Suzanne Downing: Watch out for the decoy candidates lying to Alaskans

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Sept. 21, 2026 – Alaska’s 2026 election has produced a new political archetype: the candidate whose name or party label may tell voters far less than they think. This is the year of the decoys.

Start with Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. of Petersburg, the retired teacher appearing in the US Senate race alongside incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. You know, Decoy Dan.

The similarities are striking. The Petersburg candidate registered as a Republican candidate even though he was an undeclared at the time, and entered a race against a well-established senator bearing the same name. He even tried to file with a middle initial “S.” His candidacy was clearly designed to confuse voters and siphon votes from the incumbent.

Yes, the Division of Elections initially removed him from the ballot after concluding that his filing had not been made in good faith, but the courts reinstated him, ruling that election officials lacked sufficient legal grounds to disqualify him.

Yet the political intent has been clear from the get-go.

In the August primary, Decoy Dan received 4,107 votes — 2.47% of the total — and advanced under Alaska’s top-four election system. Now both Sullivans will appear before voters in November. The Democrats are hoping he’ll siphon enough votes to give Mary Peltola the win.

A similar question has arisen in conservative House District 23, where Republican Rep. Jamie Allard is seeking reelection.

Ruby Jones filed as a Republican and entered the race against Allard. Her official candidate statement identifies her as a registered Republican, although she was very recently a nonpartisan. Jones finished the primary with 688 votes, or 13.9%,. And that gave her the her union buddies enough to advance to November along with Allard and two Democrats. She’s hoping to split the vote so Democrat Jim Arlington can win. That’s the Democrat plan. Don’t forget,

So now we have a “Decoy Jones” who is being backed by unions that only back Democrats. As with Decoy Dan, Decoy Jones is a fraud candidate.

Then there is Bill Hill, whose case involves something different: not a similar name, but a label that obscures the partisan machinery supporting him.

Hill is officially running for Alaska’s US House seat as an independent candidate. But the Alaska Democratic Party has endorsed him and forced the real Democrat — Matt Schultz — to suspend his campaign. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has now placed Hill in its national “Red to Blue” program, the party organization’s effort to defeat Republican House members.

Hill has also benefited from millions of dollars in outside spending by Wheel Dog PAC, which has received substantial funding from national groups associated with Democratic political causes. They went on the air this week with a radio spot that we can only describe as Begich Derangement Syndrome.

A candidate may legally run without a party designation while accepting help from partisan organizations. But voters should understand that there is a political machine behind the so-called independence.

That is the common thread running through these three races.

Alaska’s jungle primary advances candidates without regard to party. That’s how we ended up with three Republicans on the gubernatorial section of the ballot. The messy and confusing ranked-choice voting then determines the November winner — if no candidate receives a majority in the first round. Under the old semi-open primary model, candidates competed for their own party’s nomination and many marginal contenders never reached the general-election ballot with 1% of the vote, the way they are doing now.

That makes the voter’s job harder.

So don’t assume that Daniel J Sullivan on the ballot is the senator. You might remember it this way: Dan’s “J” is for “joke,” or “jackass.” Maybe you have a stronger word to describe him. Whatever it takes to remember that S is for Senator Sullivan.

Don’t assume that “Republican,” “independent” or “nonpartisan” tells the whole story in this rigged-choice voting era. Look at when candidates changed their registration, who recruited them, who funds the organizations promoting them and which party benefits from their presence on the ballot. Ruby Jones is no more Republican than is Decoy Dan.

Alaskans, be careful out there. You are the target of these attempts to deceive. In this election, the label may be the least revealing thing about the candidate. In fact, the label may be the decoy. The label may, in fact, be a decoy.

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