Alaska has a problem. Two Republicans named Dan Sullivan. One is the incumbent senator. The other is Dan J. Sullivan Jr. of Petersburg. He denies trying to confuse anyone.
The Justice Department sued anyway.
Its theory is simple. If Senator Sullivan loses, and Sullivan Jr.'s vote total exceeds the margin, Alaska should hold off on certifying. Then investigate. Attorney General Todd Blanche calls this putting "guardrails in place." Trump said he ordered the suit himself.
Mary Peltola's campaign and the DSCC filed a motion to dismiss. They want a ruling before Election Day, November 3. Their filing calls the complaint "wholly baseless." Their fear is practical. A pending lawsuit on November 3 is a loaded gun on the mantel.
Common Cause and the League of Women Voters joined the push. Judge Sharon Gleason now gets a week to decide whether two men sharing a name is a federal matter.
Consider the voter. He walks into a booth in Alaska. He sees two Dan Sullivans. He is a person who can be confused by a name. Yet somehow he found the polling place, parked, and remembered to bring a pen.
Election law experts say the case lacks merit and asks for relief federal law doesn't authorize. Nobody on the DOJ side seems to have been consulted about that.
The prize is a Senate majority. Control of Washington may come down to a man from Petersburg and his unfortunate birth certificate.
Retail traders will try to price this in. They will buy something called a Sullivan hedge. It will be down 40 percent by Wednesday.
Dan Sullivan Jr. never asked to be a constitutional crisis. He just wanted to be the second-most-confusing Dan Sullivan in Alaska.
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