The National Republican Senatorial Committee filed a complaint alleging that candidate Mary Peltola spent campaign money as a "slush fund," on personal expenses.
The NRSC is working to defend U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan's seat and is asking the Federal Election Commission to investigate Peltola, his Democratic challenger.
The Republican complaint hinges on a legal question that sounds like a philosophical riddle: Does a political campaign exist if the public isn't aware of it?
At issue is money Peltola raised for a 2026 U.S. House race and spent last year, when she wasn't saying what her future plans were.
The NRSC alleges Peltola had no visible House campaign in 2025 so she shouldn't have spent her campaign money on speaking engagements, travel and meals. It questions Peltola's expenses for a trip to Boise, where she was a keynote speaker at a women's leadership conference, and for a hotel stay in Chicago, where she was to lead seminars at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics. The NRSC also notes that her campaign paid thousands of dollars on DoorDash and GrubHub as well as restaurant meals or catered events near the U.S. Capitol.
"Given that there is no indication that Peltola was in fact seeking office during this time," the NRSC complain says, "the more than $100,000 in meal and travel expenses paid by the [Peltola for Alaska ] Committee in 2025 mut [sic] have been for her personal use."
On paper, Peltola was a candidate in 2025. Days after losing her House seat, in November 2024, she filed federal forms to campaign in the 2026 U.S. House race. She didn't announce her U.S. Senate run until January of this year.
A representative of the Peltola campaign declined an interview request but emailed a statement.
"This is a completely false attack by Dan Sullivan and his Washington allies in the Lower 48, to try and distract from his ongoing failure to deliver for Alaskans," the email said in part.
The FEC handbook for candidates is more than 200 pages, defining, among other things, what a campaign is. It doesn't expressly say that candidates have to launch their campaigns in a public fashion or that a campaign dies for lack of public activity.
The allegations the Republican group raises won't be resolved soon. The commission, long paralyzed by political division, has only two members now. It needs at least four votes to take official action.