BREAKING: Alaska Governor Orders Criminal Investigation into Peltola Campaign!
INVESTIGATION ORDERED
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced Wednesday night that he is ordering an investigation into whether Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign should face criminal charges or civil penalties over its involvement in recruiting a candidate who shares Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan’s name.
The announcement followed a New York Times report detailing efforts by senior Peltola campaign advisers and national Democrat operatives to recruit retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan to run against incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.
“Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections,” Dunleavy said. “Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable.”
TRUMP DEMANDS PROSECUTION
President Trump condemned the recruitment effort, demanded Peltola’s removal from the ballot and called for prosecution. He also demanded that the recruited Sullivan be removed.
“They said they didn’t do it, and they did do it, and they got caught,” Trump told reporters, describing the effort as “voter fraud at the highest level.”
Trump did not identify a specific criminal statute allegedly violated. The governor’s investigation has not established that a crime occurred.
PELTOLA DISMISSES CONTROVERSY
Peltola brushed off the revelations during a Wednesday rally, calling the controversy “just another distraction.”
A spokesman for the incumbent Sullivan accused her campaign of misleading voters, saying Peltola and her team “have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along.”
Both Sullivans are scheduled to appear on Tuesday’s ballot alongside Peltola and Gerald Heikes.
MURKOWSKI CONDEMNS BALLOT-STACKING
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who previously endorsed Peltola but supports Sen. Sullivan this year, sharply criticized the effort.
“While some may try to write this off as just how politics works now, ballot-stacking should have no place in our electoral process,” Murkowski said.
She demanded answers from Peltola and her campaign, describing the revelations as exposing “a pattern of lies and coverups and a culture of deception.”
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LEGAL QUESTIONS REMAIN
The Alaska Supreme Court previously ruled that neither state law nor the U.S. Constitution allowed it to exclude the recruited Sullivan based on his motives for running.
Attorney General Todd Blanche also stopped short of identifying an existing legal prohibition during a Fox News interview. Asked whether the Democrat effort was illegal, he responded: “It should be!”
Some Democrat strategists defended the tactic by pointing to similar efforts involving Republicans. Anchorage attorney Scott Kendall described it as a political “dirty trick” with a long history, while saying Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system could reduce its effectiveness.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAWSUIT MOVES FORWARD
Separately, the Justice Department has asked a federal court to block certification of the Alaska Senate election if the incumbent Sullivan loses, pending an investigation. The lawsuit did not identify specific illegal activity.
Chief Judge Sharon Gleason granted an expedited schedule and gave the department until Thursday afternoon to respond to a motion to dismiss.
Federal lawyers subsequently cited the Times report as evidence of what they described as a coordinated effort to recruit and support a candidate intended to deceive voters. Whether that conduct violated the law remains unresolved.
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