Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign is denying a New York Times report that its aides worked with national Democrats to recruit a second Dan Sullivan and other spoiler candidates onto Alaska’s ballot.
“The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement to The Epoch Times on Wednesday afternoon, six days before the midterm elections. The spokesperson said the campaign is focused on lowering costs and fixing what Peltola calls a rigged system in Washington.
In its statement to The New York Times, the campaign said it “did not recruit any candidates into the race.”
The New York Times reported on Oct. 28 that Peltola campaign aides, staff at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and a Democratic operative named Jerid Kurtz spent months trying to persuade candidates to run against Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) to split his support.
According to the report, the effort helped bring Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg, Alaska, into the race. The DSCC also denied involvement to The New York Times.
Much of the report relies on interviews with Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager, who was fired in August. The New York Times said Rios contacted the paper last week asking to retract her statements.
The newspaper still published them, saying her account matched its other reporting, which included interviews with 12 people and dozens of text messages. Rios told The New York Times that Peltola was not directly involved in the effort but was aware of it.
The Peltola campaign accused Republicans of having repeatedly backed spoiler candidates in Alaska. It said Fair Deal Alaska, a super PAC, was funded entirely by Republican groups, including $100,000 from the senator-aligned Last Frontier PAC.
Peltola, a former Democratic congresswoman, faces Sen. Sullivan, Dan J. Sullivan, and Republican Gerald Heikes on Tuesday’s ballot. Alaska holds open, top-four primaries and ranked-choice general elections, and candidates choose the party affiliation listed beside their names.
The senator’s campaign said the report confirmed what it had argued since the other Sullivan entered the race this spring.
In a statement to The Epoch Times, campaign spokesperson Nate Adams alleged that Peltola, her campaign, and her senior advisers worked with the DSCC, national Democratic lawyers, and Alaska Democratic operatives to recruit a candidate to deceive voters, and then lied about it.
“Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along,” Adams said, alleging that Peltola had hoped the effort would stay hidden until after the election.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a post on X that “Peltola will be held accountable this election for her dishonesty and deception.” He said he expects Alaskans to leave Peltola unranked and to reelect the senator.
Republicans tried this summer to remove Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot, arguing that he was not running in good faith. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in June that there was no legal basis to remove him.
The Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit last week seeking to block certification of the results if votes for Dan J. Sullivan cost the senator the race.
The Peltola campaign, the DSCC, and Dan J. Sullivan did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.
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