Politics has always had its tricks. The misleading mailer, the dawn robocall, the rumor started at the diner counter. But it takes a particular kind of nerve to go looking for a man whose main qualification for the U.S. Senate is his name.
According to the New York Times, that’s what people around Mary Peltola’s campaign did. On Wednesday night, Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, ordered an investigation into whether criminal charges or civil penalties should be brought over alleged Democratic efforts to confuse voters by recruiting a Senate candidate with the same name as GOP incumbent Dan Sullivan.
The race isn’t a sideshow. It’s among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to decide control of the chamber.
As the Times tells it, the story starts in the summer of 2025.
A Peltola campaign staffer was reportedly told to search voter records for people named Dan Sullivan. The effort allegedly involved aides tied to the campaign, lawyers, and senior officials at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, along with operative Jerid Kurtz, who sources said traveled the state under a false identity while pitching potential candidates.
Not a better ad. Not a sharper argument about fisheries or grocery prices. A search party for a namesake.
They found one. Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. is a retired schoolteacher from Petersburg, a small fishing community in Southeast Alaska. Federal records show a Dan Sullivan from Petersburg donated to the Peltola campaign in previous elections — $100 in August 2022 and $30 in August 2024.
The most damaging words came from inside the tent. Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager and longtime aide, told the Times the candidate wasn’t directly involved in the recruitment but was “definitely aware.”
Peltola has a one-word answer. At a campaign stop in Soldotna, she called the report a “distraction.” A campaign spokesperson said it “has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign,” and the DSCC said it “is not involved with Dan J. Sullivan.”
Notice the tense. Has no involvement. Today. Nobody’s asking about today.
The second Sullivan has been just as firm. He has long denied running at Democrats’ behest and said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign: “Zero, none, zilch.”
The state saw this coming months ago. In June, election officials found him ineligible for the primary ballot, concluding his declaration of candidacy was filed “with a purpose to confuse or mislead.” The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was qualified to run. A candidate’s motives, the court found, aren’t grounds for disqualification.
So on Tuesday, voters will see “Dan S. Sullivan,” identified as a registered Republican and the incumbent, and “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.,” with no party affiliation. Two Dans, one ballot, and a ranked-choice system that asks voters to sort them out.
The senator isn’t letting it go. He told Fox News Wednesday night that Peltola should “come clean,” calling it a scandal of the highest order. His campaign was blunter: “Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along.”
And then there’s Lisa Murkowski — no one’s idea of a Republican attack dog, and a past Peltola supporter. She accused the Democratic campaign of a “pattern of lies.” When Murkowski says that about Mary Peltola, it lands.
President Trump weighed in, too. He called it “Voter Fraud at the Highest Level” and said Peltola “should be removed from the Ballot and prosecuted.” His Justice Department has already gone to court, suing last week to block Alaska from certifying the Senate result if Peltola wins — a move that drew pushback even from Murkowski and some election-law scholars.
The clock is the real story now. A Washington Post analysis of polls shows Peltola leading by an average of five points. The vote is Tuesday. An investigation won’t finish before then, and it may never produce charges.
But Alaskans are practical people. They know the difference between a man and his name. The question hanging over this last week is whether someone was counting on them not to.
