Dem Operatives Put Copycat Sullivan on Alaska Ballot
The challenger’s campaign appears connected to a network of Democratic political operatives with ties to former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola.
Alaska’s Senate race has a ballot manipulation problem: voters may see two Republican candidates named Dan Sullivan on the August primary ballot.
One is the incumbent, Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan. The other is Dan J. Sullivan, a retired elementary schoolteacher from Petersburg who moved to Alaska nearly 50 years ago, first working for the U.S. Forest Service before becoming a teacher. The Alaska Division of Elections initially disqualified his candidacy after finding that he entered the race to confuse voters. The Alaska Supreme Court reversed that decision, holding that the challenger’s motive for running did not determine his legal eligibility to appear on the ballot.
National Review reports that the second Sullivan did not simply happen to share the senator’s name. He allegedly filed under a version of his name he had not historically used, one that more closely matched the incumbent’s ballot identity. His campaign also launched a website that reportedly resembled the senator’s campaign site.
According to National Review, the challenger’s campaign appears connected to a network of Democratic political operatives with ties to former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, who is running against Sen. Sullivan. The report does not establish that Peltola or the Alaska Democratic Party directly organized the candidacy, and both have denied involvement.
Still, the connections reported by National Review are notable.
The challenger’s son, Noah Sullivan, previously worked for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, first as an intern in his legislative office and later as a field representative for his reelection campaign. Kreiss-Tomkins, who has also worked as a political consultant, has ties to Alaska consultant James Lottsfeldt.
Lottsfeldt served as treasurer of the Vote Alaska Before Party PAC, a super PAC supporting Peltola. He also previously served as treasurer of a PAC created to oppose Sullivan during the senator’s first Senate campaign in 2014. National Review reported that Lottsfeldt Strategies received $23,000 from the Peltola-aligned PAC in February 2025, and that Lottsfeldt and Kreiss-Tomkins co-hosted a launch event for Kreiss-Tomkins’ gubernatorial campaign earlier this year.
Neither Lottsfeldt nor Kreiss-Tomkins responded to National Review’s questions about whether they recruited the second Sullivan to run in the Senate race.
The challenger also hired progressive political consultant Amber Lee, who has worked for Democratic-aligned groups and campaigns in Alaska and has publicly supported Peltola. National Review reported that Lee authored the challenger’s campaign announcement, based on metadata in a PDF posted online. Lee previously worked for Lottsfeldt Strategies when the firm received money from the Peltola-aligned PAC, though her biography has since been removed from the company’s website. Lee did not respond to National Review’s request for comment.
National Review also reported that Kreiss-Tomkins has consulting ties beyond Alaska, including to Nebraska independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn. Osborn’s campaign has faced a Federal Election Commission complaint alleging that campaign funds were improperly routed to firms connected to his wife. The pattern suggests a coordinated national strategy, not an isolated local scheme.
Sen. Sullivan has been blunt about what he thinks is happening.
“Everybody in Alaska knows I’m Dan Sullivan-R. So he’s trying to do that. Why? He’s not an R. He’s purposely trying to trick my constituents to rig the election for Peltola,” Sullivan told reporters.
The stakes are real. Alaska’s top-four primary advances candidates to a ranked-choice general election, meaning even modest vote-splitting caused by a same-name candidate could affect the outcome.
Alaska Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom requested an investigation after Republicans raised concerns about the candidacy. She warned the challenger that declarations of candidacy are filed under penalty of perjury.
“I’m troubled by the allegation that you filed for office in coordination with another campaign with the intention of confusing Alaskan voters in a way that will benefit one candidate over another,” Dahlstrom wrote. “If true, it suggests that your declaration of candidacy, which was submitted under penalty of perjury, was not genuine and not properly filed.”
National Review further reported that the Justice Department is investigating the challenger’s campaign. Unless that investigation results in his removal, Alaska voters will see two Dan Sullivans on the August ballot.
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Comments
Scum. I’d be embarrassed to even consider doing something like that. Obviously this bottom feeder has no shame at all and neither does any other democrat involved. Anything for power, eh?
Republicans have done the exact same thing many times. Politics can often be a dirty game, but this is within the rules.
Name one case of Republicans working behind the scenes to get a person with the same name as the incumbent to change party affiliation and enter the race going so far as to leave the middle initial of their name out and creating a campaign website nearly identical as the sitting politician of the opposite party. Name one.
In 2020, in the race for state senate district 37, Republican Ileana Garcia defeated incumbent Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez by 32 votes, after Republicans recruited someone called Alex Rodriguez to enter the race. Both Alex R and the Republican who paid him to do this were later convicted on criminal charges.
Assuming that any of this is true, how is Jose Javier Rodriguez the same as Alex Rodriguez? Your argument is invalid and nonsensical.
It was close enough to draw several thousand votes away from the Democrat. If they’d found someone with the exact name they would have run him, but this was the closest they could find. Enough voters simply saw “Rodriguez” and voted, thinking it was the right one.
In this case too, Daniel S. Sullivan and Daniel J. Sullivan are not identical, but they’re close, and he tried to make them closer by using “Dan” rather than “Daniel J.”, just as the incumbent uses “Dan” instead of “Daniel S.” But many voters are not aware of the senator’s middle name, and will simply see “Sullivan” and vote.
In that case it was criminal, because the fake Rodriguez was paid. In this case I assume the Dems have learned that lesson and no cash payment will be found, but inducements can take other forms.
Obviously the Republican Party in Alaska has no spine. They need to pull that “R” from behind this fraud’s name, now!
It’s got nothing to do with them. They have no power in this matter.
Throw in chaos and “ranked choice” voting and things are up in the air! Alaska’s conservatives need to get their heads out of their asses.
Absolutely
Alaska is purple. About 1/3 of the population works for some form of federal, state or local governmental agency. Then we add the unions and the Native corporations. This is how Murkowski could ignore her promise to abide by the Republican primary and be elected by write in. Lisa! was a so-so Anchorage lawyer until her daddy the governor selected her to fill a vacancy and off she went… she is left of Susan Collins. The Dems use all the tricks to harass the Right through lawfare. Los Anchorage is blue. The pipeline propelled the move to the Left but now the Left is wanting the Pipeline closed , new income taxes and seizure of the Permanent Fund. The same failed arguments to stalled the Pipeline and initially ruined businesses as with the Keystone are still dredged up against any development of ANWR. Alaska was actually better run as a territory then as a state. When the easy money fades, so will Alaska as the grifters have less to grift. It’s hard to beat Santa Claus with Fed and State checkbooks.
Democracy…democratic style.
If I were a Democrat, I’d be ashamed to say so.
We are “Saving Democracy” by not allowing people to vote in free, fair or honest elections.
Shame requires both self-awareness and a conscience, qualities that few – if any – Democrats are capable of displaying.
Shenanigans. Might be legal but seems to fall short of moral/ethical. No whining if/when there’s ‘dirty tricks’ coming from others elsewhere if the d/prog and corporate media ain’t full throated in denouncing this.
Shenanigans for sure. A very chilly political situation. Seems like they are “Frozen.”
Yes, but all parties do it. The Division of Elections director thought she’d found a clever way out of it, by interpreting “properly filed” to include “filed for proper motives”. The court said nice try, but nothing doing. “Properly filed” means all the “T”s are crossed and all the “I”s dotted, and nothing else.
She can still make their listings as different as possible. For instance the guy wanted to be listed as “Dan J. Sullivan”. That’s not going to happen; he’ll be on as “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr”, and last I heard he will not be listed as a Republican (I might be out of date). Also the real Dan Sullivan will have “(incumbent)” next to his name, just to make sure people know which one is the senator.
No, the ” but what about” won’t work in this case.
Then you and I have no difference of opinion about future ‘dirty pool’ when it comes. Golly gee whiz find some blue States with lax procedures and challenge EVERY ballot based on poor voter registration list maintenance and demand each registration be investigated for full compliance and ensure they are legally sufficient before those ballots move from provisional to being counted. Sucks that all the.legal.wrangling might make them miss the certification date and they’d have no ‘winners’ to seat. If the blue State d/prog powers attempt stonewalling then golly Congress will just have to refuse to seat their entire proposed Congressional delegation. Say CA for starters.
Yep, if the rules allow it, go for it.
Nope. The “Torricelli Exception” guarantees that Democrats will always have a candidate on the ballot, even when doing so would be 100% contrary to black-letter law.
Jeff Johnson, the name you know! (See: The Distinguished Gentleman)
OK, I understand it’s a dirty DNC trick, but doesn’t it sort itself out in the “ranked choice process”
– If Dem vote for the fake Sullivan in the primary, and miscalculate, the ranking could be Sullivan, Sullivan, Pelota.
– If the Dems vote Pelota, any chance that Senator Sullivan doesn’t come in first or second, in the ranked primary?
The chance of Pelota going against the fake Sullivan in the general?
What are you smoking
This is the general. The State Supreme Court ruled the other Sullivan can be on the ballot. They stated that Sen. Sullivan will have his full name, Senatorial position and Republican Party affiliation. The Faux Sullivan will have his full name with stated no stated party affiliation. It remains to be seen where the Sullivans are listed on the ballot. Hopefully Peltola and Sen. Sullivan as first two. By the way, Peltola boasts native blood and “fish camp” heritage but caught being photographed fishing with her spinning reel wrong side up on the pole. Spinning should be on bottom and bait casting on top. Only Gov Walz and Prez. BHO made worse pics for their 2A chops..
I am expecting the faux Sullivan to make it to the general as the Dems will meter out just enough votes to keep him in the hunt while safely keeping Peltola.
This is not the general, it’s the primary.
And the problem as I understand it is that the primary is not ranked choice, it’s the top four vote-getters. So I suppose the concern is that the real Sullivan may not even make the top four?! That doesn’t seem likely, but who knows.
In the general, if both Sullivans are in, then assuming most Sullivan voters are smart enough to vote for the correct one, those who mistakenly vote for the fake Dan will surely give their preferences to the real one, so it’ll all work out in the wash. But because preferences are optional, there might be voters dumb enough to vote for the fake Dan and not bother indicating any further preferences, so their votes will be thrown out.
Did you not read my comment above! I forgot to add “also” to the first comments. Hence the ranked choice in general. I also gave the decision from the Alaska Supreme Court which was rendered for last Monday’s expedited hearing while you are stuck on the OLD news.. As a resident of Alaska I am fully aware of the local politics, hence the discussion on Peltola’s faux fishing stunt. Spoiler alert: I prevailed against the state’s HHS supporting Banner Health Fairbanks Memorial Hospital before the Alaska Supreme Court ….talk about politics!!
I reviewed the 16 candidates running for the Senate Seat. So far Murkowski has endorsed Sen. Sullivan…. safe for her since she knows Peltola will make it into the general…. after that… who knows? Still many on line sources still list the Faux Sullivan as “R” despite the Supreme Court ruling. Peltola and Sullivan should make it to the general but with it’s only 4 with ranked choice, having Faux Sullivan on the final ballot will crank up the Dem operatives to really go to work. (Peltola lost her husband when his ill-loaded bush plane he loaded and flew crashed on takeoff in 2023… and she is suing the company he worked for. ) My experience with Alaska is very limited ,just a little over 60 years having lived and worked in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Wasilla, Soldotna and Kodiak.
20 aoc’s, 38 jefferies, 29 maamdanni’s etc if they get away with it.
The GOP did this in Wa a few years ago.
It is weak sauce and the courts knocked him off the ballot.
It’s only weak sauce if you don’t get away with it. If it works, it’s good juju. What it’s not is fair dinkum. Naturally Dems get away with what Rs can’t get away with. Our judiciary is infested (yes, infested, as with vermin) with Leftists.
This finally shows up here? This story has been out there for weeks. The guy was recruited by the Dems, changed his party and even has a website almost identical to the real Senator. Just shows how far the Dems will go to win a seat. It’s not about representing the people, it’s all about power and what they will do to us if they get it.
Yeah that’s a good observation. After this long since it came to surface I figured LI staff had decided it that d/prog shenanigans were a ‘dog bites man’ story IOW unremarkable.
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