Alaska governor says case of Dan Sullivan's namesake candidate is just the tip of the iceberg

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said in an interview with Fox News' "America Reports" program that the case of the alleged spoiler candidate in the US Senate race is probably "just the tip of the iceberg." According to him, the state opened its own investigation, in parallel to the federal government's investigation, and intends to move forward "as quickly as possible."

The candidate in question, Daniel J. Sullivan, has the same name as the Republican senator seeking re-election, Dan Sullivan. According to Dunleavy, the state government office noticed the problem back in May and June, when the elections division did a preliminary investigation and decided to remove the candidate's name from the ballot.

According to the governor, the state's intention was to preserve electoral integrity. The decision, however, was reversed by the Alaska Supreme Court, and the name ended up on the ballot. Dunleavy said the state government was "overwhelmed" by the court at that time.

What the government says it found

Dunleavy said that the candidate answered questions from authorities, but not under oath, as he refused to do so through a formal statement (affidavit). Based on the responses and the lack of other information, the state concluded that the candidacy was not genuine and had been created to take advantage of the ranked-choice voting system in place in Alaska.

The governor also mentioned a detail: in the first emails sent to the elections division, the candidate wanted to appear as "Daniel Sullivan". According to Dunleavy, his middle initial is not S, which is that of the sitting senator. For the governor, the intention was questionable at the time and, now, “incredibly questionable”.

Dunleavy said he believes the Supreme Court would have ruled differently if it had the information that has now become public, revealed in a report by The New York Times. He also mentioned the possibility of subpoenas at the Congressional level.

Early voting and possible consequences

The presenter noted that around 60,000 early votes have already been cast, equivalent to approximately 23% of voters who voted in the last midterm election. Dunleavy responded that the count will try to verify how many of these voters knew exactly who they were voting for.

The governor said the investigation will be conducted according to the law and that if it leads to criminal or civil charges, the state will pursue them regardless of who is involved. He called the situation "hugely problematic" for Democratic candidate Mary Peltola, but said he had not asked her to resign. According to the presenter, President Donald Trump defended that Peltola be criminally prosecuted and leave the race. During the campaign, Peltola called the episode a distraction and attacked the New York Times.

The presenter also cited a case in Florida, in which a Republican operator allegedly paid US$45,000 to recruit a candidate and confuse the electorate, with convictions for election campaign violations. Dunleavy said that the investigation needs to clarify who financed the candidacy and whether payments were made, and that he will not be surprised by the result.

For the governor, the episode is a warning to the rest of the country about the integrity of elections, especially in the face of artificial intelligence and other tricks. He attributed part of the problem to the "jungle primary" system and ranked-choice voting, which, in his opinion, facilitate this type of maneuver. For investors, the outcome of the Senate dispute is a factor of political uncertainty to monitor, with no direct measurable effect on the markets so far.

Automatically translated from Portuguese.