Alaska’s Republican governor announced early Thursday he was ordering an investigation into whether members of Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign should face criminal charges following the revelation that they recruited a candidate with the same name as GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan in a bid to siphon votes away from the incumbent.
After the plot was revealed in a Wednesday New York Times report, Gov. Mike Dunleavy described it as “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.”
“I am therefore directing the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted. The evidence will determine what happens next,” Dunleavy added. “Alaskans have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support. Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections. Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable.”
Republicans had repeatedly cried foul over the presence of Dan J. Sullivan on the Nov. 3 general election ballot alongside Peltola and Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. However, the practice known as “ballot-stacking” is legal — if ethically questionable — and it was not immediately clear what other offenses Democrats may have committed.
The Times report detailed a recruitment scheme joined by staffers of both Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), in which veteran operative Jerid Kurtz made initial contact with Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher and former US Forest Service employee.
As Kurtz reportedly told Peltola aides earlier this year, Dan J. Sullivan had said he “hated Trump” and was willing to pursue a spoiler campaign “if it was going to help Mary.”
Dan J. Sullivan has insisted that he entered the race of his own volition. He also describes himself as a moderate Republican but the Times reported earlier this year that he took part in anti-Trump “No Kings” protests, supported Peltola in both her congressional bids in 2022 and 2024, and even has a magnet depicting notorious far-left revolutionary Che Guevara on his refrigerator.
In June of this year, Alaska’s Division of Elections removed Dan J. Sullivan from the primary ballot, finding that a “preponderance of the evidence” showed his name and Republican party affiliation were chosen to potentially confuse voters.
Days later, the Alaska Supreme Court ordered “Decoy Dan” back on the ballot, finding state law did not require candidates to run in good faith, and told the state Divison of Elections to take less drastic steps to differentiate between the two Sullivans.
