A top Alaska election official booted a same-name Republican challenger to Sen.Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, from the primary ballot Monday, ruling the campaign appeared designed to confuse voters. Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher disqualified Dan J.
Sullivan from the state’s hotly-contested Senate race over concerns that his candidacy was "filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality," in a letter published Monday.Dan J.Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher who filed as a Republican Senate candidate despite having no prior affiliation with the GOP, can appeal the ruling, Beecher wrote. The letter caps weeks of outrage from the GOP, who argued the political newcomer’s entry into the race just days before the filing deadline was a covert attempt by Democrats to recruit a "sham" candidate into the race to confuse voters.Newly-introduced Senate candidate Dan Sullivan, left, pictured alongside Sen.
Dan Sullivan, D-Alaska, right.(Sullivan for U.S.
Senate; Brandon Bell-Pool/Getty Images)GOP FIGHTS TO STOP MULTIPLE DAN SULLIVANS FROM APPEARING ON ALASKA BALLOT, CALLS CANDIDACY A 'SHAM'Under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, if Dan J.Sullivan had been allowed to remain on the August primary ballot, both he and Dan S.
Sullivan, the incumbent, could have advanced to the general election among the top four vote-getters.Democrats are eying Alaska as a potential flip opportunity as the party mounts a longshot bid to retake control of the upper chamber during the midterms.The incumbent Sullivan is running for a third Senate term against former Rep.
Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, who was recruited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., into the battleground contest.Beecher cited several details about Dan J.Sullivan’s campaign that led to her conclusion that it was not filed in "good-faith."The political newcomer requested to appear on the ballot as "Dan Sullivan" despite registering to vote unde...