Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, is calling for an investigation into how two Dan Sullivans are appearing on the Alaska ballot competing for a US Senate seat.
The announcement comes after the New York Times reported that Democrats and the Mary Peltola campaign allegedly recruited a teacher named Dan J. Sullivan to run against the incumbent Dan S. Sullivan.
Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager, told the newspaper that Peltola was aware of the effort but not directly involved.
Dunleavy — a Republican rumored to be considering his own Senate run in two years — wrote on social media Thursday that he is ordering the department “to investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted.”
Cheater-in-Chief is calling for Peltola to be criminally charged, and removed from Alaska’s U.S. Senate race.
Democrats and the Peltola campaign deny the allegations, with Peltola calling the report a distraction, and other Democrats are pointing out the hypocrisy of Republicans who employ icky tricks on a regular basis.
Alaska voters’ reactions are mixed, but many seem locked in on their candidate of choice.
From Alaska Public Media:
- Keven Kleweno, a registered Republican planning to vote for Peltola, said he was unsurprised by the news, given Republicans’ prior claims of Democratic involvement in Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign. “I just feel it’s another way to, you know, slander Peltola and try to make sure Dan worthless Sullivan is reelected,” he said.
- Adam Lees of Anchorage is registered nonpartisan and supports Peltola. He said his opinions of the Senate race were already “mostly baked in.” Still, he said, the reported effort to stack the ballot is “not the best look.” “It does give — I think as some of the kids would describe it — icky vibes,” he said. “But at the same time, I think voters are intelligent and can figure out how to rank and can figure out which Dan Sullivan is their person.”
- Amber McClelland, a registered Democrat and former Libertarian living in Anchorage, said she agreed. Politics wasn’t always this “dirty,” she said — recruiting a candidate just to draw votes away from an opponent “should not be a thing.” “It’s kind of messed up,” she said. “But in the past, Republicans have done everything that they can do to win, including cheat.”
- D.J. McBride, an independent voter living in Willow planning to vote for Peltola, was taken aback by the suggestion that Alaskans couldn’t distinguish the senator from the retired teacher. “Both sides play pretty dirty pool, and if you’re stupid enough that you can’t tell the difference between an incumbent and a non-incumbent, I don’t have any patience for you,” she said. “Alaskans are smarter than that.”
- Fairbanks doctoral student Eric Evans said he was frustrated the controversy was drawing attention away from more important issues, such as the war with Iran. He said he had yet to make a final decision on who to vote for in the race.
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