Dunleavy orders state investigation after Times report on second Dan Sullivan

Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Wednesday he has directed the Alaska Department of Public Safety to investigate whether an effort to recruit candidates into Alaska's U.S. Senate race, including a Petersburg man who shares Sen. Dan Sullivan's name, broke state law.

Dunleavy, a Republican, announced the investigation in a Facebook post after The New York Times reported that aides to Democrat Mary Peltola worked with Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee officials on a "ballot composition project" to recruit spoiler candidates. He said the department will look at whether "criminal charges or civil action are warranted." His post didn't name anyone or say which laws may have been broken.

Peltola's campaign has said it "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign" and "did not recruit any candidates into the race." The DSCC also denied it, and Daniel J. Sullivan has said he entered the race on his own.

Dunleavy wrote that the Division of Elections investigated "these very concerns" in June and that the Times' reporting "substantially supports the Division's findings."

Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees the division, opened that review in June. Acting on complaints filed for the Alaska Republican Party's chair, Division Director Carol Beecher then rejected Daniel J. Sullivan's filing as not made in good faith and designed to confuse voters. A Superior Court judge ruled that she had applied a "good faith" standard found nowhere in state law, and the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed, putting the retired Petersburg teacher back on the ballot.

The Justice Department also cited the Times report Wednesday. It dropped its opposition to Peltola's campaign and the DSCC joining its federal lawsuit over the race and said it will seek expedited discovery from the campaign. That suit asks a judge to hold up certification if Sen. Sullivan loses but would have won with Daniel J. Sullivan's votes.

Ballot-stacking is common and generally legal, the Times noted, and both parties have used it in Alaska.

Election Day is Tuesday.