This matters less in Alaska than nearly any other state, given their ranked choice system.
Personally, after having watched Rs put up fake Dem candidates in my state and pull the same games with candidate names in other states, it's hard to get too upset about this. Either make it illegal, make a bilateral pact of de-escalation and stop doing it, or quit whining.
To clarify a bit for those unfamiliar with ranked-choice. The voters rank their choices for the candidates. The “decoy” candidate is almost certainly going to be eliminated before the actual republican candidate. They will be eliminated and those voters’ votes will move to their next choice. Anybody confused at the voting booth can just write both names as their first and second choice. And when the “decoy” candidate loses, those people’s votes transfer to their second choice and the problem solves itself. The decoy gets removed from the ballot but the votes don’t. They will just move to the voters’ next choice, presumably the other Dan Sullivan.
This might be the evidence Republicans were looking for to enact onerous voting restrictions. And they probably didn’t need to do it either: voters are extremely angry right now and Democrats probably could have won the Senate without this. Once again I’m reminded of a Jon Stewart quote: (to the effect of) “Democrats have America behind them…. how will they screw it up?”
This is almost ex post facto. In January, every Dem was very gloomy. They said they could probably win the House majority, but a Senate majority is out of reach.
Beyond that, what law was broken? This has been litigated in Alaska (elections are still the province of the states, not Trump) and found legal. This is a conservative biased NYT hit piece, trying to gin up an October Surprise Scandal.
As far as Trump deciding to tip over the election chess board and eat a bishop, if it doesn't go his way, he'll do anything. Democrats aren't morally responsible for Trump, Trump has agency of his own. Trump can do the adult, ethical, legal thing and let Alaska run its own elections. If he does otherwise, that's totally on him.
This matters less in Alaska than nearly any other state, given their ranked choice system.
Personally, after having watched Rs put up fake Dem candidates in my state and pull the same games with candidate names in other states, it's hard to get too upset about this. Either make it illegal, make a bilateral pact of de-escalation and stop doing it, or quit whining.
To clarify a bit for those unfamiliar with ranked-choice. The voters rank their choices for the candidates. The “decoy” candidate is almost certainly going to be eliminated before the actual republican candidate. They will be eliminated and those voters’ votes will move to their next choice. Anybody confused at the voting booth can just write both names as their first and second choice. And when the “decoy” candidate loses, those people’s votes transfer to their second choice and the problem solves itself. The decoy gets removed from the ballot but the votes don’t. They will just move to the voters’ next choice, presumably the other Dan Sullivan.
This might be the evidence Republicans were looking for to enact onerous voting restrictions. And they probably didn’t need to do it either: voters are extremely angry right now and Democrats probably could have won the Senate without this. Once again I’m reminded of a Jon Stewart quote: (to the effect of) “Democrats have America behind them…. how will they screw it up?”
This is almost ex post facto. In January, every Dem was very gloomy. They said they could probably win the House majority, but a Senate majority is out of reach.
Beyond that, what law was broken? This has been litigated in Alaska (elections are still the province of the states, not Trump) and found legal. This is a conservative biased NYT hit piece, trying to gin up an October Surprise Scandal.
As far as Trump deciding to tip over the election chess board and eat a bishop, if it doesn't go his way, he'll do anything. Democrats aren't morally responsible for Trump, Trump has agency of his own. Trump can do the adult, ethical, legal thing and let Alaska run its own elections. If he does otherwise, that's totally on him.