The Dunleavy administration treats the state’s election laws as flexible, depending on which side of the political divide the law helps.

When Republicans alleged that moderate Republican Dan J. Sullivan, a retired school teacher from Petersburg, was running for U.S. Senate only to confuse voters who wanted to cast their ballots for conservative Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, the Alaska Division of Elections stepped in to help the incumbent in his race for a third term.

The division, run by an appointee of Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who serves with Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, initially rejected putting Petersburg Sullivan on the ballot, alleging that he was running for office “with the purpose of confusing or misleading the electorate.”

If “confusing or misleading” voters were a disqualifier, a lot of candidates would be excluded from election ballots.

After the Alaska Supreme Court ruled against the state, the Division of Elections decided that if it must put his name on the ballot, it would make extra sure that the right Sullivan gets the edge. The division put the word INCUMBENT next to Sen. Sullivan’s name on the ballot and removed the word REPUBLICAN from next to Petersburg Sullivan’s name. 

Then last week, the same lieutenant governor changed her mind and allowed Republican candidate for governor Treg Taylor, a former member of the Dunleavy administration, back on the ballot after she booted him off four days earlier for failing to disclose details of his sources of income, as required by state law of all candidates.

The Department of Law, which Taylor ran until a year ago, had conducted an “informal review” of the decision to deny him a spot in the Nov. 3 election, prompting Dahlstrom’s decision to put Taylor back on the ballot.

The lieutenant governor declined to release the private review, which essentially overturned a public review by the nonpartisan Alaska Public Offices Commission.

Had Dahlstrom not changed her mind, Taylor’s running mate for lieutenant governor, a relatively unknown Anchorage businesswoman, was ready to run for governor, with Taylor’s wife as her running mate.

The Republicans are in a tizzy, trying to find the best candidate to overcome the lead of Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins in the four-person race for governor in November.

Keeping former Attorney General Taylor on the ballot probably helps with name recognition, and notoriety, but it shows again that the Dunleavy administration will do what it wants to help its party in an election.