The Alaska Democratic Party is asking a judge to kick a convicted felon serving a 20-year sentence in a New York federal prison off this November’s general election ballot. Eric Hafner is challenging Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola for Alaska’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Hafner placed sixth in the top-four primary. He advanced to the general election ballot after the third- and fourth-place candidates dropped out in an apparent effort to consolidate the Republican vote.
Hafner is currently in federal prison for threatening public officials in New Jersey and has never lived in Alaska. He’s running as a Democrat but does not have the backing of the state party. Any candidate can run under whatever party banner they like under Alaska’s open primary system. The Alaska Democratic Party’s executive director did not respond to an interview request.
The Constitution requires candidates for U.S. House to live in the state they seek to represent “when elected.” In court filings, the Alaska Democratic Party argued it would be impossible for Hafner to be physically present in Alaska by Election Day, since he’s not slated to be released from prison until 2036.
The Democrats also argue Hafner violated Alaska law by listing the address of a South Dakota mail forwarding service on his candidate filing paperwork rather than his physical address at a medium-security federal prison in New York.
The party says that means he never should have been certified as a candidate in the first place. They also argue that Alaska’s election laws don’t allow the sixth-place candidate to advance to the general election under any circumstances. The Democrats say his presence on the ballot could also siphon voters from Peltola.
“Hafner’s presence on the ballot will damage the competitive prospects of the Alaska Democratic Party’s preferred candidate, Congresswoman Peltola, because it will confuse voters by presenting them with an additional candidate on the ballot who is not entitled to be there and would not be entitled to serve if elected,” attorneys Thomas Amodio and David Fox wrote.
The Alaska Democrats ask an Anchorage judge to order the Division of Elections to remove Hafner from the ballot.
Department of Law spokesperson Patty Sullivan said the Division of Elections “followed Alaska Law and the U.S. Constitution when it put Mr. Hafner on the general election ballot.”
Reached at his listed campaign email address, Hafner said he was still familiarizing himself with the lawsuit.
“I don’t know anything about this,” Hafner said, adding that he had limited internet access.
If the judge finds that Alaska law does allow the next candidate in line to move to the general election, seventh-place Republican candidate Gerald Heikes would advance to the November ballot. Heikes was the target of ads paid for by a Democratic group seeking to highlight his anti-abortion stances.
Eric Stone covers state government, tracking the Alaska Legislature, state policy and its impact on all Alaskans. Reach him at estone@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @eriwinsto. Read more about Eric here.
