Fringe Candidate Running for Alaska House Seat While Sitting in Federal Prison

A candidate running on the fringes of the upcoming general election ballot for Alaska’s single seat in the House of Representatives has not only never set foot in the state known as the Last Frontier, but he’s currently sitting in federal prison for threatening public officials in New Jersey.Officials with the Alaska Democratic Party are planning to appeal a recent judge’s ruling to have Eric Hafner removed from the ballot, according to a report from NPR.He was able to get on the ticket despite receiving just 0.6 percent of the vote during a nonpartisan primary after two Republican candidates dropped out of the race. Party officials argue that state law says only the fifth-place finisher can replace one of the top four candidates on the ballot.Judge Ian Wheeles of the Alaska Superior Court recently ruled that Hafner could stay on the ballot, writing “ranked-choice voting neutralizes any claim of harm because in theory every voter can rank all candidates if they choose.”The state’s Democratic party also argues that Hafner would not be able to serve if elected because he has 15 years left on his sentence, which he received after being found guilty of threatening various New Jersey politicians, police, and court officials.Hafner allegedly called a police department at Monmouth County, New Jersey, after flying to Tokyo and said that one of their officers, someone who had arrested him when he was 16, should be shot. Over the next two years, he unleashed what the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Garden State called a “campaign of terror,” in which he called in threats to other officials involved in the charges he faced as a teenager. He was arrested in 2019 at an airport on the island of Saipan in the Pacific.“I’m innocent of all charges. I deny all allegations,” Hafner said during a recent phone interview from prison with Alaskan news radio station KRBD. “You’re throwing a 20-year sentence at me for an allegation that would be, on average, about a 24-month federal sentence. I think it’s pretty clear the whole thing is a political stitch-up.”The elections in Alaska are not the first time Hafner has thrown his hat into the political ring, previously running for congress twice while living outside of America, first in Hawaii during the 2016 elections and then again two years later in Oregon.During the short interview, the convicted felon said that if elected, which is expected not to happen due to a tight race between the Democratic incumbent Mary Peltola and Republican Nick Beglich, his victory would allow him an early release from prison to serve.“Ultimately, if I’m elected, I expect to be released immediately at that point,” Hafner said in the interview with KRBD. “A federal statute under compassionate release says you could be released for extraordinary compelling reasons.”“And, by golly, if I’m going to D.C. to represent the people of Alaska, I think that’s a very extraordinary and compelling reason.”

Fringe Candidate Running for Alaska House Seat While Sitting in Federal Prison

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