David’s view
Before there was the other Dan Sullivan, there was the other Mike Doyle.
Four years ago, when longtime Pittsburgh Democrat Mike Doyle retired from Congress, a left-wing legislator named Summer Lee won the primary to replace him. Republicans nominated a local politician from the suburbs to face her who had a fortuitous name: Mike Doyle.
Some voters were perplexed. The new Doyle’s lawn signs called him “the right Mike” without explicitly identifying him as a Republican — a moniker that would be a non-starter in the safely Democratic seat. Local Democrats got worried calls, asking why Lee was running against their beloved liberal congressman. The Democrat Doyle called an emergency press conference to clarify that he was not the Republican Doyle: “My name is on the ballot, but it’s not me.”
Lee won, albeit by a smaller margin than other Democrats in her district had in the past. Nothing else came of the story. There was no federal investigation of the Doyle scheme; no demands not to seat Doyle if he won; no statement from the governor saying that he might not certify the election.
All of that has unfolded in Alaska this cycle.