Alaska governor orders probe into Peltola campaign over look-alike Senate candidate
Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign after reports that it helped recruit a candidate sharing the name of incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan, as President Donald Trump called for prosecution.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, has ordered an investigation into the campaign of Democrat Mary Peltola, the former congresswoman running for U.S. Senate, after reports that her team helped recruit another candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan. Dunleavy announced the order on social media overnight, a day after President Donald Trump called for criminal prosecution of Peltola and her campaign.
The race is among a handful of Senate contests expected to determine which party controls the chamber. Earlier, Trump had directed his Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the Alaska results, demanding that the state be prevented from certifying a Peltola win if Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. remains on the ballot. Dunleavy said reporting by The New York Times "reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska's elections by recruiting candidates, including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator, to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes."
"Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections," Dunleavy said, adding that the reporting "substantially supports" earlier findings by the state's elections board. Peltola's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the order. Speaking at a campaign stop in Soldotna, Peltola called the Times report "just another distraction" and "another diversion," adding in a video posted online: "This is all stuff to sell newspapers. This is all stuff to get subscriptions."
Vice President JD Vance did not go as far as Trump in calling for prosecution, but said he supported a probe into possible election fraud. "She is trying to steal a Senate seat from the voters of Alaska, and it's disgraceful," Vance told reporters ahead of a campaign trip to Texas, accusing Peltola of pretending for months that she had nothing to do with placing the candidate on the ballot.
The other Sullivan has been at the center of a legal fight for months. Earlier this year, a top state elections official ruled Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher from the small fishing community of Petersburg, ineligible for the primary ballot, concluding his candidacy was filed "with a purpose to confuse or mislead." The Alaska Supreme Court later ruled he was qualified to run. He has denied running at Democrats' behest and said in June that he had no contact with Peltola's campaign: "Zero, none, zilch."
Alaska voters will see "Dan S. Sullivan" listed as a "registered Republican" and "incumbent," while "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr." will carry no party affiliation. The New York Times reported that interviews, text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit indicated Peltola's team sought to coax candidates into the race in order to split support for the Republican senator. Asked about the reporting on Wednesday, Trump told journalists, "I think they should be prosecuted," and earlier posted that Peltola "should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done."
The situation is not unprecedented. Political parties often back additional candidates to draw votes away from rivals, and legal experts say that if state courts allow such candidacies to stand, the federal government has no role in challenging the results. In Ohio's Senate race, Republicans have been tied to an effort to boost a socialist candidate on the ballot who could pull votes from Democrat challenger Sherrod Brown, who is running against Sen. Jon Husted.
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