NY Times exposes Alaska Democrat's alleged hunt for another Dan Sullivan to run against Republican

Democrat Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign has been credibly accused of engaging in a scheme to unseat Alaska Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R).

Citing interviews with 12 people who were involved or told about the alleged scheme along with text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the Peltola campaign, the New York Times reported that top Peltola campaign aides told staffers last year: "Find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can."

'Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along.'

The apparent aim of this scheme was to stir up confusion when it came time for Alaskans to vote and possibly siphon votes away from the incumbent Republican in the general election.

One staffer allegedly scoured voter records to find potential candidates with the namesake — and these alleged efforts paid off.

Daniel J. Sullivan of Petersburg, a retired teacher who was born in the Midwest, reportedly registered as a Republican earlier this year and entered the race to oust Sen. Dan S. Sullivan on May 29, just before the deadline for filing.

Sen. Dan S. Sullivan suspected something was amiss about his new challenger's campaign from the outset, telling CNN in May that J. Sullivan's candidacy was effectively a Democrat effort to "cheat."

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Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The senator said, "Democrats recruited a guy by the name of Dan Sullivan. He is a liberal progressive, right? We've seen it — his donations to all the far-left groups. He's donated to Peltola, OK? And his whole purpose of running is to confuse Alaskans."

In its June complaint regarding J. Sullivan's candidacy to the Federal Election Commission, National Republican Senatorial Committee general counsel Blake Murphy noted that:

• J. Sullivan's campaign logo and website "closely mimics" that of Sen. S. Sullivan's campaign branding;
• J. Sullivan has donated to Peltola;
• the press release promoting J. Sullivan's candidacy for Senate was authored by Amber Lee, a Democratic consultant and Peltola supporter; and
• FEC records show that Amber Lee Strategies has received thousands of dollars for "PAC Strategy Consulting" from a federal PAC that has supported Peltola.

KTOO-TV reported that J. Sullivan has shed his Republican affiliation and is going into the general election as an undeclared candidate.

According to the Times, the ballot-stacking scheme was intentional and involved:

The endeavor, which was internally called the ballot composition project, involved secret trips to far-flung Alaskan communities and the appearance of a mysterious Midwestern operative, who traversed the state using a fake name and made his pitch to would-be candidates over beers at brew pubs.

In addition to senior aides and lowly staffers on the campaign, the Times alleged that the scheme involved lawyers from Peltola's Senate campaign and Democrat operatives, as well as aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

“Alaskans deserve to know the truth," Sen. Dan S. Sullivan said in a statement to Blaze News. "Mary Peltola, her campaign, and her senior advisers colluded with the DSCC, national Democrat lawyers, and Alaska Democrat operatives to recruit a candidate to deliberately deceive and confuse voters and then repeatedly lied about it. Not one player in this operation has acted in good faith with Alaska voters."

Sen. S. Sullivan added, "Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along. We always knew this was a concerted effort to deceive voters, and Mary Peltola was hoping it would stay hidden until after the election."

The Peltola campaign said in a statement to Blaze News, "The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign. Like Mary, our campaign is focused on lowering costs and fixing the rigged system in D.C."

Her campaign told the Times, "The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and did not recruit any candidates into the race." The DSCC similarly denied involvement in the alleged scheme.

Elisa Rios, Peltola's former campaign manager who was fired in August, told the Times that while the Democrat — who allegedly wished death by a "botched abortion" on a woman — was not directly involved in the alleged ballot-stacking scheme, she was "definitely aware."

"Alaskan voters need to know," said Rios. "There was a lot of speculation, and voters should get the full picture when making their decisions."

Rios later attempted to retract her previous statements to the Times, which the Times published anyway, never having agreed that the interviews were off the record.

The allegations have prompted outrage among some Republicans.

"Two terms in Congress. Zero bills signed into law. But she found time to hunt down every Dan Sullivan in Alaska," tweeted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). "Control of the Senate goes through Alaska. Let's elect the REAL Dan Sullivan."

Sen. Tom Cottom (R-Ark.) tweeted, "This is a direct scheme to undermine the integrity of the election."

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block the certification of the election results if Dan J. Sullivan's involvement has a material impact on S. Sullivan's performance.

The DOJ noted in its lawsuit that many polls indicate that the race between Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and Peltola "will be within one or two percentage points, and Daniel J. Sullivan received 2.5% of the vote in the primary election. Thus, there is a realistic chance that even if a majority of Alaskans wish to vote for Senator Sullivan, Daniel J. Sullivan's presence on the ballot will result in a victory for Peltola."

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