Mary Peltola and national Democrats filed a legal motion Friday to stop the Trump administration from blocking the results of Alaska’s upcoming general election if Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan loses.
“Alaskans, apparently, must elect Senator Dan S. Sullivan or the President will not let them elect anyone at all,” says the motion, filed by the Alaskans for Mary campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Polls show Peltola, the Democratic challenger, locked in a tight race against Sullivan.
The GOP incumbent is seeking a third term and has allied himself with Republican President Donald Trump. The president recently campaigned for Sullivan in Alaska while his administration has made major funding announcements for the state, raising questions about whether they are politically timed. A Trump-aligned PAC is also spending money in Alaska to support Sullivan.
National Democrats see Alaska’s Senate seat as one of four they can pick up to regain control of the chamber.
Trump ordered his administration to file a lawsuit Thursday to stop Alaska officials from certifying the election results in the U.S. Senate race if Sullivan loses his reelection bid.
The lawsuit, brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against the state, Alaska election officials and ballot review boards, also calls for an investigation into whether votes cast for Sullivan’s namesake challenger — retired Petersburg teacher Dan J. Sullivan — were intended for the incumbent.
The case is before Judge Sharon Gleason in U.S. District Court in Alaska.
Attorneys and lawmakers have decried the Trump administration’s lawsuit as a political ploy that’s legally unfounded.
The Alaska Supreme Court earlier this year upheld a ruling by an Anchorage Superior Court judge determining that Dan J. Sullivan can legally appear on the ballot. The court rejected an appeal by the director of the Alaska Division of Elections, Carol Beecher, who had determined that the namesake challenger wanted to “confuse or mislead” voters. The Petersburg Sullivan has rejected those allegations and maintained that he is running because he believes the incumbent senator is doing a poor job of representing Alaskans.
The motion filed Friday by the Peltola campaign and the national Democratic group wants Judge Gleason to allow them to intervene in the case. It also asks Gleason to dismiss the case.
The filing says the administration’s lawsuit is “part of a nationwide attack on free elections by the federal government.”
The Peltola filing raises concerns about whether the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, another ally of Trump, will seriously defend the case.
“There is reason to doubt that the existing defendants will vigorously defend against DOJ’s demands, given their effort to exclude Daniel J. Sullivan from the ballot earlier this year,” the filing says.
The Alaska Department of Law on Friday said it is reviewing the Trump administration lawsuit and had no comment on it.
The Peltola filing says the namesake challenger’s “presence on the ballot raises a question of Alaska law that was litigated and definitively resolved by the Alaska Supreme Court months ago.”
It continues: “The National Voter Registration Act — the only legal basis the Department of Justice provides for its claims — regulates voter registration and has literally nothing to say about which candidates are listed on the ballot or how they are displayed.”
“Those issues are governed by state law,” it says. “And the Department of Justice’s assumption that every voter who casts a vote for Daniel J. Sullivan really meant to vote for Senator Sullivan is insulting to voters and irreconcilable with Alaska’s ranked choice voting procedures and the ballot’s clear differentiation between the two candidates.”
With early voting already underway with high turnout before the Nov. 3 general election, the Trump administration lawsuit could create a legal hurdle if Peltola wins.
Peltola, speaking with reporters Friday, described the lawsuit as a corrupt attempt to interfere in Alaska’s election, and an effort to distract voters from the more important topic of inflation and soaring fuel prices caused by the Iran war that Sullivan supports.
“This is the exact kind of corruption Alaskans are tired of,” she said, adding that it reflects “desperation, honestly, and a complete lack of respect for Alaskans and their vote.”
While Peltola’s campaign has accused Sen. Sullivan of designing the lawsuit as a last-ditch effort to sway the results in his favor, Sullivan’s campaign said they had “no prior knowledge of this lawsuit and no role in it.”
Trump has repeatedly criticized the namesake challenger, calling him a “fake” candidate who could siphon votes from the senator.
On Friday, challenger Dan J. Sullivan said he had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.
The state Division of Elections took unusual steps in its effort to clearly distinguish the two Sullivans on the ballot, referring to the challenger as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. with no party affiliation while referring to the senator as Dan S. Sullivan, the Republican incumbent.
Under Alaska’s ranked choice voting system, four candidates advanced to the general election, from the field of 16 in the August primary.
Peltola, a former U.S. representative, was the top vote-getter in the primary with 49.5% of the vote. The incumbent senator received the second-highest count, at 41.4%. Dan J. Sullivan, a Republican, received 2.5% of the vote.
Gerald Heikes, also a Republican, received 1%.
