Alaska Governor Orders Probe of Peltola Campaign
Was this deliberate voter deception or just an age-old political tactic?
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Above: Mary Peltola. Image credit: Nathaniel Wilder/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The Facts
- Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered the state Department of Public Safety late Wednesday to investigate whether Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign broke state law by helping recruit a candidate with the same name as the Republican incumbent.
- Dunleavy cited a New York Times report and said that the Alaska Division of Elections examined similar concerns in June, adding that the new reporting "substantially supports the Division's findings." He did not specify which laws may have been broken.
- The New York Times reported Wednesday that a Peltola campaign staffer was instructed to search for every Dan Sullivan in the state, an effort that located Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher listed on the ballot without party affiliation.
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The Spin
Republican narrative
This is voter deception of the worst kind. Democrats have lived up to the worst of their reputation as cheaters. Alaskans deserve a ballot that doesn't deceive them and the secret cash behind the decoy raises serious campaign finance questions that could disqualify Peltola, whose denials continue to make things worse.
Democratic narrative
Spoiler candidates have been a bipartisan campaign tactic for decades and nobody called it a crime until a Republican seat was on the line. Courts already let the ballot stand, so opening a criminal probe days before voting ends reeks of election interference by Republicans. Alaskan voters should settle this race.
