PETERSBURG, Alaska (AP) — In the sleepy Alaskan fishing community of Petersburg, no one has seen Dan J. Sullivan in weeks.
Her rustic home remained dark a day after FBI agents visited friends who donated to his quixotic campaign to unseat the Republican senator with the same first and last name – Dan S. Sullivan. The only political demonstration at his home was a sign from the League of Women Voters: “Defend Democracy: Vote 2026.”
What might have started as a scheme to damage Sen. Sullivan’s re-election prospects has taken a serious turn as President Donald Trump’s administration weighs criminal charges related to a campaign tactic known as ballot stacking.
“It seems like a waste of our taxpayer money,” said Sharon Hunter, a St. Petersburg resident who, with her husband, donated $1,000 to Dan J. Sullivan, a former elementary school teacher. FBI agents knocked on his door Saturday during a series of interviews with the dozen campaign contributors.
“I’m a little incredulous about their approach,” Hunter said, “because they’re targeting a person who has actually contributed to this community.”
Recruiting candidates to siphon votes away from an opponent has been a part of bizarre Alaska politics for years. This time around, the state’s open primary and ranked-choice voting systems add another difficulty, making it easier for lesser-known candidates to spoil the party when no candidate commands a majority.
That tactic has come under new scrutiny as incumbent Sullivan battles a serious challenge from Democrat Mary Peltola, a former U.S. Rep., in 2017. a race that could determine control of the Senate.
2 Sullivans vie for 1 Senate seat
Peltola has denied any role in the alleged chicanery, seeking to distance himself from a New York Times article published last week that linked a group supporting the former congresswoman to a Democratic operative trying to recruit decoy candidates.
“This is Alaska. We’re not in the business of cheating on each other here,” Peltola told supporters at a rally in Anchorage last week.
Dan J. Sullivan’s entry into the race scrutiny since June, when the Alaska Division of Elections attempted to exclude him from the primary ballot, ruling that he had not filed as a Republican in “good faith.” That decision was overturned by state courts. To avoid confusion, state officials are identifying Dan S. Sullivan on the ballot as a Republican and an incumbent.
Dan J. Sullivan has repeatedly stated that he entered the race on his own and has had no contact with Peltola’s campaign: “zero, none, nothing.” he told the Associated Press in June. He said “no” when asked if Democratic operatives had contacted him about running.
“It’s my choice,” he said at the time.
A federal lawsuit filed by the Republican Trump administration to revive efforts to undermine the former teacher’s candidacy — and challenge a potential Peltola victory by blocking certification of the election results — was fired Sunday by a federal judge. The Justice Department quickly appealed.
Efforts by the AP to reach Dan J. Sullivan since the Times article appeared have been unsuccessful. Several of the donors interviewed by the AP said they had not spoken to him in some time.
The senator, meanwhile, seeks to extend the controversy into a third term.
“My costume is the real Dan Sullivan, not the fake one,” he joked Saturday night.
The FBI arrives in Little Norway
The controversy pushed Petersburg, a fishing community of 3,000 inhabitants, known as Little Norway because of its late 19th century settlers, at the center of a federal investigation and a media tidal wave.
It’s the kind of small town where everyone seems to know everyone else’s business, and more than a dozen residents have said they like and admire Dan J. Sullivan, calling him a creative teacher who ran an after-school program, Little Kids Rock, to teach guitar.
At a lively Halloween party at Kito’s Kave, a local restaurant, a customer mocked the renewed interest by dressing up as an FBI agent. Another wore a “St. Petersburg Election Scandal” prison sign around her neck. The charge: “Being a registered voter in Alaska.” »
Retired fisherman Ed Wood said he wrote a $1,000 check to Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign to repay the support Sullivan and his wife gave to a costly decade-long battle to stop the state from logging a forested hillside overlooking Petersburg.
Another donor, Charles Flint, a retired boat salesman, described Dan J. Sullivan as a “liberal thinker” who sometimes voted for Republicans. Flint said Dan J. Sullivan never told him why he entered the race.
“He probably saw himself more as a spoiler than a legitimate opponent,” said Flint, who sports a “Mary for US Senate” sign supporting the Democrat outside his coastal home. “I’m sure he’s probably thinking now, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.'”
Friends said they were sure Dan J. Sullivan never expected to attract so much attention, much less from federal law enforcement.
FBI agents have descended on the city in recent days as federal authorities expanded a months-long criminal investigation into allegations that Democratic activists sought to recruit candidates to run against the incumbent senator. Most of Dan J. Sullivan’s donors live in Petersburg and together contributed $7,150. Those interviewed said agents asked them if they felt cheated by the lesser-known Sullivan.
Anna Holmes and her husband contributed $500 to Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign and were surprised when FBI agents showed up Friday night to question them. Agents told the couple they were investigating “campaign finance” violations, Holmes said.
They also asked the couple if they planned to contribute to Senator Sullivan’s campaign.
“I told the officer I wouldn’t have done that,” Holmes said.
A resident calls it “sordid”
Not everyone in Petersburg defended Dan J. Sullivan.
Amanda Ohmer said she was shocked when her son’s former teacher entered the Senate race in May as a Republican, three days after Peltola visited St. Petersburg for a campaign stop. Ohmer said she thought he was a well-known liberal and had attended an anti-Trump protest in town.
“You don’t see a Republican at an anti-Kings protest,” said Ohmer, a bartender at the local Moose Lodge.
She said she supports the federal investigation and is upset at her friends who have rallied around Dan J. Sullivan.
“It’s fishy,” Ohmer said. “Just because Republicans are doing it too doesn’t mean things are good.”
Dirty electoral tricks such as promote decoy candidates are not uncommon in Alaska, a state with a history of close races. About 60% of the 600,000 registered voters identify as independent, one of the highest percentages in the country.
As recently as 2024, the Alaska Republican Party fought to keep on the ballot an imprisoned felon with no ties to the state, who was running as a Democrat for the U.S. House of Representatives seat then held by Peltola.
Peltola lost this race.
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Mustian reported from New Orleans. Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Nicholas Riccardi in Washington contributed to this report.
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