A Time for Change

Is Sarah Palin’s middle name teflon?  It should be.    The Anchorage Daily News reports that Sarah Palin has essentially migrated the government away from Juneau, Alaska to Anchorage, Alaska, which is  also not so coincidentally near to where her home is located in Wasilla.

What’s the big deal?  For starters, the issue of where the seat of government will be in Alaska has been a hot topic for years.  Voters have decided to keep government in Juneau rather than moving the seat of government to Anchorage many times.  

The location of the state capital has been one of Alaska’s most emotional issues over the years. Ten times in the past 47 years voters wrestled with the issue of moving the seat of government, or the Legislature. The most recent statewide vote was in 2002, when two-thirds of Alaskans voted against a proposition to move legislative sessions to [Anchorage].

Prior governors have aligned thmselves with voters’ wishes by making sure that their staff and commissioners were in Juneau… until Sarah Palin came along.

Sarah Palin just sidestepped voter wishes by simply setting up her office in Anchorage.  She is rarely at the Governor’s Mansion in Juneau, preferring to commute from her home in Wasilla.  The Anchorage Daily News says that during her first 19 months in office, she spent more than half of her time in the Anchorage /Wasilla area despite the fact that the legislature is still in Juneau.

Palin collects $60 per diem “for food and incidentals, such as tips, while traveling on state business,” which in this case is actually time spent in her home in Wasilla.  So Alaska taxpayers have actually reimbursed her for the convenience of living in her own home rather than the mansion that is already there and available to her.  Former Governor, Frank Knowles criticized the practice, saying that “The purpose of the per diem is to cover expenses when away from home….’If you live at home and you get up in the morning and have a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal, you don’t charge the state $16 for breakfast.’”

The issue of the per diem for expenses she incurs for living at home recently came up during her Vice-Presidential bid due to ethics concerns because she is not really “travelling.”  Her spokesperson said that she had been spending very little time in Juneau due to an alleged massive plumbing issue.  However, emails made available under sunshine laws show that really had nothing to do with it at all.  In Governor Palin’s own words, she said:

“Come end of legislative session i’m joining YOU, and the majority of the people of AK, by conducting the state’s business where the people are – where I can access them, and they can access me … We’re going to have to fundamentally change some perceptions of WHERE the admin needs to conduct its business in order to stay connected w/the world outside of Juneau”

So, getting back to my question, how does she get away with it?  She just does as she wants, has her people lie about it so that no one makes a big fuss about her ethical breaches and she hopes the issue just dies down.  That may work in Alaska Ms. Wasilla, but it isn’t going to fly in the part of the United States from which your husband wants Alaska to secede.