How did a potential Republican spoiler end up on the Alaska ballot for one of the most important Senate races in the country?
The New York Times reporter Kellen Browning nailed down the facts to answer that question this week. Through interviews, documents and text messages, Kellen confirmed that political operatives aligned with the Democratic Senate campaign of Mary Peltola recruited another candidate, Dan J. Sullivan, to run as a Republican in the Senate race and try to pull votes away from the incumbent Republican, Dan S. Sullivan.
Since our article was published on Wednesday, readers have asked why we devoted a long investigation to this instance of “ballot-stacking” — a strategy considered legal that has been used by Democrats and Republicans alike. Some have wondered about the timing of our article, published less than a week before Election Day, and our interviews with a source who might have had a grievance with the Peltola campaign and who later tried to retract her statements.
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