Suzanne Downing: Peltola says the system is ‘rigged,’ She should know, as the chief rigger

Another person emerges who was a target of the Peltola ballot-stacking scheme

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Oct. 30, 2026 – Mary Peltola campaigns relentlessly on opposing a “rigged” system. She wants to be sent to Washington to unrig it.

But her slogan ends up being a confession: The would-be reformer turned out to be the rigger-in-chief, rigging the elections in Alaska.

To review the bait-and-switch election rigging operation of Peltola for anyone who just walked out of the woods after a long hunting trip: A New York Times investigation shows that campaign aides sought out Alaskans named Dan Sullivan for a ballot confusion operation. The scheme involved Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz, known by the false name of “Zane,” Peltola aides, and officials with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Text messages documented communications about the project.

The obvious question is why a legitimate campaign needs a list of people to stack the ballot.

Alaska has plenty of people with ideas about fisheries, energy, spending, and national defense. A search organized around two particular words — Dan Sullivan — suggests that policy expertise was not the qualification that mattered.

The attraction was the name. The opportunity was voter confusion. The beneficiary was Peltola. When investigating a crime, they say look at the means, the motive, and the opportunity.

And it was not just Dan Sullivans, but others were courted to run against Sen. Sullivan by Camp Peltola. Mat Salisbury. Aaron Lojewski.

JR Myers, who wrote on Facebook this account:

“This Spring I received a couple calls from Alaska from a “Zane?”. He presented himself as an independent Alaskan who wanted me to consider filing to run in the Alaska U.S. Senate race. It was in April or May, not too far from the filing deadline. He was very insistent that I should run, even when I told him I was in Montana. I declined. At the time, I thought he was just a supporter. In retrospect now I believe it was part of the Democratic strategy. I am known to Mary, since I also ran for both the U.S. House races in Alaska in 2022 in the first ranked choice elections. I came in fifth, just missing the cut-off.

“In 2014, I ran for Alaska Governor as the ACP candidate receiving almost 7,000 votes. While my votes were relatively modest, the presumed Shoo-in Sean Parnell ended up going down to Walker. So, who knows what a few votes here and a few votes there can do. As it is said, they all add up. With ranked choice voting it is even trickier. I saw another potential candidate online today that was also approached like this. So, I wonder how many potential contenders the Democrats attempted to recruit? It all adds up.

“This is wrong and shameful. I have always stood for election integrity. I hope there are serious repercussions for this violation of the Alaskan electoral process.”

Not just Salisbury: Fairbanks’ Aaron Lojewski says ‘Zane’ tried to recruit him to run against Sullivan, too

Peltola’s campaign and the Chuck Schumer DSCC deny recruiting the candidates. Former Peltola campaign manager Elisa Rios told the Times that Peltola was aware of the project but not directly involved. Rios subsequently sought to retract her statements; the Times stood by its reporting, citing corroboration to Rios’ original story.

And we do have documentation that Mary visited Petersburg the day before Decoy Dan rolled out his campaign. She knew Decoy Dan, so why didn’t she call him and tell him to stand down? Means, motive, opportunity, that’s why.

Who authorized the search for men named Dan Sullivan? Who directed the recruitment? What did Peltola know, when did she know it, and what did she do afterward?

Those are questions we Alaskans deserve answers to from the rigger herself.

There is also a legal question: Federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 241, prohibits agreements to interfere with federally protected rights. Its ordinary maximum prison term is 10 years.

The prosecution theory is that participants agreed to interfere with voters’ ability to choose their intended candidate by deliberately creating confusion about identity. That’s conspiracy.

A candidate can enter a race knowing that his or her presence will hurt another candidate. That’s normal. The question here is when the alleged purpose is to make a voter select someone other than the person the voter intends to support. Trickery into voting for the wrong candidate is another matter.

Alaskans should not accept “everybody does it” as an answer to that question. If that is where we are at, where this is normal, than we can kiss our republic goodbye.

Peltola is asking to represent Alaska in the United States Senate for six long years. She is responsible for explaining the conduct of the political operation seeking to put her there. If aides pursued a scheme she opposed, she should explain how she opposed it. If she did not know its details, she should explain how such an operation developed around her. Show us the complete text messages and emails. Show us the phone call records.

Hook up to a lie detector test, Mary, because we already know you’re a stone-cold liar.

Curiously, Peltola’s campaign hasn’t figured out that they should put the brakes on talking about DC’s “rigged system,” because it is a message that is now backfiring on her.

Alaskans deserve answers before the people involved rewrite this episode as a clever campaign caper that only a humorless Republican could object to.

Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.

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Not just Salisbury: Fairbanks’ Aaron Lojewski says ‘Zane’ tried to recruit him to run against Sullivan, too

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