On Wednesday Oct. 28, Democrat Mary Peltola’s team was facing an investigation into attempts to have two Dan Sullivans run in the Alaskan senate race: Dan J Sullivan and Senator Dan S Sullivan, the Republican incumbent. Sullivan Jr. is an independent candidate and a former forestry technician with more than 20 years of teaching experience. His policies revolve around sustainable resource development, affordable housing, and affordable healthcare.
New York Times reports that the Democratic nominee for Senate had spent months recruiting candidates to peel votes from Sullivan, who is the current U.S. senator seeking re-election for another six-year term.
There seem to be attempts to recruit spoiler candidates in the Senate race.
Does this mean there was election interference?
President Donald Trump said that Peltola should drop out of the Senate race and be prosecuted, while Peltola’s team denies any wrongdoing.
“I knew nothing about any other candidates on the ballot, except for me and the incumbent,” Peltola said.
Based on these reports, I would like to say I agree with Trump and his comments regarding the matter. I’m concerned with voter confusion, as in someone who goes to vote for the senator on Nov. 3 would be confused as to why two similar names appear on the ballot.
I also side with political integrity. In an ideal world, there is transparency and politics are void of corruption, but this is sadly far from reality.
There are official investigations in the past where Peltola has acted out of character, such as using racial slurs, so she clearly isn’t who she portrays herself to be when appearing on camera.
So, I believe this is something that does deserve federal investigation. It’s a delicate matter and something not to be dismissed.
Ultimately, elections should be decided by the voters, not by political strategies designed to manipulate the outcome.
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