Palin pledges of Alaska sunshine marred by secrecy
Published Tuesday, October 7, 2008
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Stumble It!Sarah Palin's promise for a new era of government openness as the reform governor of Alaska started to crack even before Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign built a wall of protectiveness around her.
Palin was elected nearly two years ago with splashy moves like publishing the state spending checkbook online. She kept a campaign pledge to allow the public to view online communications between state officials and potential bidders on a major gas pipeline, a contrast to her predecessor.
But her administration has claimed broad exceptions to Alaska's freedom of information rules to keep government e-mails secret, and it's shown reluctance to disclose documents about sensitive topics, ranging from polar bears to policy issues. And her state's online checkbook is limited in its detail.
Disclosures about private e-mail accounts used by Palin and her top aides have raised questions about whether they were trying to evade disclosure under the state's public records law. Her aides have denied this.
Alaska's attorney general, appointed by Palin, determined in August that any personal communications on state-reimbursed cell phones and BlackBerrys can be kept secret under the Public Records Act. That could sweep information from public view if it were deemed personal, although the attorney general said state officials or courts still could review the records as needed.
For citizens or journalists seeking public records in Alaska, the government generally must provide copies of records upon request within 10 days. The Associated Press has received some documents it sought in as little as one day.
But when the AP asked for documents about nursing homes last June, state officials initially demanded $5,000 in fees. The fee was only waived three months later and the request satisfied after the AP printed a story on how state officials had effectively turned over questions about Palin's record to members of the McCain political campaign.
Alaska now charges $960 per e-mail account for searches, plus additional fees for copying.
Like Palin, McCain has promised to set new standards for transparency and accountability. Before becoming governor, Palin resigned from a state oil and gas board where she said confidentiality rules prohibited her from publicly discussing ethics problems she encountered and reported internally.
Now Palin is dogged by accusations of stonewalling in a home-state investigation into whether she pressured officials to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper. After initially promising to cooperate, Palin challenged the lawmakers' impartiality. The results of that investigation are expected to be made public as early as Friday.
"As soon as the heat comes on, the openness and transparency goes away," said Anchorage Daily News editorial page editor Matt Zencey.
At a campaign rally, Palin described her state's online checkbook and said she would "bring that kind of transparency, that responsibility, and accountability" to Washington. But the U.S. government already has a more in-depth public accounting system, a result of legislation sponsored by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and co-sponsored by McCain, Palin's running mate.
The site, USASpending.gov, offers details about federal contracts, loans, grants and insurance payments. Alaska's Online Checkbook provides little detail beyond the vendor and amount spent, such as money spent on travel. Citizens must separately submit a formal public records request to learn who traveled, the destination and travel purpose.
Even while Palin ditched the prickly press relations of her predecessor, Frank Murkowski, her staff complained about TV crews waiting to question people outside her office. Longtime state Capitol reporter Gregg Erickson said there were early signs she wouldn't meet the high bar of openness that she had set for herself.
Palin asked Erickson early on why he had to sue an earlier administration to get public records.
"I told her the reason governors keep it secret is they find it lots easier to govern if they can control the flow of public information. That seemed to stun her," said Erickson, editor of the Alaska Budget Report newsletter. "It's a principle she certainly discovered. Within a few weeks we were running up against difficulty," he added. He described a set of heavily edited records that he only received in full after appealing on legal grounds.
Alaska lawmakers found Palin secretive about her budget plans, and they were angered she didn't signal her vetoes before axing projects they supported.
"The problem is, she campaigned on being open and transparent," Democratic state Rep. Beth Kerttula said. "She says she's open but the reality with the budget is, the goals she did lay out didn't seem to be followed."
A University of Alaska professor, Rick Steiner, spent months working to obtain reports by Alaska marine mammal experts that didn't mesh with Palin's opposition to the federal designation of polar bears as a threatened species.
Steiner was told variously that he had to be more specific in his request, that the information didn't exist, that he could find it on a state Web site, and finally that it was protected by a "deliberative process" provision under state law.
Palin made her name as a reformer when she ferreted out e-mails of a state official she suspected of wrongdoing. Back then, she said withholding such information violated her beliefs as a public servant. Now Palin's aides are withholding swaths of e-mails exchanged among her and top staff that critics and news organizations have sought under the Public Records Act. Some were sent to Palin's husband, Todd.
"It's incumbent on the government to explain why these communications should be treated as confidential if outsiders are included," said John McKay, a First Amendment lawyer in Anchorage.
Any messages about official business are public records, but the state e-mail servers capture them only if at least one party uses an Alaska state e-mail address, said Kevin Brooks, deputy commissioner of administration.
Palin has been careful to send copies of official e-mails to at least one employee's government address so they would be retained, spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said. She said Palin used a private e-mail account to avoid conducting personal business using state equipment.
Former Alaska Gov. Wally Hickel once fled an elevator to avoid a reporter's questions, but Palin invited Bob Tkacz, a business freelance reporter who covers Alaska government, for a chat when he staked her out this summer. That didn't mean she spilled the scoops.
"She's a nice lady," he said, "but when she doesn't want to say something it's very hard to get anything out of her."
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Community Discussion
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I have to wonder if Barak Obama were Governor of Alaska if he would see the same smear campaign????
BigDan...at $960 per email being charged by Palin's administration that is not a smear campaign. That is plainly an attempt at obstruction. Those emails should be free of charge being state property or at least a nominal charge of maybe $10. But $960? That's removing them from the public venue where by law they should be and placing them only in the hands of someone with a great deal of cash to expend on them or, as is more likely the case, taking them out of the public's right of access by charging an exorbitant amount. There is no way she can justify that kind of a charge.
To try and characterize the truth as a smear campaign is just a weak effort at hiding a most unpleasant fact: the Palin administration is coming to rival the Murkowski adminstration in its efforts to keep the public out of its machinations no matter how loudly and often she claims hers is an "open and transparent" administration. I've seen bricks that were more transparent!
What's the smear BD?
Every word Ms. Beamish wrote is true.
The things we know about as true and what she said:
She said she could see Russia from her living room.
And she sunk Don Young's Bridge to Nowhere.
And she is prosecuting Big Ted Stevens and the little corrupt Republican rascals.
And she was not involved with Mr. Wooten, and she didn't fire Walt, and she --on and on
She is like the little kid that goes away and tells stories thinking it will never get all the way home to Wasilla.
The longer Ms. Palin keeps it up, the deeper she digs herself.
That is a fundamental problem with truth.
I see no smear. Only subversion of Sunshine laws and obstruction on the part of our governor. I don't understand why more Alaskans are not disgusted by her two-faced misrepresentation of herself, her actions and her motives. She says she's going to make the federal government more open and transparent, but if she follows her current procedures, the opposite will occur.
Did you not read this line and find it ironic?
"But the U.S. government already has a more in-depth public accounting system, a result of legislation sponsored by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and co-sponsored by McCain, Palin's running mate."
I really hope these AP stories are getting more play outside Alaska. Folks out there need to know what this woman is about. Apparently, though, most people in Alaska would rather shoot the messenger than hear the truth.
"Sarah Palin's promise for a new era of government openness as the reform governor of Alaska started to crack even before Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign built a wall of protectiveness around her." Libs built a wall of protectiveness around Barack Hussein Obama's new world order. Why AP would pay $960.00 when they can find his middle name for free.
Based on the Usernames I am being attacked by the liberal dogs. Let me rephrase the question. If Barak Obama was the Governor of Alaska I wonder if this type of new story would even make the headlines? It is clear Obama is given a free pass in the media.
Or maybe Obama isn't being given a free pass by the media, maybe Obama is just 1 thousand times better than Palin. Maybe he doesn't blurt out a lie in every other sentence or act like something he's not. Face it, Barack Obama doesn't lend himself to trashy press because he has class, is intelligent, courts diversity, and seeks thoughtful, well-reasoned solutions and actually listens to all who speak. Palin is a sound bite in a skirt; usually a false sound bite or at least greatly exaggerated.
Thanks for the compliment, BigDan. I like dogs and I'm certainly liberal.
Now, name-calling aside, if Obama were governor of Alaska and tried to pull the same dishonest cover-ups, end runs and blocks as Palin has done, I would hope somebody in the media would be responsible enough to ferret it out and write about it. And I certainly would no longer be a supporter of his.
The fact is, he isn't, he hasn't... and Palin is and has.
And if you want to talk about dirty tactics, Palin is now out there using racist rhetoric and inciting the crowds at her rallies into attacking the media, literally. Your Republican counterparts in Florida have gone way beyond booing the media and now are actually threatening reporters and cameramen physically, swearing at them and using racial epithets. Way to appeal to the highest ideals of our good country, Palin. Don't have anything of substance to say? Just incite a mob instead.
And who was it on these forums that insinuated there would be race riots if McCain won? Seems to me the idea is to start them now... But it isn't the black candidate's supporters doing it. It's our ever-so-honest governor and her advisors.
Disgusted? "Yer darn tootin'" I am. I grew up down there and thought the country had (for the most part) moved past the bitterness and hatred and violence. Now the governor of a state I love is tapping into what's left below the surface and using it in the worst possible way... to instill doubt about Obama by saying he "isn't like us." That's code talk for the N word. Not very Christian of her.
Why must the right always appeal to the worst in people? Wouldn't it be great if all the candidates stirred the idealism, generosity and best instincts in all of us?
dobieman:"BigDan...at $960 per email being charged by Palin's administration that is not a smear campaign. That is plainly an attempt at obstruction."
xxxxx
That's $960 per e-mail ACCOUNT, dobieman. Someone - at our expense - has to go through thousands and thousands of e-mails and make copies for the requester. Do you think we should DONATE the time of public employees? Who pays for THAT?
How long do you think it takes to find and print the emails, honestly? When they're computerized and therefore searchable pretty easily? An hour? Two? Even if it took an entire 8-hour workday, $960 is a ridiculous amount. It obviously is an attempt to make it more difficult to file FOIA requests.
And remember, the information is supposed to belong to us, the taxpayers. We've already paid for the staffers' time.
Palin wouldn't get this kind of media scrutiny if she was honest about anything or believed in one thing she says. Shame on all of you who support and condone her lies. They are all on video for anyone to see.......now DISPUTE that fact.
How can it be a smear campaign anyway? The only one smearing Palin is Palin herself with her own words and actions. Why are you so angry that many Alaskans expect her to be responsible and accountable? Maybe if she had tried to hold true to her platform of truth and transparency it would be a different story.
BigDan, do you read the Illinois papers? Maybe Obama is under the same scrutiny there. Palin is from Alaska, and so the newspapers in Alaska are picking up every single story about her, and publishing some of their own.
In addition, Obama has been in the national spotlight for several years, as have McCain and Biden. Palin is new, so everything about her is NEWS.
It still comes down to the fact that Sarah Palin is more like a deranged and delusional pit bull than a regular hockey loving mom. She lies and is currently very busily inserting racism into the election - one of the worst facets of American history. She is definitely not behaving as Jesus would. Unfortunately, trash sells newspapers and so Palin gets far more coverage than does Obama. I, personally, would much rather hear intelligent discussion of solutions to the complex problems facing America and the world than read yet another story about the plethora of lies told by Palin and McCain.
BigDan,
I know what you mean about the dogs and I know also what you mean about the media
BigDan: Palin has brought all this onto herself.
AlaskaFlower: If my email account were FOIA-d, I guarantee you it would not cost anywhere near $960 to scan through it for emails of relevance. It would take about 15 minutes. In fact, because the State email system is an Enterprise system, an IT person could probably go through 100 email accounts for less than $960.
Of course, since Gov. Palin uses Yahoo, that would take much longer.
The only thing that is obvious here is hypocrisy. Lord Obama's associations and his wife's comments are off limits and irrelevant. All things Palin are to be examined under a microscope and half truths will be the currency used to buy votes. I hear the bums in Ohio are already being bussed to election offices.
B...b...b...BUT OBAMA!!
No, sorry. Let me correct my last post:
B...b...b...BUT HYPOTHETICAL OBAMA!!!
No, let me correct your post:
H...h...h...HYPOCRITICAL OBAMA!!!!
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