Alaska observers say it is too early to say how reports of bad behavior by Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola might affect the state\u2019s closely watched election, and some supporters suggested this week that she may be subject to a double standard because of her gender.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it\u2019s surprising news, I think there\u2019s a very hefty proportion of people who go, \u2018It\u2019s a hit job. It\u2019s typical politics,\u2019 and kind of brush it off,\u201d said Ivan Moore of Alaska Survey Research, a political polling firm active in the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes a lot to swing someone over from being a Peltola voter to all of a sudden going, \u2018Oh, OK, I\u2019ll vote for Sullivan.\u2019 So we\u2019ll see,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the New York Times published an anonymously sourced article<\/a> documenting abusive behavior by the former Alaska congresswoman, now a leading candidate for Senate. The article said she was hostile to her staff and used slurs and profanity to privately criticize others.<\/p>\n The article detailed accounts from former staff members who said she required aides to feed her family\u2019s pet chameleon and said that in 2024, she wrote that she hoped a local Planned Parenthood board member would \u201cdie of a botched abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n That comment came after the group was slow to endorse Peltola in that year\u2019s election. This year, she does not appear on the group\u2019s endorsement list.<\/p>\n \u201cPlanned Parenthood has been called worse and withstood more in its 100+ years; we\u2019ll talk with her about what was reported when she\u2019s Senator-elect,\u201d said Morgan Lim, Alaska state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. \u201cNothing has changed in the stakes of this race and we remain laser-focused on ousting Sullivan from the Senate \u2014 making sure Alaska voters know that Dan Sullivan is an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ fanatic who will continue to rubber stamp Trump\u2019s judicial nominees.\u201d<\/p>\n Peltola declined to talk to Alaska reporters<\/a> on Wednesday evening after a meet-and-greet with union members in Anchorage.<\/p>\n Peltola was elected in 2022 to fill the remainder of Congressman Don Young\u2019s term after his death that spring. She subsequently won the general election in November and served a two-year term of her own.<\/p>\n Her time in office coincided with a period of personal loss. Five months after she began her full term, her mother died<\/a>. Three months after that, her husband died in a plane crash<\/a>. She sued his employer<\/a> a year and a half later, and a trial is set to begin in March.<\/p>\n Harry Child, a spokesman for Peltola\u2019s campaign, said by text that the Times article is exaggerated.<\/p>\n \u201cLike any person who has gone through multiple personal tragedies in the span of a few months, Mary sometimes struggled to deal with her grief. But she treats her staff with respect and care, and she maintains close positive relationships with her staff spanning her nearly 30 years in public service,\u201d he said. \u201cExaggerating and outright lying about moments from the hardest period of her life, and falsely presenting them as a pattern of behavior, is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n A double standard for judging Peltola?<\/p>\n Polling indicates<\/a> Peltola, a Democrat, is in a close race against Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan for one of Alaska\u2019s two U.S. Senate seats. The winner of that election may decide whether Democrats or Republicans hold a majority of the Senate.<\/p>\n Moore said he doesn\u2019t know whether the Times article will affect the eventual result.<\/p>\n Readers of the Anchorage Press said they don\u2019t think it will<\/a>, with some labeling the Times article a \u201cnothingburger.\u201d<\/p>\n The Times found something similar in a followup article<\/a> of its own. A spokesperson for the Alaska Democratic Party called the initial article \u201ca hit piece.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMary grew up working on a fishing boat and was made in the mold of great Alaskan leaders that came before her. She\u2019s the only candidate in this race who will actually fight to lower costs and put Alaska first, and Alaskans will send her to the Senate this fall because she will deliver,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Nate Adams, a spokesperson for the Sullivan campaign, said by email, \u201cNearly 30 people close to Mary Peltola were interviewed and more than 100 screenshots informed this reporting. What the Times printed is only a fraction of it, so imagine what was left out, and what else Mary Peltola is hiding from Alaskans.\u201d<\/p>\n Jim Lottsfeldt, a veteran political campaigner who is working on pro-Peltola efforts this year, said he sees somewhat of a double standard in the way she\u2019s being treated.<\/p>\n Her predecessor, Young, was notorious for profane<\/a>, scurrilous<\/a> and even violent<\/a> behavior<\/a> while in office, and former Sens. Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski were known for their hot tempers.<\/p>\n \u201cStevens blew his stack, and we were all like, \u2018That\u2019s great, because he blew his stack for our benefit.\u2019 And then you had Don Young saying the most outrageous things occasionally, but got like tons of things passed,\u201d Lottsfeldt said. \u201cSo when all this stuff happens with the guys, nobody really clutches their pearls, and now we have little Mary Sunshine, Mary Peltola, who may have said the word f**k when she was mad, and now we\u2019re acting like it\u2019s a major political story, and I don\u2019t think it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Some former staffers back Times reporting, others dispute it<\/p>\n After the Times published its initial article, the Beacon contacted more than a dozen former Peltola aides in an attempt to verify its contents. Some, speaking anonymously, said they could not confirm all the incidents described by the Times but said the article matched the tone and mood of their time in her Congressional office or with her campaign.<\/p>\n They asked to not be named in order to offer frank opinions and because their current jobs may require them to work with Peltola in the future.<\/p>\n But at least some defended their former boss.<\/p>\n Kate Consenstein worked for Peltola in the Alaska Legislature and now runs a communications firm<\/a> in Anchorage. The Peltola campaign suggested her as someone whose experience doesn\u2019t match the Times article.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to engage in denying the veracity or the accuracy of those people\u2019s accounts, especially because I don\u2019t know who they are,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I would just say the person that I worked for, and the person that I still know, is kind, generous, and not an abusive boss.\u201d<\/p>\n