Alaska Governor Orders Probe Into Senate Race Dispute

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy directed the state Department of Public Safety on Wednesday night to investigate whether the disputed U.S. Senate race involved a scheme that violated state law. The order comes after a New York Times report alleged that Democratic campaign operatives recruited a non-incumbent candidate with the same name as the Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan.

The dispute centers on a toss-up race that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate next year. Mary Peltola, a Democrat and former congresswoman, is challenging the Republican incumbent Sullivan. The presence of a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot has raised concerns that voters might be confused or that support might be siphoned away from the incumbent.

The second Sullivan advanced to the general election after Alaska’s nonpartisan primary, which sends the top four vote-getters to the fall ballot. State officials had previously probed the candidacy, but the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in June that the non-incumbent could appear on the general election ballot. The New York Times based its story on interviews and communications among Peltola’s attorneys, advisers, and senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Democrats have long denied involvement in the non-incumbent Sullivan’s candidacy. Both the Peltola campaign and the DSCC reiterated those denials after the story published. While campaigning on Wednesday, Peltola called the reporting a distraction. The non-incumbent Sullivan did not respond to requests for comment, though he has previously stated that running for Senate was his own decision.

Republicans quickly cited the reporting. Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan, said in a statement that Peltola and her campaign spent months denying a scheme they were running all along. President Trump called the situation "Voter Fraud at the Highest Level" in an online post.

The Justice Department had already sought to intervene in the race, asking a court last week to delay certification if the incumbent Sullivan loses by a small margin. That legal effort cited potential voter confusion stemming from the second Sullivan on the ballot. Election law experts had broadly criticized the department’s case as weak, noting that the Constitution grants states control over elections. Officials said Thursday that the new reporting expands their options and filed an amended complaint citing the story.

It is unclear what specific laws could have been violated. Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who co-authored a book on campaign tactics, told NPR that such tricks are pretty standard fare for campaigns. She noted that the internet makes it easy to spread both the trick and corrections to the trick. Some Alaska residents compared the situation to Republican groups supporting a Democrat who is a federal prisoner in New York but appears on the state’s U.S. House ballot.

The general election ballot notes which Sullivan is the Republican incumbent. Because Alaska uses a ranked-choice voting system for the general election, experts suggest that if voters are confused, they could rank both Sullivans and not rank Peltola. A separate question on the ballot asks voters whether they want to keep the state’s unique election system.