En esta noticia
Alaska voters will find on their ballots the names of two candidates who remain absent this Tuesday: independent Daniel S. Sullivan Jr., accused of mounting a spoiler campaign to siphon votes from incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, and Eric Hafner, a congressional hopeful registered as a Democrat who is being held in a New York prison.
The race in Alaska, the largest U.S. state by area but one of the least populous, has drawn national attention because its outcome could decide which party controls the Senate.
Polls show a virtual tie between Sen. Sullivan and former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, and the winner could be decided by a few hundred votes. That is why the presence of Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher, has set off suspicion and investigations.
President Donald Trump and Republicans have said they fear voters will confuse the two Sullivans and end up casting their ballots for the wrong candidate.
According to CBS, the retired teacher left Petersburg, the town where he lives, last week. One of his former students told the network she saw him on a flight to Anchorage.
“The reason no one can find the FAKE Dan Sullivan is that lawyers have taken him and are keeping him hidden while they coach him, step by step, on what to say to avoid one of the biggest fraud prosecutions in American history,” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.
The controversy around the teacher grew after The New York Times published an investigation citing alleged text messages among members of Peltola’s campaign discussing the possibility of recruiting other people who shared the Republican senator’s last name.
The report, which cited at least 12 sources, also implicates senior advisers at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), who allegedly took part in recruiting the candidate.
Both the Peltola campaign and the DSCC have denied any involvement. The elementary school teacher has not commented.
The jailed candidate
But Republicans aren’t the only ones questioning the alleged election maneuvering. The Alaska Democratic Party has made a request of voters: don’t vote for the Democratic candidate in the race for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Eric Hafner, the only one of the four House candidates registered as a Democrat, though the party rejects his candidacy, is in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2022 to threatening federal officials. He is not expected to be released until 2036.
Hafner’s place on the general election ballot could trigger a new legal challenge, since the Constitution requires members of Congress to live in the state they seek to represent.
The leading candidates in the race are incumbent Republican Nick Begich and independent Bill Hill, an educator and businessman, whom Democrats have endorsed.
The campaign has put up signs across the state that read: “Don’t be fooled! Eric Hafner is in prison in New York.”
Source: EFE