Another New York Times investigation on Peltola's campaign

The New York Times has a detailed account that says a man named Jerid Kurtz, a Democratic political operative, contacted Daniel J. Sullivan in Petersburg and raised the prospect of him running against Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Elisa Rios, fired as Peltola’s campaign manager in August, is one of the major sources of the story. Times reporter Kellen Browning writes that Rios attempted to retract everything she said to the Times after extensive interviews, but she had spoken on the record so the newspaper did not comply.

Rios said Peltola was not directly involved in the plan, but “definitely aware.”

I have no doubt that Rios has a grudge against Peltola and what she says has to be viewed in that light. But the reporting is not based on her word alone. The Times talked to a dozen people and reviewed dozens of text messages, many of them probably kept by Rios.

The Times said Kurtz claimed to have talked to the Petersburg Sullivan and suggested that he run to help Peltola.

The gist of the New York Times report is that Daniel J. Sullivan decided to run after Democrats approached him and found him willing to put his name on the ballot.

There is nothing in the story that suggests the Peltola campaign or the Democratic Party gave cash to Daniel J. Sullivan’s campaign or propped him up in any way.

The Washington Sun reported that the Petersburg Sullivan’s campaign had $1,901 in its account on October 14 and about $30,000 in debts, $10,000 of which is for a loan Sullivan made to his campaign.

Read the full New York Times story here.

“Democrats have insisted they have nothing to do with the other Dan Sullivan on Alaska's Senate ballot. But aides with the Mary Peltola campaign and DSCC were part of a monthslong secret plan to recruit him to run -- as well as other candidates,” Browning wrote on social media.

I don’t like what I read in this piece at all. It bothers me.

What Peltola and her backers did was juvenile and stupid.

The Peltola campaign lied to Alaskans about this and should come clean. There’s no excuse for how Peltola has handled this.

Trump and Sullivan will claim this is evidence of a rigged election and that Petersburg Sullivan was not a “good faith” candidate.

But there is no law against recruiting candidates, regardless of their names, and there is no law that we have “good faith” candidates, a quality that no one can define. We have candidates who run in every election who do so only because they want to decrease the chances of someone else winning.

The Times reporting is already being pumped up by Sen. Dan Sullivan as the reason why he should spend six more years in the U.S. Senate.

But I am voting for Peltola with no hesitation. Every candidate has flaws. Sullivan’s happen to be far worse than Peltola’s.

Missing from the New York Times reporting is any assessment of the broader political picture, the damage Donald Trump is doing to our country, and Dan Sullivan’s complicity in failing to check any of the excesses of Trump and his gang.

There has been no account in the New York Times of Sullivan’s dedicated enabling of Trumpism during both terms and the cost to our country. This year alone Sullivan has voted over and over again to continue Trump’s war in Iran, the consequences of which are impossible to calculate.

Donald Trump has been telling Americans to vote this year as if his name is on the ballot. In Alaska, a vote for Dan Sullivan is a vote for Trump.

After the 2020 election, Sullivan refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden had won the election and Trump lost. Sullivan was silent about the Trump cacophony of election lies. I can’t count the number of times Sullivan has allowed Trump to lie without any pushback.

Sullivan continues to cozy up to Trump, though he never mentions that in his campaign ads because of Trump’s growing unpopularity.

Every Sullivan event features unending boasts about how much federal pork he has brought to Alaska. He acts as if this is all that matters.

He doesn’t want to talk about Trump’s love affair with Putin, cutting Medicaid by $1 trillion, the Qatari jet bribe, the blanket pardons for January 6th criminals, the trade wars based on Trump delusions and the nonstop lies.

Two weeks ago, as Trump lied dozens of times in Wasilla on everything from the inflation rate to the gas pipeline and his proposed $5,000 bribes, Sullivan employed the same tired trick.

Sullivan has been a tried-and-true Trump patsy. It’s time for a change.

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