Alaska Governor Orders Probe of Senate Race After Spoiler Report
Gov. Mike Dunleavy directed the Department of Public Safety to investigate the campaign tactics surrounding a second candidate named Dan Sullivan, days before the November ballot.
By James Foster ·
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy ordered the state Department of Public Safety to investigate the U.S. Senate race on Wednesday night. The directive follows a New York Times report detailing efforts by Democratic operatives to recruit a non-incumbent candidate named Dan Sullivan. This second Sullivan is on the general election ballot alongside the Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan. The governor’s order asks officials to determine if the scheme violated state law and whether criminal or civil actions are warranted.
The probe comes just days before Election Day. Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, is challenging the GOP incumbent in a race that could decide which party controls the Senate. The Times article, based on interviews and communications among Peltola’s attorneys and senior Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee aides, alleged that her team sought to place the second Sullivan on the ballot to confuse voters and siphon support from the incumbent. Both the Peltola campaign and the DSCC reiterated their long-standing denials of involvement after the story published.
During a campaign stop on Wednesday, Peltola called the report a distraction. The non-incumbent Sullivan did not respond to media requests for comment. He previously stated that running for Senate was his own decision. Republicans quickly used the news to attack the challenger. Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan, said in a statement that Peltola and her team spent months gaslighting Alaskans while running the scheme. President Trump posted online that the findings represented voter fraud at the highest level.
The Justice Department had already sought to intervene in the race. Last week, the department asked a court to delay certification if the incumbent lost by a small margin, citing potential voter confusion. Experts broadly derided that legal effort as weak because the Constitution grants states control over elections. However, DOJ officials said Thursday that the Times story expands their investigation options. They filed an amended complaint citing the new reporting.
State officials had previously probed the two candidacies. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in June that the non-incumbent Sullivan could appear on the general election ballot. Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, noted that such tricks are standard fare in campaigns. She told NPR that the internet makes it easy to spread both tricks and corrections. Some voters compared the reporting to Republican spending supporting a Democratic federal prisoner on Alaska’s U.S. House ballot.
The second Sullivan advanced to the general election after Alaska’s nonpartisan primary, which sends the top four vote-getters to the fall ballot. Residents reacted with mixed feelings to the reporting. Some were frustrated by the distraction from other issues, while others doubted voters would be confused. The ballot identifies the Republican incumbent. Because Alaska uses a ranked-choice voting system, voters could rank both Sullivans and leave Peltola unranked if they are confused. Voters will also decide whether to keep the state’s unique election system on the same ballot.
