Liberal media downplays Alaska ballot scandal while decrying GOP 'pouncing'
The legacy media has been tying itself in knots over the explosive Alaska ballot scandal that has rocked a key Senate race ahead of Tuesday's election.
The New York Times published a bombshell report alleging that Democratic operatives recruited a man named Dan Sullivan to run as a spoiler candidate against incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, in hopes of aiding his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Mary Peltola.
CNN anchor Dana Bash went viral shortly after the Times broke its story when she reacted, "So, this is not illegal. It is not new."
"I use the term dirty tricks intentionally because it’s not illegal," Bash said.
"This is something that is untoward. It is something that Democrats have tried to do in races where they think it could be to their advantage to run candidates that could siphon votes away from Republicans, and Republicans do the same," Bash continued. "I mean, just in Alaska alone, Mary Peltola, who’s now on the ballot for the Senate, she lost her House race two years ago. On that ballot, there was a candidate who was literally in prison who was reportedly recruited and kept on the ballot at the behest of Republicans."
The CNN host reiterated, "These are dirty tricks. They are legal, dirty tricks."
Some outlets relied on the "Republicans pounce" trope, adjusting the framing of stories that reflect poorly on Democrats to focus on the reaction of Republicans.
"Trump, Murkowski hammer Peltola over Alaska ballot-stacking report," Politico's headline read Wednesday.
The Associated Press similarly ran Wednesday, "Trump calls for prosecution of Democratic Alaska Senate candidate over spoiler candidate controversy."
"Republicans launch investigations into Peltola campaign," The Washington Post's Thursday headline stated.
"Republicans are using it as fodder," MS NOW anchor Peter Alexander told viewers Thursday. "The Justice Department, which already preemptively sued to try to block the certification of that Senate race if the Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses, they're pouncing."
Honest Elections Project executive director Jason Snead isn’t surprised some in the media are bending over backwards to keep a Democrat from looking scandalous.
"This is a classic thing that we've been seeing with a lot of mainstream outlets, this idea that they're going to be more concerned about the Republican reaction to something seedy that the left is doing rather than the seedy thing itself, right? It's a very classic situation," Snead told Fox News Digital.
"I'm not surprised at all that we're seeing so many outlets today trying to either downplay the scandal up in Alaska, or to refocus on what Trump is doing or saying about it," he continued. "We know the media has double standards when it comes to the left and the right."
DEM STRATEGIST SHRUGS OFF ALASKA BALLOT SCANDAL ON MS NOW, INSISTS 'THIS STUFF HAPPENS ALL THE TIME'
Meanwhile, Bloomberg columnist Nia Malika-Henderson appeared to praise the effort, saying that grassroots Democrats would view the scheme as a "good thing" that Democrats "finally" are "bringing a knife to a knife fight."
"I was sort of impressed that they were able to pull all of this off," Malika-Henderson said Thursday on CNN, before lamenting how the story got leaked to the Times and how it will give President Donald Trump "wind in his sails" in his accusations that Democrats cheat in elections.
Some journalists, including ABC News correspondent Mary Bruce and CBS News correspondent Ed O'Keefe, stressed to viewers that the Democratic scheme was "not illegal" despite newly launched probes looking into the matter since the Times story broke.
NBC News published multiple videos on its website posing questions like, "Is it illegal for Peltola campaign to recruit candidates?" and "Is it illegal to convince someone to run for office?"
ALASKA'S GOVERNOR ORDERS INVESTIGATION AFTER NYT REPORT ON ALLEGED DEM-LINKED SENATE ELECTION SCHEME
Republicans have long been suspicious about the candidacy of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher who is among four Senate candidates listed on Alaska's rank-choice ballot. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of Alaska seeking to block certification of the election results if the incumbent senator loses and votes cast for the other Sullivan could have changed the outcome.
Mainstream articles taking their denials dating back to at least June have largely taken them as fact. The Associated Press even wrote, "Sullivan said his campaign isn’t a sham or something Democrats put him up to doing," months before the Times reported his candidacy was no coincidence.
"In the summer of 2025, a staffer for Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democrat who was eyeing a run for Senate, received unusual instructions from top campaign aides: Find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can," the Times began its report Wednesday.
"The staffer complied, combing through voter records to produce a list of Dan Sullivans from across the state. ... [I]f the Peltola campaign or its allies could track down and persuade another Dan Sullivan to run for Senate, the confusion could cost the senator crucial votes on the state’s unusual, four-person ballot. The plan worked," the report said.
Snead believes that the "evidence was obvious," and blasted reporters who didn’t suspect something fishy was at play.
"Those willing to look have known for months that Decoy Dan’s candidacy is a brazen attempt to game ranked-choice voting, orchestrated by Democrats to help Mary Peltola win. That the mainstream media took the Peltola campaign’s and Democrats’ denials at face value for months and waited until nearly 60,000 Alaskans had already voted to reveal the truth, is unfortunately par for the course," Snead told Fox News Digital.
"Aren't you reporters? Shouldn't you have actually done some investigation, done some digging, or did you simply take the denial at face value and move on? Because that's not really what most people expect from serious investigative reporting outlets," he added.
SEN DAN SULLIVAN BRANDS PELTOLA'S ALLEGED BALLOT SCHEME A 'SCANDAL AT THE HIGHEST ORDER'
According to Peltola's former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, Peltola was not directly involved in the scheme but was "definitely aware."
Peltola's campaign has continued to deny involvement in his candidacy.
"But The Times has found, based on interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign, that not only did Ms. Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader," the Times reported. "The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory."
Peltola called the Times report a "distraction" and "stuff to sell newspapers." However, Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into whether any crimes or civil violations were committed and the Department of Justice has issued new grand jury subpoenas.