FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR
Alaska: Dan Sullivan wins! …And Dan Sullivan wins!
It's like the political equivalent of the majestic Alaska salmon reproductive process.
AoSHQ Decision Desk has the results in the Alaska Senate race, where former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan won in a fairly-evenly match field of four. Meanwhile, I am told via Twitter that Anchorage mayor Dan Sullivan has also won the primary for Alaska’s Lt. Governorship*. No word yet whether Dan Sullivan will campaign with Dan Sullivan in the election; it is of course safe to assume that Dan Sullivan endorses Dan Sullivan, and vice versa, although equally of course it is a matter of some friendly debate between Dan Sullivan and Dan Sullivan about whether Dan Sullivan should be given primacy of place, or whether it should be Dan Sullivan. I suppose that it all depends on whether you think that a federal legislative position trumps a state executive one; if you think the former, obviously then it should be Dan Sullivan. Otherwise, you’d support Dan Sullivan’s claim.
Look, you’re just going to have to get used to it. Because Mark Begich is in serious electoral trouble: since Joe Miller won’t do a third-party run, once Miller concedes the election Dan Sullivan will be on track to beat Begich in November. With or without Dan Sullivan’s help, although Dan Sullivan should be able to count on Dan Sullivan’s support…
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: It may occur to some that Dan Sullivan and Dan Sullivan may be in a bit of a pickle, here, given that anything bad that Dan Sullivan does might end up being reflected on Dan Sullivan, or vice versa. But consider: if Dan Sullivan (or, yes, Dan Sullivan) does do something bad, he can immediately go and say That wasn’t me! That was Dan Sullivan! Do we all look alike to you?!? and thus deflect the blame. For that matter, when either Dan Sullivan or Dan Sullivan does something good then Dan Sullivan (or Dan Sullivan) can falsely claim credit, just as long as Dan Sullivan doesn’t call out Dan Sullivan for doing that.
Now, true: this gambit will not work so well on Alaska voters, as they can themselves tell the difference between Dan Sullivan and Dan Sullivan. But it should work great on foreign (ie, Lower 48) reporters, most of whom will be reporting on the Dan Sullivan and Dan Sullivan races from the Northeast. Why? Simple: plane tickets to Alaska cost money, and the likelihood that a newspaper editor will approve a travel voucher there is directly proportional to the chance that a reporter will be able to sneak into Sarah Palin’s house and go through her underwear drawer.
*This shouldn’t be surprising: Dan Sullivan was the front-runner. Then again, so was Dan Sullivan.