Dems Show Just How Low They Can Go In Latest Ballot Schemes

Two recent ballot battles more than 3,400 miles apart tell you all you need to know about just how nasty Democrats play for power. 

In one case, Democrats enlisted the assistance of a Milwaukee law firm in a failed attempt to take out Green Party competition — a familiar play from the left’s political playbook. In another, liberals in Alaska appear to be behind a shady scheme to run a convenient “Republican” named Dan Sullivan against incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska’s August GOP Senate primary. 

Handsome former First Lady Michelle Obama liked to unironically say of Democrats, “When they go low, we go high.” In Alaska, Wisconsin and across the nation, the question increasingly is, “How low can Democrats go?”

It’s Not Easy Being Green 

Earlier this month, Pete Karas became the latest Green Party candidate to face the political grist mill of Democrats. Karas, running for the mostly ceremonial post of Wisconsin secretary of state, was forced to fight a frivolous challenge to all of his nearly 3,000 signatures on his petition for candidacy. 

Gregory Walz-Chojnacki, affiliated with the state Democrats but not running for the statewide position, asked the Wisconsin Elections Commission to toss out the 2,937 signatures, significantly more than the 2,000 state law requires. Walz-Chojnacki made two spurious claims to justify his challenge: that Karas’ signature collectors may have lived out of state, and that dozens of the pages were blurry. 

Karas and his Madison attorney, Skylar Croy, presented evidence that all circulators under penalty of law, stated on the forms that they resided in Wisconsin and noted their addresses. As to Walz-Chojnacki’s claims that the submitted forms were “blurry,” the challenger in his complaint did not specify what pages he had difficulty reading, according to a press release on behalf of Karas. Besides, as the Green Party candidate notes, flawless nomination papers are not required under state law, only “substantial compliance.” A state appeals court upheld the standard in a lawsuit questioning the validity of papers with blurry, obscured, or missing words. 

And, according to Karas, Walz-Chojnacki failed to have his complaint notarized.

‘It’s Their Strategy’

The challenge quickly died. Walz-Chojnacki’s liberal Milwaukee attorney Stacie Rosenzweig notified the Wisconsin Elections Commission shortly after Karas responded to the charges that her client was dropping the challenge. Rosenzweig represented far-left Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky in a judicial complaint calling out Karofsky’s despicable partisan language from the bench. The justice in 2020 excoriated President Donald Trump’s attorney, Madison attorney Jim Troupis, for defending his client in a campaign challenge to the rigged 2020 presidential election. 

“What you want is you want us to overturn this election so that your king can stay in power,” Karofsky said. “And that is so un-American. And for you to say that anyone in Wisconsin engaged in fraud, for you to perpetuate that fallacy on the people of Wisconsin and the people of the United States in America, in what has been called the most significant election in our lifetime, is nothing short of shameful.”

The the Wisconsin Judicial Commission dismissed the complaint but warned Karofsky to “remain neutral and avoid making sarcastic remarks from the bench,” CBS News reported at the time. 

In a press release celebrating his victory in an unnecessary fight, Karas said the faulty challenge was just the latest in a long line of Democrats trying to knock the liberal competition off the ballot. 

“Democrats love to talk about protecting democracy. Then they hire lawyers to make sure you can’t vote for anyone but them. It’s their strategy,” the press release charged. 

In 2024, the Democratic National Committee unsuccessfully attempted to boot Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein off the ballot. They did the same in 2020, but succeeded in keeping Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins out of the race — a process that was widely condemned as a shameless, anti-democratic stunt.  

“It’s a partisan thing. It has nothing to do with democracy,” Karas told me during a recent interview on The Vicki McKenna Show. “The Democrats are great at challenging Republicans and saying you’re preventing all of these people from voting, but really what the Democrats are doing is preventing people from having a choice to vote for somebody other than themselves.”

The Battle of the Dans

Last week, Alaska director of Elections Carol Beecher decertified the candidacy of faux Republican Senate candidate Daniel J. Sullivan, who Beecher ruled is running with the purpose to “confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

Sullivan, who admitted to working with a political strategist who is “a known longtime supporter of Democratic candidates,” challenged incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. The challenger opted to run as “Dan Sullivan” despite the fact that he is identified in his voter registration documents as “Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.” 

“That you chose the occasion of your declaration of candidacy for U.S. Senate to seek ballot access under a name you have not used in your interactions with the [Election] Division suggests — and in combination with the additional facts I outline in this letter leads me to conclude — that you are seeking to confuse yourself with another candidate in the race, the incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan, rather than distinguish yourself from him,” Beecher wrote in a stinging rebuke. 

The Sullivan booted off the Republican primary ballot, it turns out, had never been affiliated with Alaska’s GOP. That changed just two days before he filed his declaration of candidacy, the Election Division’s records show. And his campaign website, curiously, looked a lot like the senator’s, Beecher wrote. Beecher noted Dan J. Sullivan’s ties to Amber Lee, “an Alaska Democratic consultant who has previously supported Peltola,” Fox News reported.

Metadata from the campaign’s launch identified the Democratic operative as its author, Fox News Digital previously reported.

“A political consultant you have admitted is working with your campaign is a known longtime supporter of Democratic candidates including the primary Democratic challenger to Senator Sullivan,” Beecher wrote.

Beecher reviewed two complaints filed, including one from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She said that she had offered Sullivan an opportunity to submit additional evidence to support his eligibility. The deadline was 5 p.m., June 11. He declined to do so. 

‘Free From Deception and Gamesmanship’

The 70-year-old phony Republican has not responded to media inquiries. He did post on his Facebook page following Beecher’s ruling. It was his birthday, and he took time to grouse about the state of politics and the decision that removed him from the Aug. 18 Republican primary ballot. 

“Should a candidate’s chances of winning an election disqualify them from trying? Should a person’s given name be a qualifier to be on a ballot? To me it’s not complicated,” the other Sullivan wrote. “I met the qualification and I entered this race because I am unhappy with the 12 year record of the current Senator and I feel we need a change. It’s that simple.”

The incumbent Sen. Sullivan posted on X that the “sham candidate” was “the Schumer/Peltola machine’s new recruit … not a real Republican, he’s a donor to liberals across the country including Peltola herself!” referring to his Democrat opponent, Mary Peltola. 

“Every Alaskan has the right to a free and fair election, free from deception and gamesmanship,” the senator’s campaign manager Billy Mackey said in an emailed press release to Alaska Public Media. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.