Alaska governor orders investigation into Peltola Senate campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into the Democratic candidate running for U.S. Senate in the state after revelations that his campaign appeared to be involved in the recruitment of another candidate. with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.

Dunleavy’s order, posted overnight on social media, comes a day after President Donald Trump’s. requested criminal prosecution of Mary Peltola and her campaign.

In a race that is one of a handful of Senate contests this year expected to determine control of the chamber, the Republican president previously ordered his Justice Department to sue to block certification of it, demanding that Alaska be prevented from certifying a Peltola victory if Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. remains on the state’s ballot.

Dunleavy wrote that the New York Times articles “reveal disturbing new evidence of 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 siphon their votes.”

“Deliberately inducing voters to vote for someone else undermines the integrity of our elections,” Dunleavy added, noting that the report “substantially supports” the state election commission’s previous findings on the issue.

Peltola rejects these allegations, calling them a ‘distraction’

Peltola’s campaign did not immediately respond to a message Thursday morning seeking comment on Dunleavy’s order. But during a campaign stop in Soldotna, Peltola, a former congresswoman, suggested that the Times report was a “distraction” on issues such as Sen. Sullivan’s support for the war in Iran.

“It’s just another diversion. It’s another diversion,” she said in a video posted online. “It’s all about selling newspapers. It’s all about getting subscriptions.”

On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance did not go as far as the president in calling for Peltola to be prosecuted, but said he supported an investigation into possible voter fraud.

“I mean, this is a person who, for months now, has been pretending that she had nothing to do with the fact that they put a fraudulent person on the ballot, a person explicitly designed to confuse Alaska voters,” Vance told reporters before a campaign trip to Texas. “She’s trying to steal a Senate seat from Alaska voters, and it’s shameful.”

State Supreme Court OKs Other Sullivan on Ballot

Earlier this year, a top state elections official ruled that Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher in the small fishing community of Saint Petersburg, ineligible for primary votingconcluding that his declaration of candidacy was filed “with the aim of sowing confusion or misleading and thus compromising the fairness or neutrality of the vote”.

The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was qualified run. He has long denied he showed up at the request of Democrats and said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign: “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his candidacy.

Alaska voters will see “Dan S. Sullivan” identified as “registered Republican” and “incumbent” on their ballots, while “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” will have no party affiliation.

The New York Times reported that interviews, text messages and documents prepared for a possible trial showed that Peltola’s team sought to convince candidates to enter the race, aiming to split support for the Republican senator.

Asked about the reports Wednesday, Trump told reporters, “I think they should be prosecuted.” He previously posted on social media that “Peltola should face the legal and political consequences of what she did.”

Parties have already supported other candidates

Although controversial, the situation in Alaska is not that unusual. Political parties often support additional candidates on the ballot to try to take votes away from their rivals. If state courts allow it, legal experts say, the federal government has no role in challenging the results. In the Ohio Senate race, Republicans were tied an effort to promote a socialist on the ballot which would strip votes from the Democratic candidate challenging Sen. Jon Husted.

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Meg Kinnard can be contacted at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP. AP writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.