On Aug. 22, 2006, Sarah Palin shocked the Republican Party establishment with a crushing primary victory over incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski and former state Sen. John Binkley. She went on to win the governor's race in November by a comfortable margin and, according to polls, has grown even more popular with Alaskans during her first year in office.
A year after that primary victory, Gov. Palin sat down with Daily News reporter Tom Kizzia to talk about some of the biggest issues of her first nine months in office, including the ongoing federal corruption investigation and next month's special session to reconsider the state's new oil tax.
Featured today: Her thoughts on the political corruption investigation and the changes to the system she says will be necessary to chart a different course for the state. The governor's comments have been lightly edited for space and repetition. The complete audio is available on adn.com.
ADN: How do you feel about how the FBI investigations are going now? You had a lot to say in May when the indictments came out. Now the investigation is veering toward the congressional delegation and could affect how Alaska does business. ... Does that make you uneasy?
PALIN: I am not scared of the changes that I believe are inevitable in terms of leadership that has represented the state of Alaska for all of these years because the change is inevitable.
Whether the FBI reveals something that leads to change, or just the changes in power in Congress ... or individuals maybe choosing not to run for re-election, age even of our politicians playing a part in this, change is coming to Alaska.
So I am not afraid of that and I don't want Alaskans to be afraid of what is coming. ... There are many positives that are going to result from change if we are in the right mind-set. ...
My interpretation of it is that Alaska has got to change its image. ... We need to be taken seriously so that we are given more credence and more authority here and we are provided more opportunities to develop our state. The only way that we are going to be able to gain the trust of the rest of the United States ... is to prove that we can do things right and honestly and transparently and Sen. Stevens knows that has been my message.
ADN: Transparency in government. Are you talking about self-sufficiency as well?
PALIN: I go back again to remembering when we became a state where we struck the deals with the federal government as we asked to be let into the union and the promise on our part was that we would be as self-sufficient as possible.
We wouldn't solely be reliant on the federal government to pay our bills, to provide services and build our projects here, and we become self-sufficient by developing our resources because we are so wealthy in terms of the resource that we have here, but into -- a large part here, we are not allowed to develop those resources and I think a lot of that has to do with others who are making decisions for us, looking at us like, 'We don't believe that their oversight is going to be strong enough for the environment.'
Now, of course, they are saying, 'We believe that there is corruption up there, so we can't trust Alaska to know how to do the right thing.' All of these things that are kind of elements right now in play, we have to be more responsible and more sensible than ever. This state government, our administration, has to prove to the rest of the United States that we can do things right.
ADN: Well, talk about dependence on the federal government, I think a lot of Alaskans have probably asked themselves why these investigations had to be carried out by the federal Justice Department.
PALIN: Yes.
ADN: Is the state capable of policing political corruption here or is it too tied up in its own system? Can voters have any confidence that any future transgressions can be handled by the state?
PALIN: That's a great question, and I am one of those who had asked why did it take the feds to come in here over the last couple of years and start digging into the issues that had been speculated about and rumored about?
Why couldn't the state police each other? Why couldn't the Legislature and legislators police one another? Why couldn't APOC (the Alaska Public Offices Commission) -- why didn't they have an investigator? All these tools that we are missing in the state's toolbox to clean up what was rumored to be corruption and undue influence, and I still don't have the answer as to why it was that the state had to rely on the feds again to come in and clean things up. But what we have done to change that though, with APOC, we funded them an investigator.
They need to have one with oversight of the oil industry. We just funded a five million-dollar new office, the PSIO office (Petroleum Systems Integrity Office) where we will have an integrity office overseeing the regulatory environment, even, of oil and gas development in the state. ...
We are going to put our money where our mouth is that we are going to be able to prove that our commitment is to do things right.
ADN: Is the investigator going to do it for APOC? Or does more change need to be made there in the election supervision?
PALIN: Well, an investigator is a good first step. Greater communication with APOC will be able to tell us what else is missing. And then those things that make sense to this administration to add to the toolbox.
We have got to go above and beyond with oversight. We have to make sure that the public is going to be able to trust that state government is making decisions in the people's best interest and we have got a lot of ground to make up.
ADN: Payoffs to legislators goes beyond just campaign finance investigations. That takes some serious digging for the Department of Law or the State Troopers or whomever. It would go beyond APOC.
PALIN: Well, right, and that obviously is why the FBI and Department of Justice, other entities with much greater resources than any state agency, had to come in. But also, I think the FBI's role in this and Department of Justice is an indication that the problems are greater than just maybe a local legislator pocketing a few thousand dollars to change a vote on something.
Evidently, it is more serious than what has been revealed thus far. Of course, not being privy to all of the information, I can't prejudge what any kind of outcome is going to be when more of the trials begin and I can't assume that the period of indictments is over. I think that there will probably be more.
ADN: In May, Attorney General (Talis) Colberg said the state was going to pursue its own investigation of things related, issues related to those Veco confessions. Is that still going ahead?
PALIN: Well, to the degree that we cannot step on the FBI's toes or get in the way of their investigation, our focus has been on what kind of undue influence was either impacting or coming from the administration? They are the ones who proposed the new oil tax regime, remember? And nobody is really asking well, what did Jim Clark (Murkowski's chief of staff) have to do with this? What did Murkowski have to do with all of this?
It's been our role and some of my assistants' roles who were here before to start getting in there and figuring out what was the motivation behind these proposals to change an oil tax. That is still being gathered. ...
ADN: Have the feds been looking at the previous administration's motives?
PALIN: I can't tell. We can't tell.
ADN: You can't say or you can't ...
PALIN: I can't prove that they have been doing that, except that they have conducted some interviews. They have interviewed, for instance, Joe Balash, my assistant on the oil and gas issues and Joe had been working for a legislator in the past and it sounds to me like the questions may have had to do with what was the administration's role. But that's something that we, you know, again, I am not privy to and we haven't heard or seen publicly what aspect of the administration's past actions are being questioned.
ADN: Some Alaskans have, you know, defended Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski in particular, saying it is only natural in a small state for a politician to have prominent friends and even enter business relations with them. What do you think? Where should public figures, political figures draw the line?
PALIN: Well, maybe that is commonplace in a former smaller world of politicians in Alaska, but that is not commonplace in my world to be presented, you know, maybe amazing or even outlandish investment opportunities that turn us into rich individuals. ...
I am not buddies with Bob Penney. I don't go to that Kenai classic fishery thing, you know, I don't go hunting and fishing with Bill Allen. That's not my world. So my perspective is, I guess this new leadership team, we wouldn't be tempted to become part of that world because that is not where we came from. I'm not enticed at all or excited about the idea of hooking up with some of the characters in the past that now are in trouble.
ADN: Do you think if they had adhered to a brighter line that they could have avoided some of this trouble?
PALIN: I think everyone has that individual and personal ethical compass within and I think that maybe in the past, some individuals, their compass was way off kilter and decisions were made based on a real skewed idea of what ethical activity would be. I am not claiming holier than thou and I am not saying that the people who I hire and surround myself with, that any of us are perfect.
All of us make mistakes ... but as long as I am confident that moral compass is right on target and we are not going to be tempted to do anything for self gain then I think that is what is going to best for the progress that we need here in Alaska. I can't say that was the case in the past in Alaskan politics. Obviously it wasn't or we wouldn't have high-ranking CEOs pleading guilty to bribery.
ADN: But I think you are also talking about the activities in the gray area -- the business relationships with, you know, a senator or congressman or a state legislator. Between someone with interests in the public process and the people running the public process.
PALIN: Right. Well, that's why I think we need more real and normal and hardworking and blue-collar Alaskans to want to run for office and serve in these positions that are making decisions.
Again, I will personalize this. I am not from that other world. My dad as a school teacher wasn't a mover and shaker developer making big bucks in the state of Alaska off of property development. My husband isn't that way. I am not raising my kids to be that way.
... If you want to be in public service, it is being willing to serve Alaskans for the right reasons. It is having to have a servant's heart when you come into these positions. It's not to get rich.
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.