You may have read about the fake Dan Sullivan running in Alaska to confuse voters and undercut Republican incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan. The Free Beacon’s Alana Goodman and Collin Anderson have turned over a few rocks to find the stealthy hand of Chuck Schumer in the mix:
Days after Chuck Schumer denied any involvement in the campaign of Dan J. Sullivan—the newly declared Republican known as “Decoy Dan” who is running for Senate in Alaska in an apparent bid to siphon votes from GOP incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan—the Senate minority leader’s nonprofit group began running an ad starring a Dan J. Sullivan campaign representative, a Washington Free Beacon review found.
The spot from Majority Forward, the nonprofit affiliate of Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC, features a man identified as “Alan” from “Anchorage” who owns a moving company and accuses Sen. Sullivan of “voting to raise our costs.” His full name is Alan Harris, and his moving company, Allstar Moving, is registered to a residential address in Anchorage, Alaska, records show. So is a second business, Amber Lee Strategies, a political consulting firm owned by Harris’s romantic partner, Democratic strategist Amber Lee, who owns the property, according to local records.
Dan J. Sullivan confirmed in June that he hired Lee as a campaign adviser after the metadata from his campaign launch press release listed “Amber Lee” as its author. But Lee is not supporting the lesser-known Sullivan alone: Dan J. Sullivan’s declaration of candidacy states that a “rep” for the campaign, “Alan Harris,” delivered the declaration form to the Alaska Division of Elections in Anchorage “on behalf of Daniel J. Sullivan” on June 1.
Two weeks later, on June 16, Majority Forward began running the ad featuring Harris, according to TV spending data reviewed by the Free Beacon. Representatives for both Schumer and Senate Majority PAC denied being involved in Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign nine days prior, on June 7.
The revelation undercuts Schumer’s attempts to distance himself and his political apparatus from Dan J. Sullivan, whom Republicans have accused of being a “sham candidate” running to deceive GOP voters in an attempt to siphon support from Sen. Sullivan.
Schumer, Lee, and the Dan J. Sullivan campaign did not respond to the Free Beacon’s requests for comment. However, a spokesman for the Senate Majority PAC denied that anything is amiss. Like Sergeant Schultz, they know nothing:
“This is much ado about nothing. Neither Senate Majority PAC nor Majority Forward has ever communicated with Dan J. Sullivan, directly or indirectly, nor did Senate Majority PAC encourage him to run or have any involvement in his campaign. Both entities were equally unaware that an individual featured in a Majority Forward ad was involved with the Dan J. Sullivan campaign. The video was filmed in early May, weeks before Dan J. Sullivan filed to run. The ads are no longer running and have not been for some time.”
It’s a complicated story to begin with and Alaska’s impenatrable voting system doesn’t help. Goodman and Anderson unravel the threads here.
