Alaska governor orders probe into Peltola's Senate campaign over spoiler candidate controversy

WASHINGTON — Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into the Democratic candidate running for the U.S. Senate in the state after revelations that her campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting another candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.

Dunleavy's order, posted overnight on social media, comes a day after President Donald Trump called for the criminal prosecution of Mary Peltola and her campaign.

In a race that's among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to determine control of the chamber, the Republican president had previously directed his Department of Justice to sue to block certification of it, demanding that Alaska be prevented from certifying a win by Peltola if Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. remains on the state's ballots.

Dunleavy wrote that reporting by The New York Times "reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska's elections by recruiting candidates — including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator — to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes."

"Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections," Dunleavy added, noting that the reporting "substantially supports" earlier findings by the state's elections board into the matter.

Peltola's campaign didn't immediately respond to a message early Thursday seeking comment on Dunleavy's order. But during a campaign stop in Soldotna, Peltola, a former congresswoman, suggested the Times' report was a "distraction" from issues such as Sen. Sullivan's support of the war in Iran.

"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."

Earlier this year, a top state elections official ruled Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community of Petersburg, ineligible for the primary ballot, concluding that his declaration of candidacy was filed "with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot's fairness or neutrality."

The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was qualified to run. He has long denied he was running at Democrats' behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola's campaign: "Zero, none, zilch," he said in June after announcing his run.

Alaskan voters will see "Dan S. Sullivan" identified as a "registered Republican" and "incumbent" on their ballots, while "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr." will not have a party affiliation.

The New York Times reported that interviews, text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit showed Peltola's team aimed to coax candidates into the race, with the aim of splitting support for the GOP senator.

Asked about the reporting on Wednesday, Trump told reporters, "I think they should be prosecuted." He earlier had posted on social media that "Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done."