Judge rules same-name candidate can challenge Sen Dan Sullivan in Alaska

A judge ruled Friday that Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and another man running as a Republican with the same name can run against him in the August primary in Alaska.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews’ decision overturned Elections Division Director Carol Beecher’s decision earlier this month to disqualify the runner-up Sullivan from the ballot.

On Friday, Matthews ruled that Beecher did not follow the Constitution, Alaska law or the department’s own regulations in deciding to disqualify Sullivan.

“Instead, the decision was based on a new ‘good faith’ criterion not previously specified,” the judge wrote.

In his finding, Beecher said retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan, who recently changed his party affiliation to the GOP, did not launch his campaign “in good faith” and was trying to “confuse or mislead” voters at the ballot box.

The Republican senator appears to be seeking a third term in the state.

THE CANDIDATE WITH THE SAME NAME WAS DISQUALIFIED FROM THE MAIN SENATE RACE, DUE TO THE DEM PROGRAM LEVEL, ALLEGEDLY CONFUSING VOTERS.

Democrats are hoping former Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, whom Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-Y) helped put into the race, will unseat him in November.

Alaska is one of several states expected to be competitive as both parties compete for control of the Senate.

The Elections Division told The Associated Press on Saturday that it plans to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

The deadline for a final decision is Tuesday so that ballots can be printed in time for the Aug. 18 primary, state prosecutors said.

The senator previously told Fox News Digital that he believes Dan J. Sullivan is a Democratic fabricator.

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Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP, File)

“His primary goal is not to win an election, but to confuse Alaskans and rig the votes of my Democrat opponent,” Sullivan said. “He’s not in it to win. He’s in it to cheat.”

The name confusion could have consequences, especially in Alaska, given the ranked-choice voting system in which voters list candidates in order of preference.

If Dan J. Sullivan is allowed to remain on the primary ballot, both he and incumbent Dan S. Sullivan could advance to the general election, which would feature the top four vote-getters.

Lawyers for Dan J. Sullivan argued that the Constitution contains only three requirements for running for the Senate: age, citizenship and residence.

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Former Rep. Mary Peltola is seen as the senator’s main rival in the Democratic Party. (Nathan Posner/Anatolia, File)

He has also previously said that sharing a name with the senator gave him an “instant megaphone” but that he remained disillusioned with the MP and had been considering his own candidacy for some time.

But the Elections Division argued that it wasn’t necessary to put it on the ballot and that there was a way to make it less confusing for voters.

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“The Constitution does not require States to place a bogus candidate on the ballot and then attempt to mitigate the damage through design choices,” attorney Rachel Witty of the Alaska Department of Law and outside attorneys Christopher Murray and Michael Francisco wrote in court filings.

Rival Sullivan’s lawyers He argued that the Constitution only sets three specific qualifications for the Senate, addressing age, citizenship and residence, and claimed that Beecher did not have the right to remove himself from the ballot.

Fox News’ Adam Pack, Alex Miller and The Associated Press contributed to this report.