WASHINGTON — Former Alaska Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola is prone to angry outbursts that have rankled members of her own team — using offensive terms like “retard” and “f—–” and at one point pushing a male staffer, the New York Times reported late Wednesday, citing nine ex-aides.
Peltola, who served two-and-a-half years in the House after winning a special election in 2022 to replace the late Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), is challenging incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) in a critical race that could determine the balance of power on Capitol Hill.
On Feb. 7, 2024, then-Congresswoman Peltola became agitated that she couldn’t find a document and pushed the male aide on the chest, per an eyewitness and two others who were later told about the incident. The staffer later left her team.
That day was the birthday of Peltola’s late husband, Eugene, who had died in a September 2023 plane crash. Peltola’s campaign noted that her mother had also passed away around the same time.
“At the time of their passing, Mary was parenting kids through their own grief, serving full-time in the US House of Representatives thousands of miles from home, and running a competitive [House] re-election campaign — all while shouldering the enormous burden of grief,” said her spokesperson, Harry Child.
“Like any person who has gone through multiple personal tragedies in the span of a few months, Mary sometimes struggled to deal with her grief,” Child added. “Exaggerating and outright lying about moments from the hardest period of her life, and falsely presenting them as a pattern of behavior, is wrong.”
Child also contended that Peltola acted “with respect and care” towards her staff, despite the lawmaker instituting a purge of longtime aides shortly before the Aug. 18 Senate primary — including her campaign manager, chief of staff, and two veteran political contractors who were fired or reassigned.
The shakeup apparently stemmed from the 53-year-old’s frustrations with her campaign, which she expressed in all-caps text messages warning that “OUR SIGN GAME IS F—ED,” among other missives reviewed by the Times.
Four ex-aides to Peltola claimed she reguarly used the gay slur, including in reference to members of her own team, an allegation her campaign has also vehemently denied.
The organization did acknowledge that she used the term “retard” in a text message earlier this year after receiving backlash over taking a selfie with a commercial fisheries executive due to her opposition to massive trawling operations.
“F— that retard,” vented Peltola, though her campaign says she regrets her choice of words.
The Democrat was also described in the report as vindictive, willing to cut people off and have “nothing” to do with them after suffering perceived slights.
At one point during her unsuccessful 2024 re-election bid, Peltola raged at Planned Parenthood after they attacked her for voting “yea” on a defense bill that included pro-life provisions.
“I hope Planned Parenthood knows that if we don’t win it’s more their loss than ours. F— THOSE B—S,” Peltola exploded in one text message.
On the other extreme, some former aides recounted that Peltola had them feed her family’s chameleon, Meatball, with live crickets while she was away on business.
Polls indicate Peltola and Sullivan are locked in a tight race, made more unpredictable by Alaska’s use of ranked-choice voting and the presence of two other nominal Republican candidates on the ballot, including retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan — not to be confused with Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.
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