NYTimes: Peltola Campaign Was Behind the 'Dan Sullivan' Dirty Trick

Ed wrote about this story back in June. In case you missed it, all you need to know is that the Senate race in Alaska is between two candidates, incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan and Democrat challenger Mary Peltola. 

But somewhere along the line a new candidate appeared. His name was, wait for it, Dan Sullivan. Dan S. Sullivan is the incumbent and Dan J. Sullivan is a nobody who suddenly decided to run for Senate.

The dirty trick first appeared to fall apart when Alaska director of elections kicked the fake Dan Sullivan off the ballot. However, that decision got overruled so as of now the fake Dan Sullivan is still on the ballot.

There were some pretty good hints that this was a Democrat dirty trick but the Peltola campaign has denied any involvement. 

Today the NY Times blows up that excuse with a story that reveals how this was done.

In the summer of 2025, a staffer for Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democrat who was eyeing a run for Senate, received unusual instructions from top campaign aides: Find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can.

The staffer complied, combing through voter records to produce a list of Dan Sullivans from across the state.

This was no random request. Dan S. Sullivan is the name of the state’s Republican senator. And if the Peltola campaign or its allies could track down and persuade another Dan Sullivan to run for Senate, the confusion could cost the senator crucial votes on the state’s unusual, four-person ballot.

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 Peltola campaign has repeatedly denied any involvement in his candidacy. But The Times has found, based on interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign, that not only did Ms. Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory.

The story goes on to say that Peltola's lawyers and the DSCC were also involved in making this happen. As for Mary Peltola herself, she didn't get her hands dirty, according to her former campaign manager (who was fired in August), but she definitely knew it was happening. 

When asked directly by the Times, neither her campaign nor the DSCC would comment beyond once again denying involvement. In short, they lied.

There's also a twist in how the story came to light. It sounds like Elisa Rios, the fired campaign manager, gave the Times the story as she was planning to sue her former employer. But last week she suddenly had a change of heart and retracted everything. It appears she may have reached a settlement of some kind. In any case, the Times refused to retract her claims and had nearly a dozen other sources who gave them information that matched, as well as texts and documents to back up the claims.

So how did they convince the fake Dan Sullivan to join the race? Pretty simple. They told him it would hurt Trump.

Mr. Sullivan “said he hated Trump, and if it was going to help Mary, he liked Mary. He didn’t have any interest in being a politician, but if this could help.”

Sullivan, the fake one, has claimed he entered on his own volition. Now that it's clear he's lying, he's refusing to answer any questions. The person who recruited him is an Ohio political operator named Jerid Kurtz. Kurtz not only personally recruited fake Dan Sullivan, he also convinced a Democrat rival to Peltola to drop out of the race so that yet another fake Republican candidate would make it onto the ballot.

That Democrat, a progressive named David Leslie, quickly faced calls from his party to withdraw. One of those callers, Mr. Leslie said in an interview, was Jerid Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz met with Mr. Leslie in person, at a cafe in Fairbanks, according to a person familiar with the exchange.

Mr. Leslie soon agreed to drop out...

Mr. Leslie’s exit cleared the way for another Republican to take his spot on the ballot, potentially dividing the G.O.P. vote even further: Gerald Heikes.

Heikes was also recruited onto the ballot as a spoiler by Jerid Kurtz, who told the people he recruited that his name was Zane. However, they were able to identify his photo. Zane/Jerid is refusing to answer questions and his Linked In and X accounts recently disappeared.

This is obviously a dirty trick but the comments are full of Democrats praising the tactic and saying it's long overdue. It's not cheating if you win, I guess. That seems to be the vibe.

Editor’s Note: Help us continue to report the truth about corrupt politicians. 

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