The investigation into allegations of deceptive candidate recruitment surrounding Alaska’s closely watched U.S. Senate race is drawing renewed attention to the political connections of one family at the center of the controversy.
The son of Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired Alaska schoolteacher whose name became part of a reported Democratic campaign strategy, is himself a registered Democrat and works as a field representative for Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, according to congressional employment records and media reports.
The revelation adds another political connection to a developing controversy involving incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola, and allegations that Democratic operatives sought to exploit Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system by recruiting a second candidate with the same name as the sitting senator.
The elder Sullivan, who previously lived in the southeastern Alaska community of Petersburg, shares his first and last name with the Republican incumbent. That similarity has become a central element of allegations that voters could be confused when casting ballots in the closely watched contest.
