Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy announced Thursday that he has ordered an investigation into whether members of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign engaged in illegal activity by recruiting a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan. The move follows a report detailing a scheme to intentionally confuse voters and siphon support away from the incumbent.
"Alaskans have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support," Dunleavy stated. "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."
The governor directed the Department of Public Safety to investigate potential violations of Alaska's election laws, determining whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted. The scheme, revealed in a New York Times report, involved operatives from Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) recruiting Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, to run.
According to the report, veteran operative Jerid Kurtz made initial contact with Dan J. Sullivan, who allegedly expressed a desire to run a spoiler campaign to aid Peltola, stating he "hated Trump." Dan J. Sullivan has maintained he entered the race independently and describes himself as a moderate Republican. However, reports indicate he participated in anti-Trump protests and supported Peltola in previous elections.
This is not the first time the presence of a candidate named Dan Sullivan has caused controversy. In June, Alaska's Division of Elections removed Dan J. Sullivan from the primary ballot, citing evidence that his name and party affiliation were chosen to mislead voters. However, the Alaska Supreme Court later reinstated him, ruling that state law did not require candidates to run in good faith and instructing election officials to implement measures to differentiate between the two candidates.
The tactic of recruiting a candidate with a similar name to an opponent, often referred to as "ballot-stacking," is legal in Alaska, though ethically contentious. The current investigation will focus on whether any laws were broken in the recruitment and campaigning process for Dan J. Sullivan.
