A political group backed by liberal coastal billionaires put out an ad last week accusing a Republican Senate candidate of being an outsider. The star of the ad is himself a Minnesota native.
"If Dan Sullivan were actually from Alaska, maybe he’d understand" the plight of Alaska fishermen, says Joe Faith, billed as a resident of Dillingham, Alaska, in the 30-second spot.
Sullivan, a former Alaska attorney general running to unseat Democrat Sen. Mark Begich, moved to Alaska in 1997 after serving as an active duty Marine Corps officer. He has since left the state to serve three additional tours of duty, and to take a position in the George W. Bush administration.
The anti-Sullivan ad was released last week by the Democrat-aligned Super PAC Put Alaska First.
That group is almost entirely funded by Senate Majority PAC, a Washington-based group with ties to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and financial backing from former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, environmentalist moneyman Tom Steyer, and other wealthy liberals from the lower 48.
The man accusing Sullivan of carpetbagging in the Put Alaska First ad is himself a transplant to the state.
According to Ancestry.com records, Faith is a Minnesota native.
His bio on the website of an Alaska trade association says that he attended the University of Minnesota and William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.
"He is keenly interested in energy conservation, efficiency, and alternatives for rural Alaska," the bio states.