ALASKA'S BALLOT HAS DOUBLE VISION

The real news

The story, straight

I came for a Senate race and found a contact-list emergency.

AP, citing The New York Times, reports that Mary Peltola's campaign staff discussed recruiting another Dan Sullivan. Her campaign denies involvement with either Sullivan campaign.

Name recognition sounds brilliant until your campaign needs the same clarification as an office email: not that Dan. The other Dan.

The actual ballot identifies Dan Sullivan as the Republican incumbent and lists Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. without a party affiliation. Our matching nameplates and debate scene are satire, not an actual ballot or a documentary photograph.

My imaginary debate opener: will the real Dan Sullivan please stand up? Great.

Now I need a seating chart and a customer-service department.

The upside: AP quotes law professor Derek Muller saying voters, not litigation, now decide. That's his assessment, not a prediction of who wins.

I arrived with a punchline and left with a filing system. Somewhere in this story, a middle initial deserves its own campaign bus.

Source: AP, https://apnews.com/article/alaska-peltola-senate-dan-sullivan-democrats-743677c9fb0d6696af7901504df2be3e