By ALEX GIMARC
July 12, 2026 – The Mary Peltola senate campaign’s latest salvo against Sen. Dan Sullivan has been a series of ads accusing him of insider trading, making money in the stock market, and over 100 stock trades in the last 12 years.
Oh, the shock. Oh, the horror. Oh, the humanity.
Apparently, the Decoy Dan dirty trick isn’t polling as well as it was supposed to. So sad. Too bad. On to the next dirty trick.
Now that Smiling Mary has opened the door, perhaps it is time to explore some of her lifestyle choices with the same sort of breathless J’accuse as her recent ads are pointing at the Senator.
We’ll start with an easy one, her residence. She claims to be a Bethel chick yet has a residence here in Anchorage. If she is a city girl, why is she pretending to be a country or even a Bush girl? Better still, why is she participating in a subsistence fishery with a residence in Anchorage?
Peltola goes subsistence fishing, but does she really live in region or is this a violation of law?
Second is her view of insider trading by congress critters. One of her early votes while in the House was to install Nancy Pelosi as Speaker.
The is the same Pelosi whose family (her husband made most of the trades) did so well in the stock market there is legislation to ban insider trading with her name on it.
In Mary’s world, insider trading is only allowable for democrats. Got it.
But the piece de resistance for personal finances would be her claim of owning 176 long guns. Quite the arsenal, that. The claim was sufficient to get her an NRA endorsement in 2024.
Suzanne’s Aug 7, 2024, article asked a number of important questions about the arsenal, all of which were ignored by Peltola at the time.
But given the tenor of her current campaign, and her gleeful descent into the mud, throwing stones inside her glass house, there are other questions that could be asked. And if she and her campaign are now trafficking in lies and innuendo aimed at Sen. Sullivan, why shouldn’t everyone join in the fun?
With that in mind, here are a few questions for your consideration:
How many of those long guns were purchased? Any background checks done?
How many were seized from Alaskans by her former husband Buzzy Peltola in the course of his duties for US Fish & Wildlife Service? Did Mary know any firearms were seized? How many of these did she know about?
Note that if firearms are being seized in return for no other enforcement action, this would constitute a crime by law enforcement. Knowledge of even one such transaction without reporting it is also a crime.
How many of those firearms did Mary dispose of? How were they disposed of? Any receipts for the transaction(s)?
There are more questions, but you get the idea. Trafficking in stolen firearms will get you a lot of time in Club Fed. While these questions may be overblown, baseless worry, it is up to Mary to enlighten us on the error of our ways, demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that she does not traffic on the sketchy side of the political world. Given her campaign so far, I would not waste a lot of time expecting that response.
Is this ugly? You bet. Is it hitting below the belt? Absolutely, but so is running a guy with the same name as your opponent to garbage up the ballot. So is supporting Pelosi without saying a word about her insider trading operation. And so are the Peltola campaign claims against Sen. Dan Sullivan.
On the other hand, these are YOUR rules, Mary. This is the game YOU wanted to play. Have fun playing under your new rules.
As always, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
3 thoughts on “Alex Gimarc: The glass houses of Mary Peltola”
Mary wears me out. I think she knows she can’t win, but she’s running to make money she can then use for… whatever. Campaign finance rules? What are those? She will play the Native card and skip out on whatever skeevy behavior she exhibits.
Subsistence hunting? How much money did she make as a lobbyist in DC? Maybe she should leave a few fish for those who don’t have her “connections.”
And the Lord hates a liar.
Awful statement Nygaard. You are a core player on the Division Team.
Is decoy Dan only for the primary? Is the hope he will draw enough primary votes that Sen. Dan doesn’t make it past the primary? That seems a stretch.
I was thinking the plan was to get him into the Nov. ballot and draw enough votes that Mary would come out on top!