A Democratic operative who specializes in "secret ballot maneuvers" recruited a spoiler candidate with a nearly identical name to Alaska's Republican senator — and the same Washington establishment that lectures Americans about defending democracy can't be bothered to care.

This is election interference in plain sight. The "Decoy Dan" scheme isn't a conspiracy theory — it's a documented effort to confuse voters and swipe a Senate seat, and it traces straight back to Democratic Party machinery. Meanwhile, both parties are content to let big money and dirty tricks decide elections as long as the permanent class keeps its grip on power.

The facts are damning. Jerid Kurtz, a Democratic operative who has worked on campaigns for Sherrod Brown, Raphael Warnock, and Barack Obama, was named as the go-between who recruited Daniel J. Sullivan to run as an independent against Republican Sen. Dan Scott Sullivan, the Daily Mail reported, as cited by HotAir. Kurtz's specialty: "secret ballot maneuvers." Since the story broke, Kurtz deleted his social media accounts and the website for his firm, Wingspan Strategies.

The connections go deeper. Noah Casey Sullivan, the son of the decoy candidate, is a registered Democrat who works as a field representative for Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), HotAir reported.

On the ground in Alaska, CBS News found zero evidence of an actual campaign — no mailers, no flyers, no signs, no brochures. Daniel J. Sullivan left his hometown of Petersburg earlier this week. He has done nothing that resembles a real Senate run because he isn't running one. He's a prop.

President Trump publicly pressed Attorney General Todd Blanche for prosecutions at his Daytona Beach rally Friday. "This is voter fraud at the highest level," Trump declared, according to Fox News. Trump said Blanche indicated he would prosecute.

DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene, confronted on CNN about the New York Times' reporting on the scheme, deflected to what Republicans have been doing, HotAir reported.

HuffPost, meanwhile, framed the weekend's news around Elon Musk's $446 million in Republican spending and his claim that Democrats winning would mean "the end of democracy." Fox News led with Democratic infighting in Michigan, where Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed told former rival Rep. Haley Stevens to stay away from his events after Stevens criticized his Israel positions and her fiancé endorsed Republican Mike Rogers. Neither outlet touched the Alaska scheme as the lead.

But the uniparty frame is the one that matters. Former Rep. Thomas Massie, ousted by Trump-aligned forces after demanding transparency on the Epstein files, put it plainly on X: "Republicans in Congress let Trump start a war, increase spending, arm a genocide, betray MAHA, and cover up for Epstein's coconspirators," HuffPost reported. Massie said he was targeted with "$30 million of foreign lobby money for refusing to go along."

The Decoy Dan scheme is what Washington does when it thinks nobody's watching — plant a prop, confuse voters, steal a seat. The question is whether any institution left in this country will enforce the law against it.