Video Clips
Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.
Clips from Alaska House Judiciary CommitteeClear
0:26
Thomas Amodio
“I've not seen— I've not seen that before in my 30-plus, 35 years of practice before APOC, the Division of Elections. And let me just say real quickly, I admire the Division of Elections. I've seen them recounts. They are hardworking. They're terrific.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:11
Thomas Amodio
“They've got their playbook. They stick to it in terms of counting votes. And, you know, they follow the law. It's— they do a terrific, commendable job.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:53
Jennifer Gray
“Legislative Counsel Andrew Dunmire issued a memorandum concluding that the division likely lacked legal authority to remove Mr. Sullivan from the ballot because the United States Constitution sets forth the qualifications for serving in the U.S. Senate, and a requirement that a candidate be filed in good faith is not among them.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:37
Jennifer Gray
“If the Division lacked the authority to investigate one candidate's good faith in claiming residency, what gives it authority to investigate another candidate's motives for filing? If the Division could not independently determine a candidate's future intent to reside in Alaska in 2024, how can it independently determine a candidate's subjective intent to seek office in 2026?”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:36
Jennifer Gray
“Chair Carrick has agreed to excuse Lieutenant Governor Dahlstrom and Director Beecher from appearing today on the condition that they produce requested documents by July 20th and appear before this joint committee on July 22nd, 2026. The Lieutenant Governor has agreed to those conditions, and for that we are very grateful.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:31
Thomas Amodio
“the Division has always taken the position it is not their job, it is not their duty— in cases I have been involved in, let me, let me, you know, put that caveat in there.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:31
Thomas Amodio
“The declaration of candidacy is essentially sacrosanct. If you say, "I can be— meet those qualifications," and obviously you are the right, you know, got to be significant to be applicable age.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:26
Thomas Amodio
“My understanding with the federal is that if you meet the age requirement under federal law, you don't have to be a resident of Alaska for a day. You know what I mean? It's not— it's the way the federal law is worded. It's inhabitant, not resident.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:18
Thomas Amodio
“None that I'm aware of. There's nothing that says your motives have to be clean and, you know, above board. You could be running for the— because you want a paycheck. You could be running because you disagree on an issue with others.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:46
Thomas Amodio
“in my view, the Division's decision to exclude the second Dan Sullivan because his name is inconsistent with what the division has always done before and the positions it's taken in terms of, you know, it's up to the voters to decide, not, not the division.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:37
Thomas Amodio
“This decision by the division has surprised me somewhat, but, you know, I'm, like I say, I don't represent the division, so it's, I'm not involved with them. But, um, yeah, so in my experience, that's, uh, um, uh, they, they haven't inquired into, I've never seen an inquiry into that area before, what the motives of the candidate are for running.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:26
Thomas Amodio
“Even the division's own regulations do not address good motives versus bad motives or that type of thing. I think it would be a very difficult sliding, slippery slope to navigate.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:33
Thomas Amodio
“no, I don't, I don't believe, uh, that that would be, uh, that, that authority is, uh, in our, uh, in the state law.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:29
Linn McCabe
“Director Beecher is saying he just can't be on the ballot. She is not making a judgment on whether or not Daniel J. Sullivan from Petersburg qualified to be a senator. She's making a judgment on whether or not, in her opinion, based on the AC 25-212, is he qualified to be on the ballot. Thornton didn't eliminate the state's ability to do that, did it?”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:38
Hollis French
“If a prisoner with no ties to the state of Alaska in New York State can be put on the ballot for federal office in the state of Alaska, I think the Division of Elections is sort of foreclosed from then on from, from engaging in what they've engaged in this case. I'll rely on my experience as a prosecutor and tell you it is extremely difficult, if not almost impossible, to prove someone's motive.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:44
Thomas Amodio
“when I was involved with the Haffner case and I saw the case law generally out there for federal office, I was shocked that you could, I could run for a, a House of Representatives in Texas today by filing whatever Texas requires. And according to the case law and ultimately what was decided in that case, all I have to do is show up in Texas on the day of the election or the day before, and I'm an inhabitant of Texas.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:31
Jennifer Gray
“for the first time in recent memory, the division appears to have moved beyond evaluating objective qualifications and into the realm of evaluating intent. It did not merely ask whether a candidate met the constitutional requirements for office. It asked whether the candidate's motives were genuine.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:45
Jennifer Gray
“the Division maintained that it lacked the authority to independently question a candidate's stated intent regarding future residency and argued against removing him from the ballot. The Division wrote in its briefing to the court that, quote, In his declaration of candidacy, Mr. Haffner certified to the Division that he would meet the residency requirement. However unlikely that may be in his case, the Division must treat him the same way it would treat any other qualified candidate who affirms an intention to meet the residency requirement by Election Day.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:30
Jennifer Gray
“What authority does the Division of Elections have to remove a candidate from the ballot? And has that authority been exercised consistently? Those questions matter because public confidence in elections depends on more than accurate vote counting. It depends on the public's confidence that the rules are applied equally to everyone.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:58
Jennifer Gray
“The Division rejected the complaint and allowed Representative Eastman to remain on the ballot. In the ensuing litigation, the Division consistently maintained that Alaska law and regulation, quote, carve out a narrow role for the Division to evaluate candidates' eligibility to be on the ballot, primarily concerned with a candidate meet the requirements for citizenship, age, and residency.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:38
Thomas Amodio
“that was addressed in the Halfma case. Where he's never been to Alaska and all he has to do is show up one day before he's elected and he's a qualified candidate under federal law. That's my understanding. And even though he's imprisoned back, I thought it was New Jersey, but New York, makes no difference.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:42
Thomas Amodio
“all you have to do is be an inhabitant of Alaska when you are actually elected. So, you could literally come up here on Election Day That's my understanding. And that's the position that the Division of Elections took in the case that you were talking about. And the Supreme Court agreed in the sense that the Supreme Court said, yeah, this is not for the Division of Elections to investigate and decide. They absolutely can and must rely on the declaration of candidacy filed by a candidate, and that's it”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:50
Thomas Amodio
“I have not encountered that before. I don't know what the motive of Mr. Haffner, a convicted felon in New Jersey, is for running for office in Alaska, but I would certainly suggest it would not be of the utmost high-mindedness. Type of motive, and where would you draw the line as far as a good motive versus an inferior motive or an unacceptable motive? Anyway, that's— I don't believe our laws allow that investigation.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026
0:51
Ashley Carrick
“my biggest concern here is that if quote unquote good faith, as was stated in the memo from the Division of Elections, becomes an additional implicit standard for candidacy, Alaska will have added more than just an additional requirement. We will have functionally added a subjective standard for qualification to run for office determined by what is currently an apolitical body, which is an extremely strong contrast to the simple objective federal and state standards that are in place today.”Alaska Legislature: MISC-20260622-1300 · Jun 22, 2026