Earlier today we learned that Mary Peltola's campaign was heavily involved in the dirty tricks being used in Alaska's Senate election. Peltola's campaign has denied for months that it had anything to do with putting another guy named Dan Sullivan (same name as the incumbent Republican Senator) on the ballot. But a NY Times story based on a dozen sources found that this dirty tricks campaign actually started last summer and Peltola's campaign was involved from the start. In fact, they not only got another Dan Sullivan on the ballot, they also got a progressive challenger to drop out so another fake candidate they helped recruit would also be on the ballot.

This afternoon, the campaign is dealing with the backlash. 

“The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign. Like Mary, our campaign is focused on lowering costs and fixing the rigged system in D.C. and did not recruit any candidates into the race,” the Peltola campaign said in a statement to NewsNation affiliate The Hill.

The DSCC also told The Hill in a statement it had “no involvement” in recruiting the other Sullivan. Peltola’s campaign did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

Here's Peltola herself saying no one should care about the ballot issue, only about affordability in Alaska.

The problem, of course, is that Peltola knew about the scheme and still had her people out there denying any connection to it. So, at a minimum, it's relevant because it reveals she's a brazen liar. Just a few months ago, Peltola thought lying to the electorate should be a criminal offense.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, the Republican incumbent also released a statement:

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“Mary Peltola, her campaign, and her senior advisors colluded with the DSCC, national Democrat lawyers, and Alaska Democrat operatives to recruit a candidate to deliberately deceive and confuse voters, and then repeatedly lied about it,” Adams said. “Not one player in this operation has acted in good faith with Alaska voters. Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along. We always knew this was a concerted effort to deceive voters, and Mary Peltola was hoping it would stay hidden until after the election.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Eric Schmitt called for an investigation.

And Fox News is reporting that an investigation has been underway for months but got a big boost from today's NY Times story. Subpoenas are coming very soon, according to this report.

Those subpoenas will have to be very soon if they want to do something about it before the election.

The Left's response has been that there's nothing illegal about this dirty trick and that may even be true in the sense that the other Dan Sullivan probably did nothing illegal by agreeing to act as a spoiler on the ballot. 

I'm not a lawyer but it seems the question is whether the people who schemed to put him (and another fake candidate) there might have crossed some line, but it's not clear to me what that is yet. One possibility: Did Peltola's campaign lie to a judge and deny involvement in recruiting the other Dan Sullivan?

Another possibility, did the Peltola campaign or anyone else involved help fund the fake Dan Sullivan under the table to hide their connection to his campaign. That would almost certainly be illegal. Again, I don't know if any of that happened but there are lines Democrats could cross which could result in charges.

Sen. Murkowski has also put out a statement.

“While some may try to write this off as just how politics works now, ballot-stacking should have no place in our electoral process. Run and win on your merits: your views, your policy ideas, and your accomplishments. By contrast, recruiting candidates to manipulate the field and influence voting outcomes is simply wrong. Alaskans deserve the honest truth from Mary and her campaign—what has been revealed is a pattern of lies and coverups and a culture of deception that belongs nowhere in our elections or among our elected officials.”

So there's definitely a backlash to this in the media. Whether that matters to Alaska's voters is anyone's guess.