Alaska's governor orders a state investigation into the second Dan Sullivan on the Senate ballot

The Alaska Senate race now has a state investigation to go with the federal one. Governor Mike Dunleavy announced on Thursday that he has directed the Department of Public Safety to investigate the ballot effort that placed Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from the fishing village of Petersburg, on the November ballot alongside Senator Dan S. Sullivan, the Republican incumbent.

Dunleavy said the New York Times reporting this week substantially supports what the state Division of Elections found when it looked at the same concerns in June. "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," he wrote. "The evidence will determine what happens next." He accused the organizers of trying to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes. He did not name the law he believes was broken.

The Times reported, from interviews with twelve people and from text messages, that aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee introduced an operative named Jerid Kurtz to people around Mary Peltola's campaign, and that the group ran a wider effort to recruit spoiler candidates who could pull votes from the senator. The second Sullivan told the operative he had no interest in being a politician but disliked President Trump and wanted to help Democrats win the Senate, according to the Times. Peltola's former campaign manager Elisa Rios spoke to the Times and later tried to retract her comments. She was fired in August.

Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee deny any involvement in recruiting him, and the retired teacher has denied links to the Peltola campaign. Senator Sullivan told Fox News on Wednesday night that Peltola should come clean and called the affair a scandal of the highest order. President Trump said on Wednesday that Peltola should resign from the race and be prosecuted.

The legal ground is contested. Republicans tried earlier this year to remove the second Sullivan from the ballot, and the Alaska Supreme Court rejected the attempt, finding no state law that let it rule on a candidate's motives. Ballot stacking of this kind is generally legal and both parties have used it in Alaska. The Justice Department sued in federal court on October 22 to delay certification of the result in a case where votes for Daniel J. Sullivan could change the outcome. Alaskans vote on November 3, and polls have put Peltola and Senator Sullivan close together in a race that could decide control of the Senate.