US President Donald Trump demanded Wednesday that Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola and a rival sharing the name of Alaska\u2019s Republican incumbent be removed from next week\u2019s election ballot, accusing Democrats of an illegal scheme to confuse voters.\n<\/p>\n
His call followed a New York Times investigation reporting that Democratic operatives had secretly recruited so-called \u201cspoiler\u201d candidates, including another Dan Sullivan, in an effort to draw votes away from Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has just been determined that the Democrats in Alaska illegally searched for, and recruited, a man named Dan Sullivan,\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.\n<\/p>\n
He accused Democrats of committing perjury by making false statements under oath in federal court, and demanded that the incumbent be allowed to run without either Peltola or the \u201cFAKE Dan Sullivan\u201d on the ballot.<\/p>\n
But the Times noted that recruiting candidates to split an opponent\u2019s vote \u2014 a practice known as ballot stacking \u2014 is generally legal and has been used by both parties in Alaska.\n<\/p>\n
Its investigation did not establish criminal wrongdoing or substantiate Trump\u2019s allegation of perjury.<\/p>\n
The effort involved senior aides and lawyers for Peltola, as well as officials at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to the newspaper, which cited interviews, dozens of text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign.<\/p>\n
Among those it said were recruited was Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from a remote Alaskan fishing community. He has said he entered the race of his own volition.\n<\/p>\n
The newspaper identified Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz as a central figure, reporting that he travelled around Alaska under an assumed name to court potential candidates.\n<\/p>\n
The Times said Kurtz also urged a Democrat to quit the race after the August primary, opening a place on the four-candidate ranked-choice ballot for Republican Gerald Heikes, also a recruit. <\/p>\n
Heikes told the paper he was recruited by a Midwesterner who he did not think resembled a photo of Kurtz. Kurtz did not respond to requests for comment from the Times.\n<\/p>\n
Peltola\u2019s former campaign manager Elisa Rios told the paper the candidate was \u201cdefinitely aware\u201d of the project but not directly involved, and that DSCC aides had introduced Kurtz to the campaign.\n<\/p>\n
Rios, who was fired in August and had been planning a wrongful termination lawsuit, later sought to retract her statements. The Times said her account was consistent with its other reporting.\n<\/p>\n
Peltola\u2019s campaign and the DSCC have denied recruiting any candidates.<\/p>\n
The revelations come days after Trump ordered the Justice Department to sue Alaska over the presence of the second Sullivan on the ballot.\n<\/p>\n
The lawsuit seeks to delay certification if Peltola narrowly defeats the incumbent and votes cast for his namesake could have changed the outcome.\n<\/p>\n
In June, Alaska\u2019s Supreme Court upheld the retired teacher\u2019s right to run, rejecting Republican efforts to remove him from the ballot.\n<\/p>\n
The state has asked a federal judge to dismiss the Justice Department\u2019s lawsuit, arguing it has no legal basis.\n<\/p>\n
AFP\n <\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump demanded Wednesday that Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola and a rival sharing the name of Alaska\u2019s Republican incumbent be removed from next week\u2019s election ballot, accusing… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}