Beecher determined that he can't be on the ballot because he has made campaign contributions to the likely Democratic Senate candidate, Mary Peltola. Nothing in Alaska law says that candidates can be banned from filing to run in the all-party primary as a Republican if they have ever contributed to a Democrat or vice versa.
The non-senator Dan Sullivan is going to seek legal advice. If non-senator Dan did this on a lark, he might give up, but now that this could be a real issue, he might get help from the DSCC, ACLU or third parties. We suspect that if he starts a GoFundMe campaign to pay for legal help, money will flood in from Democrats. There is no valid reason for Beecher to ban him from the ballot. At most, she might put Sen. Dan Sullivan on the ballot as Sen. Dan Sullivan, but titles of offices are generally not allowed. She could decide to include middle initials, but how many Alaska voters know their senator's middle name (Scott)? If the other Sullivan is also Dan S. Sullivan, Beecher might include both middle names in full. If the other Sullivan seriously pursues this, he will almost certainly get on the ballot.
This brings to light an underused form of rodent reproduction: running a candidate with the same name as the target to confuse the voters (and dilute the vote). Eddie Murphy even made a movie on this general theme, "The Distinguished Gentleman." That works best when the target has a common name. For example, a search of the Maine phonebook turned up 29 people named Susan Collins. The DSCC could have found half a dozen of them who are Democrats, gotten them to change their registration to Republican, and had them all file to run for the Senate. Mike Rogers is running unopposed for the Republican Senate nomination. There are 259 people named Michael Rogers in Michigan. Imagine the fun if 20 of them filed to run as Republicans named Mike Rogers. If this becomes common, having a less common name, say, John Hickenlooper, could become a real asset. (V)