Anchorage Daily News

The Alaska Republican Party is trying to get Democrat Chris Tuck disqualified from the race for a House seat in South Anchorage's District 29, claiming Tuck uses two names and that the one on the ballot isn't his legally valid one.

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The party filed its complaint with the state Division of Elections in September and has amended it twice. Republican spokesman McHugh Pierre distributed the paperwork to reporters during a press conference at party headquarters Wednesday morning.

Pierre said the party also contends Tuck hasn't lived in the district the necessary 12 months to qualify as a House candidate. He provided copies of public records showing Tuck, as Christopher Mestas or Mestas-Tuck, receiving a Permanent Fund dividend and as the owner of a car registered at a different address outside District 29.

In a telephone interview, Tuck, a member of the Anchorage School Board, said he inherited the Mestas last name from his biological father, who he said abandoned his mother before Tuck was born. He said Tuck, the name of his stepfather, is the one he uses on his Social Security card, the one he grew up with and used as a Dimond High School graduate, and is the name he uses in work and bank records.

In his candidate application with the elections division, Tuck lists a residence address on Barnett Street in District 29 and says he's been a district resident since 1999. But Pierre released other records for Tuck, under the name Mestas -- old fishing licenses, online PFD applications, a driver's license address recorded on a May, 2007 traffic ticket -- showing the second address on Olympic Drive outside District 29. Pierre insists that Mestas is Tuck's legal name.

Tuck said he sometimes uses his mother's address on some paperwork, but that District 29 Community Council presidents and his neighbors on Barnett can vouch that he lives there.

Pierre also handed out copies of court records showing Tuck filed in 2006 to have his name legally changed from Christopher Mestas to Christopher Tuck, but never completed the process.

Tuck acknowledged filing for the name change, but said IBEW union business took him out of town when the case was scheduled to be heard in court. He never followed through.

Elections division director Gail Fenumiai has until Oct. 27 -- about one week before the Nov. 4 election -- to rule on the Republicans' complaint. She said she and attorneys with the state Department of Law will review the complaint and Tuck's response between now and then.

Tuck said he plans to submit school transcripts and affidavits demonstrating he's who he says he is, and that the name on the ballot and on his voter registration paperwork is legal and appropriate.

Either way, Fenumiai said, Tuck's name will be on the ballots, which already are printed.

Reporter Don Hunter can be reached at dhunter@adn.com or 257-4349.

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