By SUZANNE DOWNING
Sept. 8, 2026 – A government watchdog has filed a new federal election complaint against Alaska US Senate candidate Daniel J. Sullivan, (Decoy Dan) alleging his campaign illegally coordinated with the liberal dark-money organization 907 Initiative through a political consultant working with both operations at the same general time.
Americans for Public Trust filed the complaint Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission against Sullivan, his campaign committee and 907 Initiative. It alleges that political consultant Amber Lee worked for Sullivan’s campaign while simultaneously serving as a director and secretary of 907 Initiative.
The Alaska Story was the first news organization to expose Amber Lee Strategies’ involvement in the campaign of the Petersburg candidate, who shares nearly the same name as incumbent Republican US Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Metadata embedded in the candidate’s original campaign announcement identified Lee as its author. The campaign later admitted that Lee provided website and digital consulting services, helping construct a campaign whose original logo, colors and branding closely resembled those used by the incumbent senator.
The new complaint takes the allegations one step further by arguing that Lee’s overlapping roles connected the Decoy Dan campaign to a nonprofit organization spending heavily to defeat his principal Republican opponent.
During the same period Lee was advising Daniel J. Sullivan, 907 Initiative was running an extensive advertising campaign attacking Sen. Sullivan. The organization has spent approximately $1.5 million targeting the incumbent, including about $575,000 during the final 90 days before Alaska’s Aug. 18 primary, according to figures cited in the complaint.
On May 28, one day before Decoy Dan filed as a candidate, 907 Initiative released an advertisement titled “Stop Raising Costs” attacking the incumbent senator. The nonprofit has also operated a broader “Yes Man Dan” campaign criticizing Sen. Sullivan’s voting record.
Daniel J. Sullivan’s subsequent FEC report showed his campaign owed Amber Lee Strategies $4,380.41 for website services and digital consulting.
“Amber Lee Strategies’ work for the Daniel J. Sullivan campaign — and her concurrent leadership position as a board member of 907 Initiative whilst it spent significant sums of money on ads targeting her client’s primary opponent — is the third and final prong to establish coordination,” Americans for Public Trust wrote in its complaint.
The watchdog argues that Lee helped Sullivan file for office and helped develop his campaign materials while 907 Initiative was reserving and distributing advertisements attacking the incumbent.
Federal regulations apply a three-part test to determine whether an outside group’s communication was coordinated with a candidate. The test examines who paid for the communication, its content and the interaction between the outside spender and a candidate or campaign.
Under FEC rules, a communication satisfying all three elements may be treated as an in-kind campaign contribution. Such contributions are subject to federal limits, prohibitions and disclosure requirements.
The conduct portion of the test can be satisfied through a shared commercial vendor, employee or contractor if nonpublic campaign information material to the communication is used or conveyed. The regulations also provide a safe harbor when an effective firewall prevents such information from passing between the operations.
The complaint alleges that the overlapping relationship involving Lee resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in prohibited, excessive and unreported in-kind contributions to Decoy Dan’s campaign.
“It’s unsurprising that a person who is staking his entire candidacy on misleading voters is flouting campaign finance laws in an attempt to give himself an upper hand,” Americans for Public Trust Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland said. “Coordinating with outside groups is obviously illegal and 907 Initiative’s efforts result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in prohibited, excessive, and unreported campaign contributions.”
Sutherland called for an immediate FEC investigation.
907 Initiative Executive Director Aubrey Wieber denied the allegation in a statement to the New York Post, saying Lee was a board member but was never employed or paid by the organization.
“907 Initiative had no involvement with any work between Dan J. Sullivan and Amber Lee,” Wieber said. “I found out about the connection by reading the news.”
The FEC would need to determine whether the communications met each element of its coordination test, including whether campaign information was used or conveyed. The filing is an allegation, not a finding by the commission.
The full complaint is the latest in a series of federal complaints involving Decoy Dan’s candidacy.
Breaking: DOJ escalates ‘Decoy Dan’ investigation with grand jury subpoenas on Alaska primary day
Earlier complaints filed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee alleged that Sullivan and Lee participated in a coordinated effort to mislead voters, that Lee or her firm may have provided excessive or prohibited in-kind assistance, and that the candidate failed to register with the FEC promptly after crossing the federal spending threshold.
The FEC has not publicly determined that Decoy Dan, Amber Lee or 907 Initiative violated federal law in connection with the new allegations.
Decoy Dan finished fourth in Alaska’s nonpartisan primary with approximately 2.5% of the vote. It’s unclear how many of those votes were made by mistake.
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2 thoughts on “Breaking: New FEC complaint alleges ‘Decoy Dan’ campaign coordinated with liberal 907 Initiative”
“907 Initiative had no involvement with any work between Dan J. Sullivan and Amber Lee,” Wieber said. “I found out about the connection by reading the news.”
This is a very poor attempt at plausible deniability.
It’s actually an outright lie. Wieber, Lee and the Petersburg Drunk should all be prosecuted.