Palin's Reformer Myth

Jason Leopold
ConsortiumNews
Sept. 3, 2008

When John McCain trotted out Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, his campaign and much of the U.S. news media depicted the Alaska governor as an ethics “reformer” whose meteoric political rise came from her confronting corruption within her own state Republican Party.

But a closer look at Palin's short political career reveals that she committed some of the same ethical lapses that she has attacked, especially during her unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2002. She also has shown herself to be a thin-skinned politician quick to see herself as the target of conspiracies.

In 2002, Palin – still mayor of Wasilla with a population of about 6,700 – ran much of her campaign for lieutenant governor out of Wasilla City Hall on city time, according to documents first obtained in July 2006 by an editor for Voice of the Times newspaper in Anchorage. (I obtained some of those documents from former Wasilla city officials this week.)

The documents show that Palin used city computers to manage her campaign and billed taxpayers for mailings, phone calls and literature. Palin also had her city secretary, Mary Bixby, print 75 thank-you notes to campaign donors and book a campaign related trip Ketchikan in May 2002 while on city time.

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