The New York Times on Wednesday published a story substantiating what Republicans and the campaign of Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan have alleged for months: The other candidate on the ballot named Dan Sullivan was recruited by operatives aligned with Democratic challenger Mary Peltola.
“Alaskan voters need to know,” Elisa Rios, a fired Peltola campaign manager, told the Times. “There was a lot of speculation, and voters should get the full picture when making their decisions.”
The Times reported on secret efforts by the Peltola campaign, its lawyers and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, an arm of the national Democratic Party, to recruit Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg and other challengers, with the aim of drawing votes away from the Republican incumbent. It’s a tactic political operatives call “a ballot composition” project. The point was to dilute Republican support and advantage Peltola, according to the Times story.
Alaska Public Media has not independently confirmed the Times’ reporting.
According to most polls, Peltola has a slim lead, but new revelations emerging less than a week before Election Day could be enough to tip the political scales.
The Peltola campaign responded to the story by email.
“The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign,” it said. “Like Mary, our campaign is focused on lowering costs and fixing the rigged system in DC.”
(The press release did not say whether Peltola herself was involved in the recruitment. “Alaskans for Mary” did not file a statement of organization until January of this year, after many of the incidents in the Times story occurred.)
The Petersburg candidate didn’t respond to inquiries by Petersburg public radio station KFSK, an affiliate of Alaska Public Media.
Murkowski demands ‘honest truth’ from Peltola
The Peltola campaign and the DSCC have previously denied involvement in recruiting Dan. J. Sullivan to enter the Senate race. The Times reports that both issued denials again before the story published but neither addressed a list of detailed questions from the paper.
The Petersburg Sullivan has also said his campaign had no connection to Peltola’s.
President Trump, among other Republicans, has contended for months that the same-name challenger had coordinated with Democrats. That claim culminated in a lawsuit the Department of Justice filed Thursday seeking to block certification of the election if the incumbent Sullivan were to lose by a margin less than the number of votes the Petersburg Sullivan gets.
The state Division of Elections, the Peltola campaign and the League of Women Voters, among others, say there’s no law that would allow that kind of federal intervention. A judge is expected to rule on motions to dismiss the case as soon as Friday afternoon.
Following the Times story on Wednesday, President Trump weighed in with a post on his social media network.
“Mary Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done, A FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, and Dan Sullivan should be allowed to run without either Mary Peltola or FAKE Dan Sullivan on the Ballot,” the president wrote.
Libby Bakalar, an attorney who used to work for the state and represented the Division of Elections, said what the Times uncovered doesn’t matter much from a legal perspective.
“Not a single illegal thing happened here,” she said by text. “Anyone has the right to strategically recruit candidates in a system where there is open ballot access. Alaska's courts don't interrogate the ulterior motives behind running for office, because the Division of Elections is not a detective agency tasked with investigating the political machinations of every candidate and voter. “
Super PACs spent more than $2 million this summer to try to elevate political unknowns to Alaska’s general election ballot, not to help them win the office, but to disadvantage one of the major candidates.
Nick Poche, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said the second Sullivan strategy was different because, he said, it had the potential to confuse voters. And he said that if a super PAC worked in tandem with the Peltola campaign on the Sullivan recruitment, that would be a federal campaign finance violation.
Poche said the behavior described in the news story is “shameful.”
“At the end of the day, her campaign lied about her involvement,” he said. “They've been lying for months, and now here we are with evidence that, you know, hey, they did it.”
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski also weighed in, saying recruiting candidates to stack the ballot is wrong.
“Alaskans deserve the honest truth from Mary and her campaign—what has been revealed is a pattern of lies and coverups and a culture of deception that belongs nowhere in our elections or among our elected officials,” she wrote.
Alaska’s election system makes it relatively easy for spoilers to access the ballot, by finishing in the top four in the primary. No signatures or party endorsement is required. But the ranked choice ballot also provides a means to eliminate the spoiler effect. If a voter, for instance, ranked both Sullivans, the vote would count for the candidate with the most votes. In every race, though, some number of voters choose not to rank their ballots.
Petersburg voters defend Dan J. Sullivan
Alaskans are already voting early at a record-breaking pace. As of Wednesday, more than 60,000 Alaskans had cast their ballots, according to state elections officials, already more than the total number of early votes in 2022. Roughly 267,000 Alaskans voted in the most recent midterm, and more than 340,000 cast ballots in 2024.
In Petersburg, residents who have known Dan J. Sullivan for decades had a hard time reconciling the picture the New York Times painted. Erica Kludt-Painter said she doesn’t believe he worked behind the scenes with the Democrats to stack the ballot.
“I just don't see him being involved in a national conspiracy,” she said. “I'm sorry, I just don't. I know him to be a man of integrity who cares about his community and the people in it.”
Petersburg Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton-Gregor said the people of Petersburg know Dan J. Sullivan is a man of “high character,” and he doesn’t see the revelation changing anyone’s opinions of him.
Stanton-Gregor said he was disappointed in the New York Times article.
“I just wish at this stage of the game, the New York Times was talking about substantive issues that really impact people in Petersburg's lives and Alaskans' lives, whether it be gas prices, foreign wars, etc,” he said. “Things that have real-world consequences, as opposed to a distant three or four-place candidate.”
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 the Petersburg Sullivan’s campaign.
“That's nothing that we haven't heard before,” he said
But at the same time, he suggested that Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager who spoke to the Times about the campaign’s involvement, was a disgruntled ex-employee who “didn’t like being laid off.”
“I just feel it's another way to, you know, slander Peltola and try to make sure Dan worthless Sullivan is reelected,” he said in a phone interview.
Alaska Public Media's Hannah Flor contributed to this story.
Check back for updates.
