Governor Sarah Palin is once again in the media with new ethics violation charges against two of her top aides -- Communications Director and Press Secretary, Bill McAllister, and Palin's Anchorage office director, Kris Perry--are being hit with new ethics charges, to be filed today with the state Attorney General.
Alaskan political watchdog Andree McLeod is filing the complaint because employees working for the Governor conducted partisan political activites on behalf of the unethical Governor and her failed campaign for Vice President.
In her complaint against McAllister, McLeod sites a series of activities that she contends violate Alaska's "Executive Branch Code of Ethics," which prohibits public officials from using or authorizing "the use of state funds, facilities, equipment, services, or another government asset or resource for partisan political purposes."
In her complaint to Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg, McLeod charges that state documents indicate McAllister traveled with the Palin entourage to Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention and that he was on the Alaska payroll from September 1st through the 5th of 2008, allegedly "to provide staff support to the governor regarding state business."
However, an email from McAllister to Palin on her controversial private Yahoo email account indicates that McAllister was clearly coordinating Palin's activities on behalf of Palin and the RNC. McLeod’s complaint cites several incidents involving McAllister during the presidential campaign that cross over into partisan activities. But perhaps the most clear-cut violations of the Ethics Code by McAllister cited by McLeod are a series of interviews that McAllister gave following the announcement that Democrat Bob Poe would be challenging Palin for Governor in 2010. McAllister responded directly to charges that Poe made during the announcement of his candidacy, and not only disputed Poe's charges on behalf of Palin, but took political potshots at Poe:
“It is unfortunate that Mr. Poe would claim, counter to the obvious facts, that the governor is putting national political aspirations above her role as chief executive of the state. Since the election, the governor has spent less than a day out of state attending to partisan activities.”
Then he changed it to five days:
“The governor is here has been gone a mere five days in the past two months. Since the election, she has been in Alaska, is working, is focused, and doesn't need a nudge from Bob Poe to do it.”
McAllister then got more aggressive. A January 9, 2009, Anchorage Daily News article again had McAllister said that Poe was presumptuous to comment on the internal workings of the administration and that “he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” McAllister rejected Poe's criticism that Palin's absences have hurt the state. Other governors, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, ran for national office while running their states. Since the election, Palin has been out of the state for five days and she's devoted less than one day to political activity despite numerous requests, McAllister said.
In Kaylene Johnson's hagiography on Palin, McAllister brags about betting on Palin in her primary battle with former Alaska governor Frank Murkowski: "I had a bet with my colleagues at work," McAllister boasts, "a high-end single-malt scotch with one and a fine bottle of wine with the other--that Sarah would win the primary." This came while he was covering the race--clearly a violation of journalistic ethics.
McLeod's charges against Perry--Palin's former campaign manager who headed up the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce while Palin was mayor there--are similar to those directed at McAllister. Apparently, Perry spent six weeks on the campaign trail with Palin. She also traveled to Georgia with Palin when she campaigned for Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss--while she was still on the timeclock in Alaska.
This is not the first time those around Palin or Palin herself have been hit with ethics charges. In her ill-fated 2002 campaign for lieutenant governor, Palin was caught using City of Wasilla resources for campaign related mailings, phone calls, faxes and printing. She also campaigned on city time. More recently, Zane Henning has charged Palin with violations of the ethics code for using state offices for her interview with Greta Van Susteren from the McLeod finds Palin's hypocrisy troubling.
"The self-proclaimed queen of ethics has again crossed the line and violated her own oft- repeated ethics principles," McLeod declared. "This dog won't hunt."
In August of last year, before Palin was nominated as John McCain's GOP running mate, McLeod filed ethics charges against Palin's *blogojevichian administration over the hiring of Palin political crony Tom Lamal. She also has a legal case pending against Palin in which she is trying to make public more than 1,000 state emails that were copied to the governor's husband, Todd. In October, an Anchorage judge ordered Palin and others in her office to "retrieve and preserve" any emails from private accounts that concern state business that were copied to the so-called "First Dude."
* (Blogojevichian – adj.) – A phrase coined by writer Jerry Sifuentes at Chico Brisbane to describe a public official(s) who lack the integrity and ethics that are requsite element(s) of public office.
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