OPINION:
Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan has three challengers to fight for his seat this November: Republican Gerald Heikes, Democrat Mary Peltola — who’s emerged as his main competitor — and, curiously enough, a supposed “unaffiliated” but, wink, wink, Democrat-recruited guy named Dan S. Sullivan.
Except it’s not so much curious as it is strategic.
Democrats, as even the Democrat-supporting New York Times just noted, purposely sought out a guy with the same name as the incumbent Sen. Sullivan as a means of confusing voters and upsetting ballot counts.
People were interested in these podcasts
“Inside Democrats’ Secret Effort to Stack Alaska’s Ballot,” The New York Times wrote in a recent headline. The story went on: “Operatives aligned with Mary Peltola, the Democratic nominee for Senate, spent months recruiting candidates to peel votes from Senator Dan Sullivan, the Republican.”
Now Peltola, on the heels of an investigation launched by the Justice Department, has come forward to deny knowing what her Democratic operatives have done.
“I just want to clear the air,” she said at a recent Juneau rally. “I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters.”
Hmm.
How very Sergeant Schultz of her.
Except there he is — there the same-name candidate for Sen. Dan Sullivan’s seat is; and what Peltola knew and when she knew it is only the secondary story. The bigger picture is Democrats’ willingness to win votes, by hook or by crook — by trickery and gimmicky plots, rather than by old fashioned principle and policy and platform and persuasion.
The only reason there’s a Dan J. Sullivan who’s a factor on the ballot at all is because of Democrats’ push for rank-choice voting, the election model of leftist love that’s been in place in Alaska for a few years. It’s the ultimate of trickster politicking because it basically allows losers to become winners, all the while pretending to give voters additional choice and candidates additional fair opportunity.
It’s participation trophy logic taken to a new level.
It’s the Democrats’ post-election court battle — where they claim to want to count every vote, but then stop counting when their candidates take the lead — but with a pre-election twist. Under rank choice, there’s not one winner, but several; voters don’t select one candidate, but rather rank their choices in order of preference.
The leading candidate then gets the losing candidate’s votes, thereby inflating percentages and margins and tallies that might otherwise bring different results.
It’s the ultimate of political stunts.
“It’s how Democrat Mary Peltola was elected to Congress in deep-red Alaska,” Newsweek wrote.
“It’s how Democrat Jared Golden won his deep-red district in Maine,” Newsweek wrote.
In a purer political world, there would not be two Republicans, a declared Democrat and a fake “unaffiliated” (but actually Democrat disruptor) candidate facing off this November for a sole Senate seat. The main party competitions would have been decided during the primaries. But here we are. And here we go. Rank-choice has created a model that’s ripe for further exploitation of the election system.
Enter Democrats with Dan J. Sullivan.
Enter the Democrats’ fabricated pre-election theatrics, to add to their sure-to-follow post-election theatrics through the courts against any Republicans who dare to win.
Democrats have so little to offer, and have so little regard for voters and for the American people, they think nothing of using a ruse to win political power.
For them, for Democrats, the win is always the most important. For them, the Democrats, the end always justifies the means, even if those means include deception, arrogance and fraud.
The Alaska Senate race shows all that’s wrong with today’s Democrat Party.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
Follow the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.