Tag: alaska

Lawsuit: Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola’s Campaign Wants Names of Rejected Absentee Voters

U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s (D-AK) campaign is taking legal action to find out the names of rejected absentee voters as the heated midterm race continues in Alaska.

Her campaign filed the suit on Friday against the Alaska Division of Elections in Anchorage Superior Court, the Alaska Beacon reported. The point of the legal action was to reveal the names of voters whose absentee ballots were tossed out by the division.

“Alaskans for Mary has asked for expedited consideration and is requesting both an injunction and temporary restraining order that could expose the names before the election is certified later this month,” the article read.

The campaign claimed it was working to have transparency, timeliness, and accuracy as officials were still counting votes.

The report continued:

According to the suit, the campaign filed a public records request seeking “a copy of the absentee register showing the accept or reject code for each absentee ballot… or any other documents sufficient to show the identities of voters whose absentee ballots… have been rejected as well as the reasons for each rejection.”

The request by Alaskans for Mary — the main organization boosting Peltola’s challenge to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan — comes just days after the group argued in federal court in a different case that “Alaskans’ bedrock rights (include) the right to cast secret ballots, the right to cast ballots that will not be retroactively invalidated, and the right to be treated equally to other voters.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has claimed that Peltola and other Democrats misled a federal court regarding a scheme to find a second Daniel Sullivan candidate to appear on the ballot against Peltola and Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan (R-AK), Breitbart News reported in October.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Sen. Sullivan should be given the vote totals for the other candidate named Dan J. Sullivan out of fairness.

“The vote totals for the Fake Dan Sullivan, plus the other ‘slug’ that the Dems put on the Ballot, should be immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan, and the Election is over — He easily wins. There is no other fair solution! President DJT,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.

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Outcome Of Alaska Senate Race May Not Be Known For Weeks

The outcome of a tightly contested and controversial U.S. Senate race in Alaska may not be known until the end of the month or later.

U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, a Republican, is making a bid for a third six-year term. As of 1400ET today, he trails former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat, by 637 votes with 74% of ballots counted. He has 102,325 votes to her 102,962.

The race has been the focus of controversy after The New York Times reported that Peltola’s campaign helped recruit a candidate with the same name as Sullivan in an apparent attempt to confuse voters. She has denied doing that.

Twenty-three percent of votes have yet to be tallied. Even when they are, the narrow margin separating the candidates means that the outcome may be decided not at the state’s polling sites but through the mail via absentee and questioned ballots.

In the previous midterm congressional election four years ago, Alaska officials said they received 9,143 in-person absentee ballots and 8,009 questioned ballots. Two years ago, in the presidential election, state officials reported receiving 18,158 in-person absentee ballots and 15,138 questioned ballots. Voters can ask for a mail-in ballot and still vote in person, so the number of outstanding votes in the state’s general elections in 2022 and 2024 is unclear.

Steve Kirch, public relations manager for the state’s division of elections, did not immediately return an interview request.

What is clear is the 49th state’s deadline for counting all votes.

By Nov. 13, absentee ballots from the 50 states plus its territories as well as Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa should have arrived and must be postmarked by Nov. 3. By Nov. 18, all ballots from overseas addresses must be received and postmarked by Election Day. By Nov. 19, the State Review Board begins its review of election materials, and by Nov. 25, state officials expect to certify the election results.

In addition, Alaska has ranked choice voting. Peltola or Sullivan will need to receive more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes after officials have counted them all. If neither does, the last-place candidate is eliminated. Then, state officials redistribute that candidate’s ballots according to voters’ second and subsequent choices. The process continues until a candidate receives a majority, or 50% plus one vote.

Despite the state’s deadlines, federal officials may complicate them.

The Justice Department has sent a target letter to prominent Democratic elections attorney Marc Elias asking about his possible involvement in petitioning a retired teacher by the name of Dan J. Sullivan to run for Alaska’s Senate seat, according to the Associated Press.

Audrey Cook, a spokesman for the Justice Department, told The Center Square that the agency “cannot discuss ongoing investigations.”

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Evidence Suggests Alaska’s ‘Decoy Dan’ Illegally Colluded With Democrat Dark-Money Group

Americans for Public Trust outlined in a Federal Election Commission complaint how “Decoy Dan,” a purported spoiler candidate with the same name as Alaska’s incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, may have violated federal election laws by coordinating with a dark money group. Recent reporting by The New York Times alleges that Democrat candidate Mary Pelota’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee actively recruited candidates to confuse voters and manipulate Alaska’s U.S. Senate race.

Together, this suggests a more complicated scheme to influence that race and possibly tip the balance of control of the U.S. Senate. Americans deserve answers about what happened in Alaska and whether federal election laws were in fact violated.

The New York Times reported last week that in the summer of 2025, Mary Peltola’s aides directed a staffer to search for every Dan Sullivan in Alaska. Jerid Kurtz, an operative introduced to the Peltola campaign by aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, called a Peltola aide in late May to say he had just arrived in Petersburg, the hometown of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. (“Decoy Dan”), shortly before he filed to run for Senate.

The Times describes Petersburg as “a tiny fishing village along the Alaska Panhandle, reachable only by air and sea.” Kurtz was not the only notable visitor that spring. Peltola held a campaign event on May 26, three days before Decoy Dan filed his candidacy. Decoy Dan denies any connection, telling KFSK, “I have not been in contact with her or her campaign.”

The Times also reported on texts in which Peltola advisers, watching a focus group, wrote, “Do we have a scheme for you.” The Peltola campaign and the DSCC deny recruiting anyone. Decoy Dan has maintained, including through his attorney in court, that his campaign is genuine.

Public discussion has largely coalesced around the view that ballot-stacking is not illegal. That view misses the bigger legal story. That story is found in Americans for Public Trust’s Sept. 8 complaint.

The complaint describes how Decoy Dan’s only known campaign consultant, who was only made known after metadata revealed her relationship with the campaign, also held a leadership role at a dark-money group that spent more than half a million dollars attacking Sen. Dan Sullivan in the three months leading up to the August primary. Holding both a role within the Decoy Dan campaign and an outside group that attacked the campaign’s primary opponent could have violated federal election rules on coordination.

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“I Can’t Believe That N—-r” – Democrat Alaska Senate Candidate Mary Peltola Accused of Lashing Out at Army Veteran, Calling Him the N-Word

Two former staffers are accusing Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola of repeatedly using the n-word, including once to attack an Army veteran who organized a fundraiser for her.

An unnamed staffer says that during an October 25, 2024 dinner to honor Black Army soldiers who helped construct the Alaska-Canada Highway during World War II, she used the slur while privately lashing out at the man promoting the event.

Ed Wesley, an Army veteran and former commander of the American Legion Post 34, had urged Peltola’s campaign to purchase multiple tables for the event, assuring her they would be filled. But when the event was poorly attended and the tables sat mostly empty, according to Alaska Landmine, Peltola lost it, calling Wesley a “scammer” and the n-word, according to the former staffer.

“I can’t believe that n—r,” she allegedly said.

According to another staffer, Peltola used the n-word multiple times during a 2024 campaign staff meeting.

Peltola’s campaign has denied the claims to the outlet and the New York Post. In a statement to the Post, they described it as “part of a smear campaign driven by an unstable, disgruntled former staffer.”

“Mary would never use this word, which is a vile slur with a painful, hateful history,” the spokesperson said.

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Alaska’s Decoy Scandal Brings Back The Usual Suspects For Shady Election Tactics

Marc Elias is back. The notorious Democratic lawyer who played a critical role in the 2016 Russia hoax is again in the news. His law firm has been identified by the New York Times as part of the expanding scandal involving Democratic effort to confuse voters in Alaska with a decoy candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan.

For those familiar with Elias’s checkered history, this is a case of rounding up the usual suspects.

The scandal involving Democratic candidate Mary Peltola has quickly snowballed this week. A New York Times blockbuster investigative report quotes former staff who claim she knew of a cynical effort by her own campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to confuse voters by recruiting and fielding a decoy “Dan Sullivan” candidate in the race against incumbent Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan (R-Alaska). State and federal investigations are now unfolding, with dozens of federal subpoenas raining down on Alaska.

The effort to get voters to cast mistaken ballots is grossly unethical and, even in these rage-filled times, a uniquely disgraceful scheme. Peltola and the Democratic Party had long denied any involvement in the other Sullivan’s candidacy. So when the Times produced evidence that she allegedly knew, and that Democratic staffers and lawyers had been deeply involved from the beginning, many of us were surprised – that is, until the name “Marc Elias” emerged. Then it made more sense.

The Elias Law Group was already in the news this election cycle for threatening reporters with defamation lawsuits if they kept asking questions about the health of former Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic nominee for Senate in North Carolina. Earlier, Elias caused a stir during an unsuccessful Democratic gerrymandering effort, raising the idea that Democratic leaders could abolish the entire Virginia government after courts blocked their attempted radical redistricting plan.

The fact that figures such as Peltola and Cooper wanted to be associated with any law firm headed by Elias is itself an indictment of their judgment and standards.

Despite his losses in cases such as National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, Elias is still a favorite of many on the left thanks to his aggression and partisan fervor. The controversies that make him notorious to many make him popular with others.

Elias was the general counsel to the Clinton presidential campaign when it secretly funded the infamous Steele Dossier and pushed the false Alfa Bank conspiracy theory. (His fellow Perkins Coie partner, Michael Sussmann, was later indicted but acquitted for making a false statement to the FBI.)

Clinton campaign officials lied to reporters during the 2016 campaign, denying any involvement in the Steele Dossier. Journalists discovered the truth after the election – that the Clinton campaign had hidden payments for the dossier as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to Perkins Coie. New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said that when he tried to report the story, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.'”

Times reporter Maggie Haberman later observed that “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.” The Federal Election Commission ultimately sanctioned the Clinton campaign for the subterfuge.

While raising money as the self-proclaimed defenders of democracy, Elias’s group has been involved in gerrymandering and efforts criticized as seeking to invalidate Republican votes, including unsuccessful efforts to challenge Democratic electoral losses.

In Maryland, Elias’s team supported another abusive gerrymandering scheme that a court found not only violated Maryland law but the state constitution’s equal protection, free speech and free elections clauses. The court found that the proposed map “subverts the will of those governed.”

One media site accused Elias and his group of “making millions off gerrymandering efforts” while publicly denouncing Republican gerrymandering.

In 2024, Elias’s legal team was also accused of pushing “to bar third-party presidential candidates – including Cornel West – from swing state ballots where they might siphon votes” from Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

Likewise, the New York Times reported that the Elias firm’s work “on behalf of a Soros-funded PAC in Texas … was opposed by a left-leaning election watchdog as undermining laws intended to limit the influence of major donors.”

His group’s work for New York’s redistricting effort was ridiculed as not only ignoring the express will of the voters and also effectively negating Republicans’ votes.

In 2024, the Chief Judge of the Western District of Wisconsin criticized the Elias Law Group for one of its challenges. Judge James Peterson (an Obama appointee) said that the argument “simply does not make any sense.”

Now, Elias’s group is linked to the decoy scandal in Alaska, which allegedly aimed to make voters cast mistaken ballots. What distinguishes lawyers involved in this type of voter disruption is less their talent as their willingness. There are simply some things that most lawyers will not do.

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For First Time In Years, Air Force Sends F-16s To Remote Aleutians, Near Russia

The Air Force sent several F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets to a remote part of the western Aleutian Islands this month, as part of a wider North American Aerospace Defense Command exercise. The deployment was notable as it was the first time in years that fighter jets were at Eareckson Air Station in an air defense alert role.

The use of the station on Shemya Island for this role comes as the U.S. looks to expand its abilities to rapidly move forces to remote or austere spots in the Arctic.

The F-16s were on Shemya, a tiny island sitting in the Bering Sea in the western part of the Aleutian Islands, as part of Operation Noble Defender, NORAD announced on Friday, Oct. 30. The operation, which started in mid-October and wrapped Oct. 26, saw American and Canadian fighter jets and refueling planes stage around Alaska and Alberta, Canada. It culminated on Oct. 25 with a large-scale air exercise called Operation Noble Eagle. It involved two F-16s, F-35 Lightning IIs assigned to Eielson Air Force Base, an E-3 Sentry from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Canadian fighter jets, and multiple refueling tankers.

As NORAD noted, Eareckson Air Station is roughly 1,600 miles away from Eielson. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert D. Davis, the commander for the Alaskan NORAD Region, noted the need to “bring combat power together across vast distances.”

“Operating from Eareckson Air Station proved we can deploy to an austere location, maintain alert, launch on short notice, and seamlessly integrate U.S. and Canadian forces to defend the northern approaches,” Davis said in the NORAD announcement.

Shemya is home to a large runway as well as an important early warning tracking station. The island is closer to Russian territory than it is to the Alaskan mainland. During the Cold War it was home to many deployed fighter jets operating in air defense roles to deter the Soviets. In the early 1990s, however, Eareckson Air Station saw its regular fighter presence end. The military has returned aircraft to the station several times in the following years. As TWZ noted, special operations forces have repeatedly trained on the island in recent years in exercises focused on defending the important Cobra Dane radar system.

NORAD often scrambles fighter jets to intercept aircraft in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone; the zone is part of international airspace but NORAD requires aircraft to identify themselves. Last year there were several instances of Russian jets entering the Alaskan ADIZ.

In its announcement, NORAD noted that the deployment to Eareckson Air Station further validated the remote base “as a viable location for future fighter operations from an austere airfield.”

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Son of Alaska’s ‘Decoy’ Dan Sullivan works for Dem Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez

The son of an Alaska Senate candidate accused of trying to draw votes away from Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan works for Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, who previously served alongside Mary Peltola in the leadership of the Blue Dog Coalition.

Noah Casey Sullivan, the son of retired Petersburg teacher Dan J. Sullivan, serves as a field representative for Gluesenkamp Perez, whose district covers southwestern Washington. Congressional salary records list Noah Sullivan working in that position during 2025 and 2026.

Gluesenkamp Perez and Peltola served together as Blue Dog Coalition co-chairs during the 118th Congress.

The employment connection comes amid broader scrutiny of whether Democratic operatives helped put a second Sullivan on Alaska’s ballot to confuse voters and benefit Democratic challenger Peltola.

Dan J. Sullivan entered the race as a Republican in May, challenging the incumbent, Dan S. Sullivan. Republicans questioned his party affiliation, previous contributions to Democrats, and campaign materials they alleged resembled the senator’s branding. Donation records cited in a National Republican Senatorial Committee letter identified $650 in contributions to Democratic candidates between 2010 and 2025.

The challenger also received assistance launching his campaign from political consultant Amber Lee, who has supported Peltola and worked with Democratic candidates. The Petersburg Pilot reported that Lee helped prepare his announcement and website. Sullivan said he found her business through an online search.

Sen. Sullivan has accused the challenger of deliberately exploiting their shared name.

“His whole purpose of running is to confuse Alaskans, to make them think – Alaskan voters – that somehow he’s me, so they could rig the vote in favor of Mary Peltola,” he said in an interview with CNN.

“This is just corruption. They’re trying to cheat. I mean, there’s no plausible explanation.”

The Petersburg candidate has defended his candidacy, telling the Anchorage Daily News: “I have done nothing that should prevent me from running in this race. I filed correctly. I paid my fees. I’m not quite sure what the stink is, but I guess I’ll find out.”

Alaska election officials initially removed him from the ballot after determining that his candidacy was not filed in good faith. The Alaska Supreme Court upheld his eligibility in June, ruling that officials could not impose additional qualifications beyond those established by the US Constitution.

The dispute escalated this week after a New York Times investigation reported that Peltola campaign aides and Democratic operatives participated in efforts to recruit a candidate sharing the incumbent’s name. NBC News reported that federal investigators issued at least three dozen new subpoenas and document preservation requests, including to the Peltola and Dan J. Sullivan campaigns. Gov. Mike Dunleavy also ordered a state investigation.

Roughly 58,000 Alaskans had already voted when the recruitment report emerged, according to Fox News.

Peltola initially dismissed the reporting as “just another distraction” intended to “sell newspapers.”

Peltola denied knowing about the recruitment effort at a campaign event Thursday. Dan J. Sullivan has also denied running at Democrats’ direction or having contact with her campaign.

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Report: Dozens of Democrats Silent on Alaska Election Rigging While Calling GOP a ‘Threat to Democracy’

Dozens of leading Democrats — many of whom have railed for years about the GOP and the Trump administration as a “threat to democracy” — are universally silent when asked to respond to a cynical attempt to confuse Republican voters on Alaska’s senatorial ballot.

All were asked by Fox News about the subversive tactic of placing another candidate named Dan Sullivan against incumbent Sen Dan Sullivan (R-AK), which could potentially cost the U.S senator his seat.

The complete radio silence by Democrats was revealed in a report Saturday by the cable news outlet, which reached out to 42 leading Democratic lawmakers and governors who endorsed Sullivan’s opponent Mary Peltola, asking if they would denounce the alleged effort to confuse Alaska voters.

None of the 42 responded, Fox reported.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that that aides to candidate Peltola helped recruit the man named Dan Sullivan to run in an alleged effort to draw votes from the Republican incumbent.

Peltola’s campaign has denied any involvement.

The lack of responses presents a striking contrast to the incessant Democratic talking point of “threats to Democracy” levied against not only President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, but his administration and other Republican lawmakers and candidates as well.

Fox reported:

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, for instance, stated that “voter suppression is poisonous, it is toxic to our democracy,” in 2022. His colleague, Sen. Chris Murphy, meanwhile, argued in April 2025 that “those of us who believe that the threat to democracy is urgent” need to “act like it.” And Sen. Cory Booker said in December 2016 that “protecting American democracy is a calling far higher than party politics.”

Neither responded to Fox’s query, according to the outlet.

Somewhat surprisingly, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who has emerged as a maverick in his party on some issues, also remained mum on the controversy, Fox reported.

Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Alaska election officials that seeks to delay the certification of the senate election results if incumbent Sullivan loses because votes cast for the decoy Dan Sullivan could have changed the outcome.

However, legal experts have told Fox news that the lawsuit faces serious challenges because it infers voter intent from anonymous ballots and threatens the sovereignty of states over their elections.

The Fox report contained a long list of everyone contacted.

Among the other most outspoken, but now silent, Democratic senators reached by Fox News Digital were Adam Schiff (D-CA), minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Elisa Slotkin (D-MI).

Among the more than a dozen House members reached by the outlet were Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), George Whitesides (D-CA), and Chris Pappas (D-NH), the latter of whom is also running for the Senate against New Hampshire incumbent John E. Sununu.

Fox also received no response from former senator Sherrod Brown who is trying to retake his senate seat against John Husted in Ohio.

Democratic governors contacted by Fox were Wes Moore of Maryland, Gavin Newsom of California, and Roy Cooper of North Carolina, the latter of whom is also running for the senate.

The Alaska Democrat candidate at the center of the controversy, Mary Peltola, also did not respond to Fox’s query.

Previously, only one Democrat had publicly condemned the alleged tactic in Alaska, according to Fox.

Iowa’s Democratic candidate for governor Rob Sand told Fox News last Sunday that “both parties are doing it and neither party should be doing it,” calling such efforts “manipulating the political system.”

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Alaska Senate Decoy Candidate Dan Sullivan DISAPPEARS as US Attorney Announces Surge in FBI Agents to Investigate Peltola Campaign Scandal

US Attorney for Alaska Michael Heyman, held a press conference on Friday afternoon to update the public on his office’s ongoing criminal investigation into Alaska’s Senate ‘spoiler’ candidate Dan J. Sullivan.

The Justice Department has launched an aggressive criminal investigation in Daniel J. Sullivan. Federal prosecutors have issued more than 40 subpoenas.

News of the criminal investigation comes after The New York Times confirmed that Mary Peltola’s campaign recruited the decoy Dan J Sullivan to confuse Alaska voters.

Democrat operatives in Mary Peltola’s campaign worked to register a man named Daniel J. Sullivan as Dan S. Sullivan (the incumbent Senator’s name) as a GOP challenger.

The Times reported that the plan involved traveling 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.”

“The plan worked. This spring, a retired teacher from a tiny fishing village along the Alaska Panhandle, reachable only by air and sea, announced his candidacy for Senate. His name was Dan J. Sullivan,” the New York Times reported.

Michael Heyman provided an update on the ongoing investigation into Mary Peltola’s campaign.

“Every Alaskan deserves a fair election and they’re going to get one, Michael Heyman said. “We will not let anyone or any group undermine this election,” Michael Heyman said.

“This new information has resulted in a significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska, and I have assigned several attorneys in my office to assist in the matter as well,” he said.

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Alaska’s Senate Decoy Candidate Dan Sullivan Refuses to Go Under Oath as DOJ Issues Flurry of Subpoenas in Expanding Criminal Investigation

Alaska’s Senate decoy candidate Daniel J. Sullivan refused to go under oath during the initial investigation, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy revealed on Thursday.

News of the criminal investigation comes after The New York Times confirmed that Mary Peltola’s campaign recruited the decoy Dan J Sullivan to confuse Alaska voters.

Democrat operatives in Mary Peltola’s campaign worked to register a man named Daniel J. Sullivan as Dan S. Sullivan (the incumbent Senator’s name) as a GOP challenger.

The Times reported that the plan involved traveling 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.”

“The plan worked. This spring, a retired teacher from a tiny fishing village along the Alaska Panhandle, reachable only by air and sea, announced his candidacy for Senate. His name was Dan J. Sullivan,” the New York Times reported.

On Thursday, it was reported that the Justice Department ramped up its investigation into how Daniel J. Sullivan appeared on the Alaska ballot as a spoiler and issued a flurry of subpoenas in the last 24 hours. According to Fox News, more than 30 subpoenas have been issued.

It was also revealed on Thursday that the decoy Dan Sullivan hasn’t even done any campaign events.

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