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Blanche defends lawsuit targeting Alaska Senate election certification
Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the Trump administration's lawsuit seeking to block certification if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses in Alaska, saying the challenge was needed to prevent voter confusion.
Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday defended the Trump administration's lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska's Senate results if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses. He argued that the challenge was necessary to prevent confusion among voters.
Blanche told CNN's State of the Union that President Donald Trump was not trying to overturn state election results ahead of the Nov. 3 election. Trump had said Friday that he personally directed the legal action.
Republicans fear that another candidate named Dan Sullivan, a retired teacher and school administrator from Petersburg, could draw votes away from the senator and help Democrat Mary Peltola win. That concern is about a possible outcome, rather than an established election result.
The ballot distinguishes the candidates: Dan S. Sullivan is labeled a registered Republican and the incumbent, while Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. has no party affiliation listed.
Trump said Sunday that he considered the ballot illegal because it was unfair and argued that Sullivan should be identified as the sitting senator.
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Politics ·
Trump says he directed lawsuit targeting Alaska Senate election certification
President Trump said Friday that he directed the Department of Justice to file a lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska's Senate election if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses in November.
The department filed the lawsuit Thursday, arguing that a candidate with a similar name to Sullivan's would make a victory by Democrat Mary Peltola invalid. Trump said he had personally authorized the challenge.
The department alleged that Daniel J. Sullivan was running to confuse voters. It asked a judge to block certification if the incumbent loses but would have won had all votes for Daniel J. Sullivan gone to him.
The two Sullivans will appear differently on the ballot, with the senator identified as the incumbent and as a Republican.
Trump has alleged that Democrats recruited Daniel J. Sullivan. Claims that the candidacy is a Democratic effort to confuse voters and secure a Peltola victory have not been substantiated.
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Alaska governor orders investigation into Peltola's Senate campaign
Alaska's Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy ordered an investigation into Democrat Mary Peltola's Senate campaign after allegations that her team helped recruit candidates to draw votes away from her Republican opponent. The alleged recruitment included a candidate with the same name as that opponent.
Peltola is challenging Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan in the Nov. 3 election. Another candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher from Petersburg, has denied running at Democrats' request. Alaska's Supreme Court upheld his eligibility to appear on the ballot earlier this year.
Dunleavy said newly published information provided evidence of an effort to mislead voters. He also said it supported state election officials' earlier findings about Daniel J. Sullivan's candidacy.
Peltola's campaign, Alaskans for Mary, denied involvement with either Sullivan campaign. It also said it had made no assertions in federal court about how Daniel J. Sullivan's candidacy originated or who was involved in his decision to run. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee separately denied involvement with him.
At President Donald Trump's direction, the Justice Department had already sued to block certification under certain conditions if Senator Sullivan loses. It wants the results recalculated as though votes for Daniel J. Sullivan had gone to the incumbent, with certification blocked if that calculation would change the outcome.
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