Conservatives have been calling out this fraud since Decoy Dan first surfaced on the waters off his remote Alaskan village, and all proper-thinking Americans (that would be the party, the media, and hand-picked Alaskan judges) denied it, but when you’ve lost the New York Times ….

NYTimes: Peltola Campaign Was Behind the 'Dan Sullivan' Dirty Trick

John Sexton, HotAir:

Ed wrote about this story back in June. In case you missed it, all you need to know is that the Senate race in Alaska is between two candidates, incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan and Democrat challenger Mary Peltola.

But somewhere along the line a new candidate appeared. His name was, wait for it, Dan Sullivan. Dan S. Sullivan is the incumbent and Dan J. Sullivan is a nobody who suddenly decided to run for Senate.

The dirty trick first appeared to fall apart when Alaska director of elections kicked the fake Dan Sullivan off the ballot. However, that decision got overruled so as of now the fake Dan Sullivan is still on the ballot.

There were some pretty good hints that this was a Democrat dirty trick but the Peltola campaign has denied any involvement.

Today the NY Times blows up that excuse with a story that reveals how this was done.

In the summer of 2025, a staffer for Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democrat who was eyeing a run for Senate, received unusual instructions from top campaign aides: Find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can.
The staffer complied, combing through voter records to produce a list of Dan Sullivans from across the state.
This was no random request. Dan S. Sullivan is the name of the state’s Republican senator. And if the Peltola campaign or its allies could track down and persuade another Dan Sullivan to run for Senate, the confusion could cost the senator crucial votes on the state’s unusual, four-person ballot.
The plan worked. This spring, a retired teacher from a tiny fishing village along the Alaska Panhandle, reachable only by air and sea, announced his candidacy for Senate. His name was Dan J. Sullivan.
The Peltola campaign has repeatedly denied any involvement in his candidacy. But The Times has found, based on interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign, that not only did Ms. Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory.

So how did they convince the fake Dan Sullivan to join the race? Pretty simple. They told him it would hurt Trump.

Mr. Sullivan “said he hated Trump, and if it was going to help Mary, he liked Mary. He didn’t have any interest in being a politician, but if this could help.”

Sullivan, the fake one, has claimed he entered on his own volition. Now that it's clear he's lying, he's refusing to answer any questions. [In fact, he disappeared last week, days before the election, and no one admits to knowing where he is; sounds like Biden 2020 – ED]The person who recruited him is an Ohio political operator named Jerid Kurtz. Kurtz not only personally recruited fake Dan Sullivan, he also convinced a Democrat rival to Peltola to drop out of the race so that yet another fake Republican candidate would make it onto the ballot.

"The source added she did not know where Sullivan was headed, but another friend said he and his wife are known among friends as 'world travelers.'"
— Byron York (@ByronYork) October 31, 2026