In electoral politics, having one's opponents split the vote can certainly help lubricate the path to victory.
Remember 1992? George HW Bush was coming off a solid term, redolent with Ronald Reagan's magnificent legacy; he was successfully fending off a post-Cold-War recession around election time — and still stood a pretty fair chance of prevailing — had Ross Perot not bogarted 19 percent of the vote in a race where Bill Clinton prevailed over Bush by four points. Could Bush 41 have prevailed without a third party spoiler? Likely.
More germane to David and me? In Minnesota's 2010 gubernatorial election, former Senator Mark Dayton beat state legislator (and current US House majority whip) Tom Emmer by less than 9,000 votes — about four-tenths of a point. The deciding factor? The presence of "Independence" Party (Jesse Ventura's party) candidate who was a former "moderate" Republican apparatchik whose social media presence today unexpectedly reads like Bernie Sanders. I'm not saying his candidacy was a sock puppet affair designed to soak up "moderate" Republican votes. I'm saying if it had been some Democrat's plan, I'm not sure what they would have done differently.
Which brings us to the situation in the Alaska U.S. Senate race, where incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan is facing Democrat Mary Peltola.
The question for Alaska's voters might be...which Dan Sullivan?
The incumbent, Daniel S. Sullivan, has been joined on the ballot by Daniel J. Sullivan.
This Sullivan — Dan. J — has been an unconventional candidate from the start. He drew intense, immediate blowback for having the same name and party affiliation as the senator — Dan. S. — in a race that could help decide control of the Senate in November.
Smell like a rat? The Alaska GOP thought so too:
The incumbent and GOP allies accused the same-named challenger in the Aug. 18 primary of being a sham candidate working with Democrats to sow confusion and help Peltola. Dan. J. Sullivan and the Peltola campaign have denied that claim.
Completely unrelated, I'm just certain, is this episode (with emphasis added):
While the challenger sought to appear on the ballot as Republican Dan J. Sullivan, the Division of Elections listed him as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation. The senator was listed as Dan S. Sullivan, Republican and incumbent.
Is there anything to the claim that he's a spoiler, a Democrat sock puppet? On the one hand, Daniel J. Sullivan was apparently registered as a Republican at one point in his life. On the other he's donated to Peltola in the past, and reportedly voted Democrat for at least the past year, and has worked with a Democrat consultant.
Again — we can't empirically confirm that Daniel J. is a fake Republican. But then again, maybe that's exactly what they're doing, according to that noted conservative shill, the New York Times:
BREAKING: NYT reports that operatives with Democratic Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign were behind the effort to find & recruit a candidate named Dan Sullivan to run against incumbent GOP Senator Dan S. Sullivan in an effort to confuse voters and peel votes from him. Specifically, NYT says they have reviewed text messages and documents that reveal in summer 2025, a Peltola staffer received instructions from campaign staffers to find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as possible. The staffer complied, going through voter records, and compiled a list. The operation “involved secret trips to far-flung Alaskan communities and the appearance of a mysterious Midwestern operative, who traversed the state using a fake name and made his pitch to would-be candidates over beers at brew pubs.” Per NYT: “The plan worked. This spring, a retired teacher from a tiny fishing village along the Alaska Panhandle, reachable only by air and sea, announced his candidacy for Senate. His name was Dan J. Sullivan.” https://t.co/Fh1n4fporW
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) October 28, 2026
Republicans in the US Senate are not amused:
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Sunday said it was “appropriate to take a look at” the outcome of the Alaska Senate race with two candidates with similar names on the ballot, which prompted a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit.
“Alaska has a candidate who just coincidentally happens to be the same name as my friend and colleague who came in with me in 2014,” Tillis told “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan on CBS News, referring to Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). “So I think it’s appropriate to take a look at it...
Tillis accused Democrats of “gaming the system” with Daniel J. Sullivan’s name appearing on the ballot.
In Alaska, the top four vote-getters in the primary advance to the general election, which is tabulated using ranked-choice voting. While they have similar names, Sen. Sullivan and Daniel J. Sullivan will appear differently on the ballot, with the senator labeled “incumbent” and “Republican.”
Maybe I'll change my name to "Barack Obama" and run for city council...
