Why Is Decoy Dan on the Run?

If retired Petersburg, Alaska teacher Daniel J. “Decoy Dan” Sullivan truly wants to represent Alaska in the Senate, he’s not doing a very good job campaigning for the job. His official position statement, as provided to the state’s Division of Elections, reads in part, “I will not stand by while professional politicians try to rig the system,” yet campaign finance records show he’s spent nothing actively campaigning, and nearly all of his campaign contributions have gone to a Washington, D.C. law firm. 

Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that through October 14, his campaign spent $10,000 on fees to the law firm Caplin & Drysdale. Sullivan also owes the firm another $21,399 for services. The only other disbursements noted in FEC records are the $300 fee to the Alaska Division of Elections for placement in the state’s candidate brochure, and $4,380.41 to Amber Lee Strategies, an Anchorage communications consultancy that provided the Sullivan campaign with website and other digital services. That’s it.

Any campaign, particularly one for the U.S. Senate, would ordinarily have a great multitude of expenditures and disbursements for everything from postage and office supplies to media buys and travel. But the only thing Decoy Dan has spent his campaign’s money on is lawyers and a nearly dormant website. 

To make sure your humble scribe wasn’t missing something, a phone call was placed to Petersburg, Sullivan’s campaign treasurer Karen Dillman, who is listed as his wife on Sullivan’s initial campaign filing. The call went to voicemail with a greeting, “Hi, this is Dan,” so a message was left Saturday, and this column will be updated should the call be returned.  

Most politicians campaign extra hard in the final hours leading up to Election Day, but it seems Decoy Dan is at large. CBS News sent a team to Sullivan’s hometown of Petersburg, population 3,043, and reported “One resident and former student of Sullivan's said she saw Sullivan on a flight to Anchorage on Monday — two days before The New York Times first reported that he was recruited by operatives linked to Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign.” Another source told CBS News that Sullivan and his wife, “are known among friends as ‘world travelers.’”

While the Sullivans are traveling between Petersburg, Anchorage and parts unknown, the U.S. Department of Justice has issued dozens of subpoenas as it looks into whether there was wrongdoing in getting Decoy Dan on the ballot. One of those subpoenas has Sullivan’s name on it, but it’s hard to serve someone when they’re moving around, and there’s no telling when officials might find Sullivan and serve him properly.

Peltola, the Democrat running against incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan, has flatly denied any involvement with this electoral brouhaha, but Petersburg Sullivan has not published any response to the allegations on his campaign website or anywhere else. We don’t know the full truth of things yet but it seems reasonable that if a candidate for Senate were subject to speculation on the legitimacy of his campaign, he’d make himself available to the media or law enforcement to clear up the matter. 

That is not happening. Instead, Decoy Dan comes across as a man on the lam. If he flew to Anchorage to campaign, one might expect some item in the local news about a campaign appearance but as of this writing, there is no such news published. Why might that be? 

To be clear, there is nothing illegal per se about getting additional candidates on any given ballot. Democrats and Republicans recruit additional candidates from time to time, in the hopes of siphoning off votes from their opponent. But the means of doing so makes all the difference. 

False statements on official forms could constitute perjury. Electronic transfers of money might lead to wire fraud charges. Bribes or certain contributions could result in FEC campaign finance violations. In political capers like the one playing out in Alaska, there are any number of trip wires that could lead to criminal charges, even jail. 

That’s what happened to Republican Frank Artiles. He was a member of the Florida state Senate before being convicted in 2024 of election conspiracy after recruiting a “ghost candidate” to run against a rival with the same last name in an election for the state legislature. Suffice to say, that ended badly. 

Perhaps Petersburg Sullivan will pop out of wherever he’s hunkered down, shake hands with a process server and explain that it’s all just a big misunderstanding. After all, Sullivan has paid or owes more than $31,000 (more than his total campaign receipts) to a D.C. law firm for “legal and compliance services.” But people with nothing to hide don’t generally hide. When a candidate who hasn’t actively campaigned for office disappears just as subpoenas are being handed out, we’re right to wonder why. 

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