This is the New York times original story behind a pay wall. Inside Democrats’ Secret Effort to Stack Alaska’s Midterm Ballot With Another Dan Sullivan - The New York Times
This is Fox paraphrasing it for free. IT IS THIER CURRENT TOP LEAD STORY.
I do not work for Fox, did not write this story. I am not MAGA and do not have a (R) at the end of my name. I am seriously distressed seeing this. So down vote all you like to make it go away on r/Alaska but this is what the rest of the country is talking about.
Peltola allies worked to recruit spoiler candidates in Alaska Senate race, report says
Operatives aligned with Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola spent months recruiting candidates in an effort to dilute support for Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan on Alaska’s crowded ballot, according to The New York Times.
The effort, internally dubbed the “ballot composition project,” included an early directive to a Peltola staffer in the summer of 2025: find as many people named Dan Sullivan as possible in the state.
The goal, the report says, was to land another Dan Sullivan on the ballot to create confusion and siphon votes from the incumbent.
The White House communications department weighed in with a firm rebuke of the reporting that has come out after nearly 60,000 early votes have been cast in that election thus far, according to The Associated Press.
A retired teacher from the small Panhandle community of Petersburg, Dan J. Sullivan, ultimately filed and is now on the November ballot alongside the senator, Peltola, and long-shot candidate Gerald Heikes.
Fox News Digital reached out to all groups allegedly involved for comment.
The Times, citing interviews with 12 people and dozens of text messages, reported that Peltola campaign aides and senior Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee officials participated in regular discussions about the project.
"The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and did not recruit any candidates into the race," the Peltola campaign said in a statement to the Times.
The DSCC issued a similar denial, saying it had "no involvement" in recruiting the other Sullivan or any other Republican candidate.
"The DSCC is not involved with Dan J. Sullivan," the statement read. "Republicans have a long history of recruiting and propping up candidates in an attempt to boost their own campaigns – including recruiting a prisoner with a New York address to run against Mary Peltola and spending nearly half a million dollars to secure a spot on the ballot in Alaska for an Arizona resident in the Senate race this cycle."
National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Communications Director Joanna Rodriguez fired back in a statement on X.
"The Democrats that cry about threats to democracy spent months working to intentionally undermine it," she wrote. "Mary Peltola is a LIAR and a CHEAT who mooches off taxpayers and thinks Alaskans are stupid. Rank Dan S, Daniel, Gerry, DON'T RANK LYING MARY."
Former Peltola campaign manager Elisa Rios, who was fired in August, described the project in interviews with the Times and said Peltola was "definitely aware," though not directly involved.
"Peltola will be held accountable this election for her dishonesty and deception," Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., chair of the NRSC, wrote in a statement. "Alaskans will leave Peltola unranked on the ballot because of her dirty tricks. Voters can trust the real Dan Sullivan, and I'm confident he'll be re-elected."
The Elias Law Group, led by well-known Democrat-linked attorney Marc Elias, is alleged to have ties to the scheme through Jacquelyn Lopez, an attorney there, Rios told the Times.
A campaign consultant asked Rios via text, the Times reported: "Do we need to follow up with Jackie about MAGA party stuff?"
Rios later sought to retract her statements as the story was being prepared for publication; the Times said it had never agreed the interviews were off the record and that her account was consistent with other reporting.
Alaska’s nonpartisan primary system makes it relatively easy to place additional candidates on the general-election ballot.
The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit seeking to block certification of results if votes for the other Dan Sullivan cost the incumbent the race.
"Biggest we told-you-so moment," a senior DOJ official told Fox News. "Quote me."
Fox News' Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
Posted by Eric Mack