Oct 30, 2026 · 20 min · 11 segments
Midterm campaigns enter the final stretch across the US with multiple races too close to predict – while new October surprises could shake up races. Pressure ramps up on Ilhan Omar amid new…
Tim Rice
Megan BashamLuke Rosiak
John BickleyHost
Georgia HoweHost
Alaska's Democrat Senate candidate Mary Paltola is now under investigation for her part in the decoy Dan Sullivan scheme.
D.C. Bureau Chief Tim Rice is here to explain and give a recap of the most eventful developments per the midterms as we close in.
Right, so just a reminder, there are two people on the ballot in Alaska named Dan Sullivan.
The other is this guy named Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher who just so happens to have the same name as the strong Republican incumbent.
Now, there have been rumors that this was sort of intentional, that somebody plucked this other Dan Sullivan to confuse people, which is very important, not just because there's two candidates that could throw people off, but because Alaska has ranked choice voting.
It's if enough people rank this other Dan Sullivan ahead of the real Dan Sullivan, the whole point is it would throw things into chaos that work in Mary Peltola's favor.
So earlier this week, the New York Times found that this was a coordinated effort between a Democratic group called Alaskans for Mary, which the campaign swears is unaffiliated with.
So that group, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and then a bunch of political operatives, including this one guy from Ohio who traveled to Alaska under a fake name and traversed the state recruiting people named Dan Sullivan.
Now, people familiar with the matter tell the New York Times that while Mary Peltola did not order this, this was not coming from the campaign, they say that she was certainly aware of it.
Now, broadening out, there have been several developments in the last week related to some other key races.
Our colleague Mary Margaret Olihan has a great write-up on the site of all of the places the president has visited and will visit through the midterms.
We're starting to see a little bit more Republican enthusiasm than we had earlier in this race.
The other thing that we've seen is a lot of these late-breaking scandals and revelations hitting Democrats.
Another major revelation, also from The New York Times this past week, was that James Tallarico's essentially his political origin story.
Alaska's Democrat Senate candidate Mary Paltola is now under investigation for her part in the decoy Dan Sullivan scheme.
D.C. Bureau Chief Tim Rice is here to explain and give a recap of the most eventful developments per the midterms as we close in.
Right, so just a reminder, there are two people on the ballot in Alaska named Dan Sullivan.
The other is this guy named Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher who just so happens to have the same name as the strong Republican incumbent.
Now, there have been rumors that this was sort of intentional, that somebody plucked this other Dan Sullivan to confuse people, which is very important, not just because there's two candidates that could throw people off, but because Alaska has ranked choice voting.
It's if enough people rank this other Dan Sullivan ahead of the real Dan Sullivan, the whole point is it would throw things into chaos that work in Mary Peltola's favor.
So earlier this week, the New York Times found that this was a coordinated effort between a Democratic group called Alaskans for Mary, which the campaign swears is unaffiliated with.
So that group, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and then a bunch of political operatives, including this one guy from Ohio who traveled to Alaska under a fake name and traversed the state recruiting people named Dan Sullivan.
Now, people familiar with the matter tell the New York Times that while Mary Peltola did not order this, this was not coming from the campaign, they say that she was certainly aware of it.
Now, broadening out, there have been several developments in the last week related to some other key races.
Our colleague Mary Margaret Olihan has a great write-up on the site of all of the places the president has visited and will visit through the midterms.
We're starting to see a little bit more Republican enthusiasm than we had earlier in this race.
The other thing that we've seen is a lot of these late-breaking scandals and revelations hitting Democrats.
Another major revelation, also from The New York Times this past week, was that James Tallarico's essentially his political origin story.
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