Sen. Dan Sullivan’s same-name challenger sues to stay on ballot | CNN Politics

A man with the same name and party affiliation as Alaska Republican US Sen. Dan Sullivan on Monday challenged a decision by a top state elections official to disqualify his candidacy and remove him from the August primary ballot. A court filing, on behalf of the challenger Sullivan by his attorneys, said the decision by Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher disqualifying him violates state and federal law. It asks that he be placed on the ballot. Sullivan, a retired teacher from the small fishing community of Petersburg, has maintained that he’s a qualified candidate for US Senate and that election officials lacked a legal basis to boot him from the ballot. The US Constitution lays out three exclusive qualifications for US Senate, addressing age, citizenship and residency, his attorneys wrote. “Nothing in Alaska law regulates in any way the private motivations that draw individuals to declare or campaign for office,” the filing by attorneys Jeffrey Robinson, Bryn Pallesen and Zoe Eisberg states. Sullivan’s entrance into the race, days before the June 1 filing deadline, drew condemnation from Sen. Sullivan and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. They called