With the Democrats pulling the dirty trick in Alaska of searching for and placing a similarly named candidate to their Republican rival on the ballot, folks on Twitter were remembering other times things like this have happened.
Just a reminder, John F. Kennedy won his first race for Congress by recruiting a janitor with the same name of the incumbent to run for office. This is an old trick, and a dirty trick, but it’s by no means unprecedented.
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) October 29, 2026
Oh, so another Democrat playing dirty tricks. Sounds about right.
The Kennedys doing underhanded things is an old American tradition.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) October 29, 2026
Careful assuming only one side does these things. See FL GOP and the state senate in 2020. The question is whether there is a big enough constituency that either believes politics should be better than this or whether most folks assume politics is this cut throat and it’s just part of the “small d” democratic bargain. I imagine quite a few folks see this thru their red or blue glasses more than there are folks who see this thru purely ethical glasses. But in a close race, everything will be seen as mattering.
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) October 29, 2026
In swooped Chuck Todd, unbiased journalist, to remind tweeps that one time, a Republican pulled a dirty trick so stop being partisan and start being ethical.
Interestingly enough, it was time for Chuck to get a history lesson.
@chucktodd Oh, some unnamed Republican in the Florida state senate did something like this once? Guess it's okay then. Never mind, everybody! #journalism
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) October 30, 2026
Chuck just wants everyone to be quiet and stop talking about this. It makes his Democrats look bad.
@chucktodd Those Republicans in Florida were also arrested, tried & sent to prison. Thank you for letting us know what should happen to the Democrats who were involved in this scheme in Alaska.
— pmcall ⏳FreeAafia FreeKhan Pardon Assange/Snowden (@pmcall) October 30, 2026
Ohhhhh! So, when Republicans do things like this, they go to jail. How interesting. Surely, Chuck will encourage that same penalty for the Alaska vote scoundrels.
Chuck's hackery can be seen from space, but this example is particularly fun. Today I learned that Florida Republican Frank Artiles once pulled a stunt like this, and I also learned that he went to jail for it. And now Chuck's defending the same tactic. #journalism
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) October 30, 2026
Funny how that works.
@jtLOL “Careful assuming” @chucktodd does anything resembling actual journalism. 🤡 https://t.co/eXVJ07oK1z
— Tom Kattman (@TomKattman) October 30, 2026
Fair point.
Spoiler candidates & similar names have been done before, but this is an identically-named candidate with the same party line & a knockoff website in a high-profile race with massive national stakes, deliberately recruited for this purpose on behalf of a candidate pretending to run as a different kind of politics, in a one-of-a-kind top-4 electoral system. Not remotely comparable to the facts of the FL state leg race.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) October 29, 2026
Oh.
Yes, people went to jail over this. Is Chuck Todd suggesting the people who arranged the Dan Sullivan decoy should be charged with crimes? Or is it that we need to be lenient towards Democrats because we were strict with Republicans, or else we're hypocrites or something? Huh?
— Mark Tanger (@marktanger) October 30, 2026
When a Democrat is investigated, that's lawfare though.