The controversy in Alaska over the contest for a Senate seat keeps growing. President Donald Trump remarked Thursday on the pivotal race that could determine control of the Senate in next Tuesday’s midterm elections. The president, whose administration’s future is at stake, questioned whether Alaska’s Democratic Senate candidate, Mary Peltola, could take her seat even if she wins. His remarks come after The New York Times revealed that Peltola’s team maneuvered to recruit a third candidate with the same name as her Republican rival in an effort to split the Republican vote in the state’s election.
The disclosure about the Democratic maneuver, which is neither illegal nor unprecedented, has given political ammunition to a president all too willing to question electoral results that are not favorable to him. Asked by reporters whether his party in the Capitol should refuse to allow Democrat Peltola to be sworn in if elected, Trump answered ambiguously. “Well, you’re going to have to see what happens. It’s hard to believe that she could even be allowed to run,” he said before boarding Air Force One to fly to South Carolina for a rally.
Trump also said Wednesday that Peltola’s advisers should be prosecuted and demanded that the Republican candidate be allowed to run alone. In a post on his social network Truth, the president wrote: “Mary Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done, A FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC. And Dan Sullivan should be allowed to run without either Mary Peltola or FAKE Dan Sullivan on the Ballot.”
Trump’s remarks come amid calls to investigate Peltola’s campaign just five days before the midterms. On Wednesday night, Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, called for an inquiry to determine whether the candidate should face criminal charges or a civil action suit for seeking people with the same name as the incumbent senator, Republican Dan Sullivan, in an apparent attempt to dilute his votes next Tuesday.
On Thursday, the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform joined Dunleavy and announced an investigation into Peltola’s campaign. “Knowing they can’t win on the issues, Democrats schemed to rig the U.S. Senate election in Alaska by deliberately confusing voters. This is part of a broader pattern of misconduct by today’s Democrat Party,” said Republican James Comer of Kentucky.
“Americans deserve answers about this latest attempt by Democrats to defraud the American people, and we will get them,” he added.
These reactions follow the The New York Times scoop revealing that Peltola’s advisers spent months trying to persuade a retired man named Dan J. Sullivan to enter the race for one of Alaska’s two U.S. Senate seats, specifically the seat currently held by Republican Dan S. Sullivan. According to the New York paper, the Democrat’s team engineered the second Sullivan’s candidacy (who will appear on the ballot as an independent) precisely to split the Republican vote.
The matter had already escalated to the state Supreme Court, which had cleared the way for the two Dan Sullivans to appear on the November 3 ballot.
Nevertheless, Trump’s party appears to be trying to exploit the controversy just as polls indicate Democrats could gain control of the Senate. The Republican administration last week filed a preemptive lawsuit to block the election result if Peltola wins. The Justice Department argued that the presence of two candidates with the same name could siphon votes from Dan S. Sullivan and ultimately benefit Peltola.
Governor Dunleavy said on his social media that the The New York Times report “reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections.” He said that the Alaska Division of Elections investigated these same concerns in June of this year. “The new report substantially corroborates the division’s findings. I am therefore directing the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted. The evidence will determine what happens next,” he added.
His vice president, J. D. Vance, echoed those remarks in comments to the press: “She is trying to steal a Senate seat from the voters of Alaska, and it’s disgraceful, so whether it’s criminal or not, she certainly has committed a great moral failing,” he added.
Peltola, for her part, calls all of this a “distraction.” “This is just another distraction. It’s another diversion,” she said in a video posted online. ”This is all stuff to sell newspapers. This is all stuff to get subscriptions,” she said about the New York paper’s report.
Patricia Vélez and Nicholas Dale Leal contributed to this story.
