美国众议院监督委员会主席、肯塔基州共和党人詹姆斯·科默周四启动了一项调查，针对有关民主党人玛丽·佩尔托拉的竞选团队试图招募候选人，以在该州参议院选举中分流现任参议员丹·沙利文（阿拉斯加州共和党人）选票的指控。《纽约时报》的一项报道发现，佩尔托拉的竞选团队与全国民主党人合作，招募了一名与她共和党对手同名的人竞选参议院席位，以稀释共和党选票。
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) launched an investigation Thursday into allegations that Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign sought to recruit candidates to peel votes away from incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) in the state’s Senate race. A New York Times report found that Peltola’s campaign worked with national Democrats to recruit someone with the same name as her GOP opponent to run for the Senate and dilute the GOP vote.
佩尔托拉的竞选团队和全国民主党人均否认参与此事。但科默在一份声明中辩称：“民主党是欺诈之党。民主党人知道自己无法在议题上获胜，于是密谋操纵美国参议院在阿拉斯加的选举，故意迷惑选民。这是当今民主党不当行为更大模式的一部分。”科默补充说：“美国人有权就民主党人最新一次欺骗美国人民的企图得到答案，我们会让他们得到答案。”
Peltola’s campaign and national Democrats denied any involvement. But Comer argued in a statement that “Democrats are the party of fraud. Knowing they can’t win on the issues, Democrats schemed to rig the U.S. Senate election in Alaska by deliberately confusing voters. This is part of a broader pattern of misconduct by today’s Democrat Party.”“Americans deserve answers about this latest attempt by Democrats to defraud the American people, and we will get them,” Comer added.
科默致信佩尔托拉的前竞选经理埃莉萨·里奥斯和民主党操盘手杰里德·库尔茨，要求进行当面、有笔录的访谈。《纽约时报》报道称库尔茨也参与了这一被指称的行动。他要求里奥斯于11月5日作证，库尔茨于11月6日作证。科默周四在NewsNation的《美国早晨》节目中称这一被指称的计划是“肮脏政治”和“犯罪”。这位肯塔基州共和党人说：“我们认为，这位参议员充其量是在搞下流政治，最坏的情况是犯了罪。所以我们对此非常重视。我认为阿拉斯加选民应该感到被冒犯，希望未来两三天我们能了解更多关于到底犯了哪些罪的情况。”
Comer sent letters to both Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager, and Jerid Kurtz, a Democratic operative that the Times reported was also involved in the alleged operation, requesting in-person, transcribed interviews. He requested that Rios testify on Nov. 5 and Kurtz on Nov. 6. Comer called the alleged scheme “dirty politics” and a “crime” on NewsNation’s “Morning in America” Thursday. “We believe that the senator clearly is playing gutter politics, at best and at worst, that crimes were committed,” the Kentucky Republican said. “So, we take this very seriously. I think the voters of Alaska should be offended, and hopefully we'll learn more in the next two or three days about what all crimes were committed.”
他还指出，监督委员会“肯定会采取行动”，并表示他正在寻求几个关键问题的答案，包括谁知道这一计划、采取了哪些步骤找到另一个丹·沙利文并将他列入选票，以及是否向他提供了报酬。
He also noted that the Oversight Committee is “definitely going to take action,” and that he is seeking answers to several key questions, including who knew about the scheme, what steps were taken to find another Dan Sullivan and place him on the ballot and whether he was offered compensation for doing so.
“我知道总统说过，这件事应该由司法部提起诉讼。不幸的是，这个司法部不会以光速行动，我这么说已经尽量客气了，”科默继续说道。“但我们将尽监督委员会所能，协调并协助司法部，因为这件事必须在下周二选举日之前很久就得到解决。”选票“堆叠”是一种常见做法，尤其在阿拉斯加不同寻常的无党派、前四名投票制度中。
“I know the president said this should be prosecuted by the Department of Justice. Unfortunately, this Department of Justice doesn’t move at the speed of light, and I’m trying to be kind in that," Comer continued. "But we’re going to do everything we can on the Oversight Committee to coordinate and assist the Department of Justice, because this is something that needs to be resolved long before Tuesday of next week on election day.”Ballot “stacking” is a common practice, especially in Alaska’s unusual nonpartisan, top four voting system.
共和党策略师此前对《国会山报》表示，这种做法并不违法。与此同时，总统特朗普周三在Truth Social上写道，在《纽约时报》的报道之后，他认为不应允许佩尔托拉参选。“民主党人作弊了！他们找了一个叫丹·沙利文的人，把他放上选票，然后向法院撒谎，说他们对此一无所知。那是伪证。她不应该被允许参选，那个假丹·沙利文也不应该！”他写道。美国东部时间下午4：20更新。
GOP strategists previously told The Hill that it is not illegal. President Trump, meanwhile, wrote Wednesday on Truth Social that he doesn’t think Peltola should be allowed to run following The New York Times report. “The Democrats cheated! They found a man named Dan Sullivan, put him on the Ballot, then lied to the Court, and said they didn’t know anything about it. That’s perjury. She shouldn’t be allowed to run, and neither should the FAKE Dan Sullivan!” he wrote. Updated at 4:20 p.m. EDT.