The situation in Alaska is complex, to say the least. Incumbent Republican Senator Daniel S. Sullivan is being challenged in the midterm elections not only by Democrat Mary Peltola. Two other Senate candidates are on the ballot, one of whom is a nonpartisan former Republican with the confusingly similar name Daniel J. Sullivan.
Daniel J. Sullivan has repeatedly said that he is running entirely on his own initiative. But now The New York Times reports that the Democrats are behind the challenger. According to the newspaper, the party is hoping to win through confusion - by getting inattentive voters to vote for the wrong Daniel Sullivan.
Calls for prosecution
The newspaper details an intricate plan to put forward the “right” candidate - in this case, a former teacher from a small fishing village - to secure a Democratic Senate seat in traditionally conservative Alaska. Former Representative Peltola’s former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, says Peltola herself was not involved but “had knowledge” of what was happening.
“This is election fraud at the highest level,” Donald Trump thundered on his Truth Social platform. He called for both “the fake” Sullivan and Democrat Peltola to be barred from the election and prosecuted.
A few hours after the article was published, Alaska's Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy announced that he had ordered an investigation to determine whether charges should be filed.
Peltola countered that the Alaska Elections Authority had investigated objections to the similar-sounding names in June and cleared the candidates to run.
Early settlement
The information comes just days after the Justice Department in Washington, DC, filed a lawsuit in an Alaska court to prevent the outcome of the Senate election from being determined in the event that the Republican loses.
According to polls, Peltola and Daniel S. Sullivan are neck and neck, and the Senate election is expected to be decided by a very narrow margin, according to the AP. The Trump administration's lawsuit says the state would “fail to protect the integrity of the election” if Sullivan were to lose because people were voting “wrongly.”
“I was the one who told them to do it,” Trump said last week before a campaign rally in Florida.
However, the lawsuit is considered to have little chance of success because elections in the US are decided at the state level, without federal involvement.
Mary Peltola has called the lawsuit “flagrant corruption.” It has also been criticized by Alaska’s other senator, centrist Republican Lisa Murkowski, who is often critical of Trump.
Alaska, along with Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio and Texas, is a swing state ahead of the Senate election, which is part of the midterm elections to Congress on November 3.
President Donald Trump’s Republican Party currently holds a majority in the Senate, with 53 of the 100 seats. Thirty-three of those seats are up for re-election this year, along with two seats in special elections.
Republicans also control the other chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives, where all seats are up for re-election.
