Alaska governor orders investigation into Senate race after report on alleged spoiler

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has directed the state's Department of Public Safety to investigate whether an alleged scheme in Alaska's U.S. Senate race broke state law, following a New York Times report that Democratic campaign operatives worked to recruit a candidate who shares the incumbent's name.

The report, which NPR has not independently confirmed, says operatives tried to put a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot alongside Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. Republicans have long argued that candidate is a spoiler whose presence could confuse voters and draw support from the incumbent in a race that may decide which party controls the Senate.

Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, is trying to flip the seat. The Times said its account is based on interviews and communications involving Peltola's attorneys and advisers, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. After publication, both Peltola's campaign and the DSCC repeated denials of any involvement in the non-incumbent Sullivan's candidacy, a position Democrats have held for months.

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

"Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along," Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan, said in a statement. President Trump described it online as "Voter Fraud at the Highest Level."

Justice Department already involved

The Justice Department had asked a court last week to delay certification of the race if the incumbent Sullivan loses narrowly, citing possible voter confusion caused by the second Sullivan on the ballot. Election law experts broadly criticized that case as weak, partly because the Constitution gives states authority over elections. On Thursday, Justice officials said the Times' reporting expanded their investigative options, and they filed an amended complaint citing it.

Alaska officials had already examined the two candidacies. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in June that the non-incumbent Sullivan could appear on the general election ballot, after he advanced from the state's nonpartisan primary, which sends the top four finishers to the fall ballot.

Dunleavy said the investigation will look at whether the scheme violated Alaska laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted. It is unclear which laws could have been broken. Trickery is common in politics, and laws to prevent it are hard to write, said Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who co-authored a book on dirty tricks in campaigns.

"There's just a lot of tricks," Kamarck told NPR. "There's old ones. There's new ones. In this day and age, the internet makes it really easy to get the word out, both on a trick or, frankly, on a correction to a trick. But it's pretty standard fare for campaigns."

Alaska Public Media found mixed reactions to the Times report, with some residents frustrated that it was drawing attention from other issues and others doubtful that voters would be confused. The ballot identifies which Sullivan is the Republican incumbent. Under Alaska's ranked-choice voting system, a confused voter could rank both Sullivans and leave Peltola off entirely. Whether to keep that election system is also on the general election ballot.

Some voters compared the reporting on the Sullivan case to Republican groups' spending in support of a Democratic candidate who is a federal prisoner in New York but appears on Alaska's U.S. House ballot.

Source: NPR News.