Alaska Democrats didn’t stop at fielding a second “Dan Sullivan” candidate in the state’s Senate race. According to new reporting, a sophisticated multi-year ballot operation involving top Washington Democratic strategists has emerged, centering on efforts to boost Rep. Mary Peltola’s reelection campaign through strategic support of Republican spoiler candidates.
At the heart of the operation is Jim Lottsfeldt, a veteran Alaska Democratic consultant whose network of super PACs has received millions from national Democratic leadership over the past decade. The New York Times profiled the connections between Lottsfeldt and Peltola’s campaign staff, reporting that they met regularly despite legal requirements that super PACs and campaigns maintain independence.
A Decade of PAC Operations
Lottsfeldt’s involvement in Alaska electoral strategy stretches back to 2013, when he founded Put Alaska First. Federal Election Commission filings reveal that a staggering 86 percent of that PAC’s funding came directly from Senate Majority PAC, the super PAC run by allies of Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. The committee even used the same media buyer as the national Democratic operation, suggesting tight coordination.
The consultant’s influence expanded in 2020 when he ran Independent Alaska, the super PAC backing Al Gross, who had become the preferred candidate of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in that year’s Senate race.
More recently, in both 2022 and 2024, Lottsfeldt served as treasurer of Vote Alaska Before Party, another pro-Peltola super PAC that poured millions into boosting the congressional campaigns of Gerald Heikes, a perennial Republican candidate for office.
Millions in Democratic Leadership Funding
House Majority PAC, the super PAC controlled by House Democratic leadership, funneled substantial resources through Lottsfeldt’s operation. The national committee gave his PAC $1.7 million in 2022, then dramatically increased that support to $4.48 million in October 2024 alone.
The apparent strategy behind supporting Heikes, a Republican, appears designed to split the conservative vote and improve Peltola’s chances in Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system. Heikes secured a spot on Tuesday’s general election ballot after Democrat David Leslie, who had initially finished fourth in the primary, withdrew from the race.
Governor Orders Investigation
The controversy prompted Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy to order an investigation into what he called a ballot-stacking scheme. The governor cited “disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections,” according to Breitbart News reporting last week.
When questioned about his involvement, Lottsfeldt denied participating in the pro-Heikes effort. However, records tell a different story. A super PAC called Alaska Values spent $1.7 million boosting spoiler candidates including Heikes, and Lottsfeldt appears on committee paperwork listed as a consultant.
According to The New York Times, Alaska Values filings show that Lottsfeldt personally requested radio time for the PAC as recently as October, contradicting his denials of involvement.
Pattern of Strategic Candidate Boosting
The revelations about Heikes add context to the already controversial “Decoy Dan” situation, where a second candidate named Dan Sullivan entered the Senate race alongside incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan. Critics have accused Democrats of deliberately recruiting candidates with similar names or profiles to confuse voters and dilute support for Republican frontrunners.
Alaska’s adoption of ranked-choice voting in recent years was intended to reduce partisan gamesmanship and give voters more choice. Instead, critics argue, it has created new opportunities for sophisticated ballot operations that strategically place candidates to engineer favorable outcomes.
The coordination between national Democratic leadership, Lottsfeldt’s network of Alaska-based super PACs, and the strategic support of Republican candidates represents what some observers are calling one of the most elaborate state-level electoral operations in recent memory.
Timing and Implications
The full scope of these operations has come to light just as Alaska voters head to the polls for Tuesday’s general election. With millions already spent and ballots already printed, the investigation ordered by Governor Dunleavy will likely focus on whether laws were broken and what reforms might prevent similar tactics in future elections.
The controversy also raises questions about the effectiveness of federal campaign finance laws intended to maintain separation between super PACs and the candidates they support. Despite legal requirements that these groups operate independently, the reported regular meetings between Lottsfeldt and Peltola’s campaign staff suggest those walls may be more porous than intended.
For Alaska voters, the revelations add another layer of complexity to an already unusual electoral system. As they rank their choices on Tuesday’s ballot, many will be weighing not just the candidates’ platforms and qualifications, but also the question of which candidates are genuine contenders and which may have been strategically placed to influence the outcome.
The investigation into the ballot operation continues, with state officials examining FEC filings, super PAC expenditure records, and the connections between Alaska consultants and national Democratic leadership organizations.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/11/02/democrats-alaska-ballot-operation-went-beyond-decoy-dan-candidate/