JUNEAU, Alaska - The Democratic campaign for Alaska's U.S. Senate seat was involved in efforts to place on the ballot a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan in a bid to confuse voters in a race that could determine which party controls the chamber, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The newspaper obtained text messages between members of Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign discussing recruiting other people with the same name as the two-term Republican their candidate was running against.

They eventually landed on a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community of Petersburg named Dan J. Sullivan.