Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy sidestepped questions about whether he planned to certify the state’s Senate race if Democrat Mary Peltola wins, telling NewsNation on Thursday that his office won’t send a “scam” to Washington.
“We’re going to follow the law, and if we conclude that there was this, uh, mis — there were things that should not have happened, let me put it that way, that are illegal, we will act on that. And that may, in fact, impact whether somebody is seated in this U.S. Senate,” Dunleavy told NewsNation on Thursday.
The governor announced Thursday that he was opening a probe into Democrats’ alleged “scheme,” in which Peltola campaign staffers and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had conspired to recruit people named Dan Sullivan to run against incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) as spoiler candidates.
Dan J. Sullivan, who will appear on the ballot in November, Peltola’s campaign and other Democrats have denied the allegations as reported in The New York Times this week.
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The article has bolstered Republican efforts to derail Peltola’s Senate bid.
The Alaska Supreme Court ruled this spring that the second Dan Sullivan would remain on the ballot — a decision that is now central to President Donald Trump’s decision to have the Justice Department sue Alaska in hopes of blocking certification of the race if the incumbent Sullivan loses.
When NewsNation pressed Dunleavy on not answering “yes” to a question about certifying the election’s results, the governor said residents want him to ensure they don’t send a “scam” to Washington.
“We started our investigation here a day ago — we never, again, we did not want this individual on our ballot,” Dunleavy said, referring to candidate Dan J. Sullivan. “It was the Supreme Court of Alaska that made that decision, unfortunately.”
He added that if state Supreme Court justices had known that information earlier, “they probably would have arrived at a different conclusion.”
The Justice Department on Thursday issued several subpoenas in its criminal investigation into whether Peltola’s campaign was involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan as part of an alleged effort to confuse voters in the hotly contested race.
Also on Thursday, the Trump administration filed an amended complaint and asked the court to block a previous motion to dismiss the case filed by Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC. Government lawyers argue that new allegations in the Times story provide more details about the “conspiracy by the Peltola Campaign and the DSCC to mislead voters.”
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