Exclusive: Republicans ask FEC to investigate Peltola campaign over spoiler candidate

In a revised complaint, the NRSC asks the FEC to ‘sanction to the fullest extent of the law all the violations it finds.’ Top Republicans are directing the Federal Election Commission to investigate Democratic Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s role in the effort to prop up a spoiler candidate with the same name as her opponent, incumbent GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, according to details first shared with Semafor. On the heels of new reporting from The New York Times this week that detailed the efforts of national Democrats and the Peltola campaign to draft Dan J.

Sullivan into the Senate race, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is asking the FEC to probe both the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Peltola’s campaign and refer the matter to the Justice Department if the FEC determines “these violations were knowing and willful.” The new complaint calls on the body to “sanction to the fullest extent of the law all the violations it finds.” The NRSC previously asked the FEC to probe the other Dan Sullivan in June, but the new reporting on the race has prompted the GOP’s campaign arm to expand its request. The new complaint is supplemental and contains new details and allegations.

“It is now clear that Respondent Sullivan’s sham candidacy was the product of a months-long ‘ballot composition Project’ run by agents of Ms. Peltola and her campaign committee, Alaskans for Mary (together,the ‘Peltola Campaign’), and financed by multiple super PACs,” the complaint reads. With the midterms now days away, the complaint is part of an urgent effort to discredit Peltola in a must-win Senate race that could easily determine the upper chamber’s majority. The Justice Department is also investigating the matter.

Republicans are worried the existence of a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot will cost the two-term incumbent votes in the state’s race, which uses a unique ranked choice system to tabulate the votes. Alaska’s moderate Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said that “recruiting candidates to manipulate the field and influence voting outcomes is simply wrong. Alaskans deserve the honest truth from Mary and her campaign.” The new complaint alleges that federal laws were violated since Dan J.

Sullivan was recruited “because of his name for the deliberate purpose of misleading Alaska voters into voting for the wrong candidate” and that Peltola allies inappropriately coordinated with outside groups to aid him. The complaint also alleges that “Sullivan was not the only spoiler candidate that the Peltola Campaign attempted to recruit to run,” naming Gerald Heikes, who is also on the ballot.