Alaska governor orders investigation into Peltola Senate campaign

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) on Wednesday evening ordered an investigation into whether Mary Peltola’s (D) Senate campaign violated the state law when it reportedly recruited candidates in an effort to detract support from her opponent.

The GOP governor cited The New York Times’s reporting earlier that day that found the Democrat’s campaign was involved in a secret effort to bring on a spoiler candidate with the same name as Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) to run in the race.

The efforts were successful, and a retired teacher named Dan J. Sullivan ultimately entered the race. Both Sullivans will appear as options for voters next week under the state’s unusual four-person ballot.

Both Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee denied any involvement in the reported scheme.

Dunleavy wrote in a social media post that the Times’s report revealed new details about an effort to “deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes.”

“Alaskans have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support,” he wrote. “Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections.”

The governor added he was directing the Alaska Department of Public Safety to investigate whether the scheme violated state laws and whether criminal charges or civil action was warranted.

President Trump called for both Peltola and the spoiler candidate to be removed from the ballot and prosecuted on Wednesday.

“The Democrats cheated! They found a man named Dan Sullivan, put him on the Ballot, then lied to the Court, and said they didn’t know anything about it,” he wrote on Truth Social. “That’s perjury. She shouldn’t be allowed to run, and neither should the FAKE Dan Sullivan!”

Last week, the president directed his Justice Department to file a lawsuit calling for the certification of Alaska’s Senate election to be blocked if the incumbent Sullivan lost the race. The suit alleges that Dan J. Sullivan entered the race as a Republican “with the intention of misleading” voters.