A flurry of legal filings and testimony Wednesday cast into doubt the status of Barrow Democratic Rep. Ben Nageak's lawsuit challenging his defeat in the August primary election.
When the trial continues Thursday, Nageak may be forced to address questions about whether he wants to drop his case.
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Guidi on Wednesday ordered Nageak to be available to appear in court Thursday morning if his status in the lawsuit "remains disputed."
Nageak, 66, told lawyers for the state he didn't want to continue pressing his case himself when he testified at the trial by phone Wednesday, Chief Assistant Attorney General Margaret Paton-Walsh said in a phone interview.
"I asked him directly if he wanted to be a party to the lawsuit," Paton-Walsh said. "And he said, 'No.' "
Later in the day when he wasn't under oath, however, Nageak seemed to reverse himself, denying he wanted to drop his case when a reporter reached him by phone.
"Must be shenanigans from the other side, if you ask me," he said.
Nageak, who caucuses with the House's Republican-led majority, initially filed his lawsuit Sept. 16, along with four voters from his District 40 in northern Alaska.
One of Nageak's attorneys, Tim McKeever, drafted a second, amended version of the complaint dated Friday that removed Nageak's name and replaced it with eight others, including Randy Ruedrich, the former chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.
A subsequent filing by McKeever said the amended complaint had "inadvertently omitted" Nageak's name, and that he remained a party in the case. But that contention was challenged by Tom Amodio, the attorney for Dean Westlake of Kotzebue, who beat Nageak by eight votes in the August primary that's now under challenge. Westlake is intervening in the case.
"The court should require that plaintiff Nageak appear (either in person or by phone) to confirm that he still wants to pursue this election contest," Amodio wrote in a filing. "Without him, the case is over, and there is no need to hold trial this week."
Nageak's attorneys didn't immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday.
Guidi's order calls for Nageak to appear in court at 9 a.m. Thursday.