Photo: AP Photo/Chloe Anderson
Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola is proclaiming her innocence in the growing “decoy” candidate scandal, but some Alaska voters say they are not buying it, according to RedState. The scandal centers on an alleged effort to recruit a second Dan Sullivan to run against incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, in a race that could decide the balance of power in the Senate.
Peltola spoke briefly on Friday with local outlet Alaska’s News Source KTUU. Asked whether anyone on her campaign could have been part of the alleged conspiracy to put Petersburg candidate Dan J. Sullivan on the ballot, she said she “honestly [has] no idea.”
“This is offensive to me on a number of different levels,” Peltola said. “First of all, this is Alaska; we’re not in the business of tricking each other up here.” She added that she knows she can win the race and has been ahead of Sullivan in the polls “since day one.”
The New York Times report on the scheme named former campaign manager Elisa Rios, who alleged that Peltola was “definitely aware” of the project to recruit candidates named Dan Sullivan to confuse voters, but was not directly involved. Asked about Rios being named, Peltola responded sharply. “Clearly, folks are gone, they’re gone for a good reason,” she said. “If I could fire them again, I’d be happy to fire them again.”
Several voters who spoke to Fox News Digital outside an early voting site in Anchorage on Friday said they believed reports that Peltola’s campaign recruited Dan J. Sullivan Jr. as a spoiler. A sculptor named Robby said Peltola “betrayed the trust of Alaska voters.” He said he did not believe it was illegal, but called it “underhanded” and said he considers it “cheating by the Mary Peltola campaign.”
Two other voters, Beth and Marge, told Fox News Digital they also felt the campaign was engaging in dirty politics. Marge, an 80-year-old former nurse, suggested Peltola take a lie detector test to see whether she is telling the truth about her denials, while Beth, who is retired from the medical field, said she never cared for Peltola even before the scandal.
RedState reported hearing similar views around the Mat-Su region, where it said most of the talk is that Peltola had to know what was going on. Still, it noted that about 10 percent of registered Alaska voters had already cast ballots when the scandal broke earlier in the week, and argued that under the state’s ranked choice voting system, the race could still go Peltola’s way even if many voters are unhappy with how things are playing out.
