Trump calls for Mary Peltola to be banned from Alaska senate race

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump intensified his attacks on Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola following a news report that her allies secretly recruited candidates to join the state’s US Senate race in order to dilute support for Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.“I think Dan Sullivan – the fake Dan Sullivan – and Mary Peltola should be, number one they should be taken off the ballot, and number two, they should be prosecuted,” Trump told reporters on Oct 28. There’s no clear legal mechanism for the Democrat’s removal from the race and Trump did not provide direct evidence that her or her campaign advisers broke the law.The New York Times reported on Oct 28 that Peltola’s team engaged in a broad attempt to peel votes from Sullivan by recruiting spoilers into the race.So called “ballot-stacking” manoeuvres are common in US politics and are generally thought to be legal.In a social media post earlier on Oct 28, Trump called the effort “illegal” and said Peltola should “suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done,” including her own exclusion from the race. “In Alaska, I don’t think Mary Peltola, after perpetrating such a terrible scheme, should be allowed to run, because this is ELECTION FRAUD,” he said in a subsequent post.Peltola’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post.Both her campaign and the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm have denied involvement in the candidate recruitment effort. The plan, dubbed the “ballot composition project,” resulted in the candidacy of retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan, the Times reported.Peltola’s campaign said in a statement it “has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.”The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said in a statement it too “is not involved with Dan J. Sullivan.”Trump’s critics have called his attacks an attempt to nullify an election that could decide control of the Senate.Alaska is one of a number of traditionally Republican states with unexpectedly competitive Senate races, in large part thanks to voters’ dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the cost of living.At Trump’s request, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit seeking to preemptively block the certification of Senate election results in Alaska if Senator Sullivan loses by a close margin, citing the risk of “voter confusion” with two individuals on the ballot having similar names.The department argued that Daniel J. Sullivan is running as a deliberate spoiler to Senator Sullivan’s reelection campaign.In a filing on Oct 28 in federal court in Anchorage, the DOJ said that in light of the New York Times report, the US intends to quickly seek information from Peltola’s campaign about whether it “attempted to deceive the court by seeking an expedited ruling on a motion to dismiss when the campaign may have been aware of the New York Times reporting before it was published.”Trump last week said he was very concerned about the race, accusing Democrats of “election interference.” BLOOMBERG