By SUZANNE DOWNING
Oct. 30, 2026 – Where’s Waldo? Or rather, where’s Decoy Dan? Daniel J. Sullivan is becoming harder for reporters — or anyone — to reach just as investigators are seeking more information about how he entered the US Senate race. Whether it’s KTUU or CBS, reporters say they can’t get ahold of Decoy Dan, even after going to Petersburg, Alaska in person to track him down.
Decoy Dan Sullivan, the retired teacher whose name closely resembles that of Republican incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, did not respond to a recent Associated Press request for comment. He could not be found by a KTUU reporting crew. It seems everyone, including law officers, want to talk to him about the supposed conspiracy surrounding his campaign for Senate.
His silence raises even more questions about the effort by Democratic operatives to recruit candidates to divert votes from the senator.
Not just Salisbury: Fairbanks’ Aaron Lojewski says ‘Zane’ tried to recruit him to run against Sullivan, too
The sham candidate at the center of the controversy has offered little fresh public explanation. Federal investigators, however, are pursuing answers.
The Justice Department issued at least three dozen new subpoenas and document preservation requests. Subpoenas went to Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign offices and they’re also targeting the Petersburg Sullivan, according to NBC.
At least three dozen subpoenas and records preservation requests have been made. A preservation request directs recipients to retain potential evidence, including phone records, text messages, emails and more.
The latest investigative activity followed Wednesday’s New York Times report alleging that people associated with Peltola’s campaign were involved in recruiting the second Sullivan to run, as part of a scheme to stack the ballot in favor of Peltola.
Peltola is maintaining that she was unaware of the effort. At a Juneau fundraiser on Thursday, she said she “knew nothing about” the other Sullivan. Her campaign has separately denied involvement with either Sullivan campaign. And yet, she was in Petersburg the day before Decoy Dan announced his candidacy.
Those denials leave votes with questions about who, if not Peltola, authorized the recruitment effort, who financed it, what campaign personnel knew, and whether Peltola herself was in the loop.
Decoy Dan Sullivan has previously defended his candidacy and denied being a Democratic plant. But from the start, he used Democrat consultant Amber Lee, which was one of the first clues that he was part of a scheme. Lee’s husband was featured in an ad attacking Sen. Dan Sullivan last fall.
His campaign has also operated on a shoestring. He had raised approximately $30,556 through mid-October, including $10,400 he loaned his own campaign. This past week, he mysteriously switched his voter registration back to “undeclared,” without explanation.
For now, he’s just done a disappearing act, as only a “ghost” candidate would do four days before an election.
Breaking: House Oversight Committee opens investigation into Peltola ‘Decoy Dan’ allegations
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3 thoughts on “Where’s ‘Decoy Dan’? Subpoenas reach campaign as Petersburg candidate goes missing”
Find him and lock him up until he agrees to give up the goods against his partners in crime.
Putting someone on the ballot just because of their last name is a bit slimy. But enough about Darlene Graham.
He’s hiding in a bar, or on a fishing boat somewhere in SE Alaska. What a coward. He put his family through all of this humiliation. A dunce of a man.