By SUZANNE DOWNING
Oct. 28, 2026 – Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday directed the Alaska Department of Public Safety to investigate whether the candidate recruitment operation exposed by The New York Times violated state law and warrants criminal charges or civil action.
The announcement opens a new state investigative front in the controversy surrounding efforts to place another Dan Sullivan on Alaska’s Senate ballot to draw votes away from incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.
“Today’s New York Times reporting reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates—including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator—to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes,” Dunleavy wrote on Facebook.
Breaking: New York Times investigation ties Mary Peltola to Decoy Dan recruitment
The governor said the Alaska Division of Elections investigated those concerns in June.
“The new reporting substantially supports the Division’s findings,” he wrote.
Dunleavy then announced the next step:
“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. The evidence will determine what happens next.”
The directive follows the Times’ investigation into what participants reportedly called a “ballot composition project.”
The newspaper described efforts involving Mary Peltola’s campaign advisers, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee staff and lawyers to recruit candidates who could dilute Sullivan’s support.
The most conspicuous recruit was Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg, a retired teacher known to Alaska Story readers as “Decoy Dan.” He is on the general election ballot alongside the incumbent, Peltola and Gerald Heikes.
According to the Times, the operation began with instructions to search voter records for Alaskans named Dan Sullivan. Its reporting drew on interviews, text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign.
The newspaper also described recruitment efforts involving other potential candidates and pressure on Democrat David Leslie to withdraw, which opened a general election ballot position for Heikes.
Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have denied participating in the recruitment effort. The Petersburg Sullivan has maintained that he entered the race independently, however his claim appears weak due to several coincidences, including the fact that Peltola visited Petersburg just before he filed for office.
The governor’s announcement shifts attention from the political fallout to whether investigators can establish violations of Alaska law.
“Alaskans have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support,” Dunleavy wrote. “Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections.”
The state investigation comes alongside a separate Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block certification if the incumbent Sullivan loses by a margin smaller than the votes received by the Petersburg Sullivan.
The Alaska Supreme Court previously allowed the Petersburg candidate to remain on the ballot. That eligibility decision is different from the question Dunleavy has now directed investigators to examine: whether conduct surrounding the recruitment operation violated state law.
Dunleavy closed his announcement with a warning that accountability could extend beyond individual participants.
“Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable.”
One thought on “Breaking: Dunleavy orders state investigation into ‘Decoy Dan’ election scheme”
This should have been done in July!