Alaska Governor Orders Probe After Report on Alleged Spoiler Candidate in Senate Race

Alaska's governor has ordered an investigation following a New York Times report on the state's toss-up U.S. Senate race, a contest that could help decide which party controls the chamber next year.

The Times story described efforts by Democratic campaign operatives to recruit what Republicans have long called a spoiler candidate. The concern is that his presence on the ballot could confuse voters and draw support away from the Republican incumbent, because the two men share the name Dan Sullivan. Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, is hoping to flip the seat for her party.

NPR has not independently confirmed the Times' reporting. The story relies on interviews and communications among Peltola's attorneys and advisers, along with senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Democrats have long denied any involvement in the non-incumbent Sullivan's candidacy, and both the Peltola campaign and the DSCC repeated those denials after the story appeared.

Peltola called the report a distraction while campaigning Wednesday, according to Alaska Public Media. The non-incumbent Sullivan did not respond to that outlet's requests for comment. He has previously said running for Senate was his own decision.

Republicans quickly seized on the news. Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan, said Peltola and her campaign had spent months "gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along." President Trump, who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss, described the findings in an online post as "Voter Fraud at the Highest Level."

The Justice Department had already moved to get involved, asking a court last week to delay certification if the incumbent loses by a small margin, citing possible voter confusion over the second Sullivan. Election law experts broadly criticized that case as weak, partly because the Constitution gives states control over elections. Justice Department officials said Thursday that the Times report expands their options for investigating the race, and they filed an amended complaint citing it.

Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Wednesday night he is directing the state Department of Public Safety to "investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska's laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted." It is unclear which laws might have been broken. State officials had already examined the Sullivan candidacies, and the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in June that the non-incumbent Sullivan could appear on the general election ballot.

Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has co-authored a book on campaign dirty tricks, said such tactics are hard to legislate against. "There's just a lot of tricks," she told NPR, adding that the internet makes it easy to spread both a trick and a correction. "But it's pretty standard fare for campaigns." Major-party advisers sometimes boost third-party candidates to undercut their rivals. Some voters who spoke with Alaska Public Media compared the report to Republican groups' spending for a Democrat who is a federal prisoner in New York but appears on Alaska's U.S. House ballot.

Reactions among Alaskans were mixed, according to Alaska Public Media. Some residents were frustrated that the story is crowding out other issues, while others doubted that voters would be confused, since the ballot identifies which Sullivan is the Republican incumbent. Some experts note the publicity itself could reduce confusion. Under the state's ranked-choice voting system, though, confused voters could rank both Sullivans and leave Peltola unranked. Whether to keep that election system is also a question on this year's general election ballot.