Alaska News

Todd Palin: The shadow governor

A recently released batch of state e-mails shows former "First Dude" Todd Palin as intimately involved in state affairs -- too intimately, some say.

For those wild and interesting 30 months Sarah Palin ruled as governor of the 49th state, many Alaskans lived under the impression that hubby Todd -- the "First Dude," Iron Dog snowmachine racer, North Slope oil field worker, commercial fisherman, all-around average Alaska Joe -- was just hangin' out, watchin' the kids, ridin' the snowgo, and occasionally showing up for work with his union or onetime employer BP.

Now a decidedly different picture of Todd is emerging from the 1,200 state e-mails being released per terms of the state's public information laws and, possibly more significantly, from the catalog of another 243 e-mails the state is continuing to keep secret, claiming "executive privilege" or privacy issues.

The list of secret messages shows Todd was copied on "gas production issues," "talking points on rural Alaska," "potential budget vetoes," "briefing papers on Yukon Territory," "plans for special (legislative) session and petroleum production tax," "ASMI (Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute) issues," "personnel issue" and much more.

These e-mails leave the distinct impression that wherever Sarah Palin moved in state government, there was a shadow that moved with her -- the shadow of Todd Palin.

This impression is decidedly different from The New York Times' September 2008 portrayal of Todd as someone who "rises early to train for snowmobile events, then ferries the children to various sports and school activities."

Todd might have been doing all of those things, but it appears he also got on his computer to stay abreast of what was happening in state government and sometimes, perhaps, pull the levers of government himself.

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In one of the e-mails released earlier this month, a note that appears to go only to Todd, Ivy Frye -- a longtime Palin aide and onetime director of the state's Boards & Commissions -- writes: "I started some background checks today and will share with you tomorrow if you're in the office. What a day, huh? Taking people off boards, putting them on."

Appointments to boards and commissions appear to have been a Todd priority, according to the e-mails, but so was the monitoring of Sarah's image. Friends of the Palins have long portrayed Todd as something of Sarah's protector, and after she was elected governor he seems to have come on like an old radio show:

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows."

When the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner wrote critically of Sarah, Todd sent her staff an e-mail suggesting they cut off the flow of information to the newspaper. What he might have suggested in many other e-mails, however, is unknown either because comments were redacted or the e-mails themselves were withheld. A number of the latter from September 2007 list the subject matter as "strategy for responding to media allegations." (Crivella West and MSNBC.com have teamed up to provide a searchable database of Palin e-mails.)

September 2007 was when Gov. Palin canceled the Gravina Island Bridge in Ketchikan. As a gubnertorial candidate in 2006, she'd strongly supported construction of the so-called "bridge to nowhere." She said then the that term "nowhere" insulted local residents and insisted she would "not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project ... into something so negative."

Two years later in her vice-presidential acceptance speech before the Republican National Committee, she sang a different, conservative, budget-cutter tune that played magnificently Outside. She declared to thundering applause that "I told the Congress 'thanks, but no thanks,' for that bridge to nowhere."

What role Todd played as adviser on this issue is unclear, as is his exact clout on directing any single issue that came before the Palin administration. Palin chief of staff Mike Nizich argued in a Nov. 6, 2008 letter to Anchorage attorney Don Mitchell that the size of Todd's clout doesn't matter, either. It could, he said, be as big as the governor wanted it be.

As long as Todd was doing as Gov. Palin directed him, he had the authority to do just about anything, said Nizich, now the chief of staff for Gov. Sean Parnell. Nizich essentially proclaimed the powers of an imperial governor for the 49th state.

"The governor," he wrote, "is absolutely entitled to involve him in policy matters as an adviser as she sees fit."

Former state Sen. Vic Fischer, a delegate to the Alaska Constitutional Convention, said in an interview this week that the state's forefathers never envisioned a state run by co-governors -- one elected, one not. But then, nobody ever thought of the possibility.

"There was not an issue," he said. "There was no reason for this to arise."

Certainly, constitutional convention delegates expected future governors to consult with their spouses, Fischer said, but not to invite them into meetings, let them use the governor's office to interview state employees, or copy them on state communications as if they were members of the staff.

"Acting as an official of the government, that seems to be beyond proper," Fischer said, "beyond the bounds of the way the government should operate."

A 'powerful First Dude'

Palin family attorney Tom Van Flein would beg to differ. He sees in Todd's actions a beneficent contribution to the people of Alaska. He contends all Alaskans knew Todd was a "powerful First Dude," but that he only used his powers for good.

The First Dude, Van Flein said in a written statement, "received no pay and had no staff. He donated his time to the people of Alaska by assisting the governor. Each spouse of the chief executive is free to define his or her own role ... Todd was no different."

Except that he was. Never before has Alaska seen the spouse of a governor as involved in the intricacies of governance as Todd Palin appears to have been. Neither has this been the case since Sarah Palin abandoned the governor's mansion.

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A staunch Democrat, Fischer was quick to note that the discussion of the spouse's role "is not a matter of partisan politics." With Palin's resignation, he said, the issue went away. Replacement Republican Gov. Sean Parnell's wife, Sandy, has settled into a more traditional spousal role. She is not summoning people to meetings in the governor's office or consulting with the governor's staff on gas line policy or lobbying on oil tax legislation.

Unfortunately, Mitchell said one recent afternoon over lunch, a precedent for other governors has been set by the Palins' behavior and Nizich's posturing. Mitchell, who has represented outspoken Palin critic Andree McLeod in efforts to make public Palin administration e-mails, plans to challenge attempts by the Palin administration and the subsequent Parnell administration to provide a legal cover for a "trusted adviser" position that could put the power of government in the hands of any of a governor's friends or relatives. The issue, Mitchell said, isn't simply Todd Palin.

What if, he wondered, a governor's trusted adviser was an old college buddy in Florida? Could the governor then order staff to send the trusted adviser your state files, or sensitive state oil and gas leasing documents , or require staff to take phone calls and respond to directions from said trusted adviser?

It now appears Todd could have been involved in all of these activities when Sarah Palin was governor. He is known to have called people into the governor's office for interviews. He appears at times to have directed state employees. He was apparently briefed with some regularity on a wide range of policy issues. And he was often busy managing, or trying to manage, Sarah's image.

"Todd was someone who had to be dealt with, kind of the gatekeeper for Sarah," said Andrew Halcro, who once campaigned against Sarah, became her friend, then her enemy, and has since been a close observer and critic of the Palins as a blogger and radio talk show host. "From a state government perspective, I think it's wrong. These were really people who turned state government into their own playground."

A 'taciturn' -- but 'busy' -- 'regular Joe'

Some have portrayed Todd as the strong, silent, supervisory playground boss. Men's Journal magazine writer Daniel Duane, who spent time hanging with Todd in his workshop, calls the Wasilla snowmachine racer "a taciturn regular Joe." Todd, who sometimes seems to prefer staring folks down over talking to them, clearly intimidates some people.

Some ex-Palin Adminstration aides appear almost fearful to talk about their time with the Alaska governor. Former Palin legislative aide John Bitney, a child school friend of the governor's who has on past occasions described Todd as a fixture in the governor's office, declined to comment for this story. "My family has been through enough," he said. Bitney lost his job with the Palin administration after he had an affair with a married friend of the Palins.

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But for everyone holding their tongue or critical of how the Palins -- plural -- managed the Office of the Governor, there is someone singing their praises. Former Palin spokesman Bill McAllister, now the public face for the Alaska Department of Law, detoured from answering questions about the withholding of e-mails to launch a lengthy defense of his former boss. He believes she has been unfairly portrayed as publicity hungry.

"She could have had a lot more attention," he said. "I fielded a thousand requests for interviews."

Nearly all of those requests were for Sarah, not for her spouse. Todd always moved in the shadows. But there were hints of his activities.

"He's busy. He's way busy," Iron Dog racing partner Scott Davis told Journal writer Duane. "All the stuff that comes along with Sarah's position..." The Palins themselves never tried to hide how close their relationship was, and how close it had been since high school. Former Anchorage Daily News editorial page editor Matt Zencey once pegged Todd as the head of the Palin family kitchen cabinet.

Still, the depth of the involvement of Todd -- a largely self-described blue-collar lunch-bucket kind of guy -- in the white-collar workings of government did come as a bit of a surprise to some.

"Lawmakers told me Todd was working offices (in Juneau) during the end of the ACES there,"

Halcro said. ACES -- Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share -- was the big tax the conservative Palin administration stuck to the Alaska oil industry.

The Clinton comparison

The only relationship in modern politics that appears to come close to Todd's and Sarah's, Mitchell said, is that of Bill and Hillary, as in President Bill Clinton and his wife, now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Van Flein, the Palins' attorney, also cites the Clinton comparison.

"From the policy oriented Hillary Clinton, to the more traditional and charitable work of Laura Bush, to the combined policy/traditionalist role of Michelle Obama, the first spouse takes on the duties within their interests and within the context of their marriage to the chief executive," Van Flein wrote in a statement for the media.

Only there is a difference between these couples and the Palins. Mitchell notes that when Hillary decided to take an active role in pulling the levers of government power, or trying to, a government position was created for her. She was named to head a special health care task force.

Todd himself once observed that Daniel Mulhern, the husband of Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, gave up his business when she was elected in 2002 and took an active role in her administration. But again, there is a difference. Mulhern was appointed to various jobs. He became a state official.

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"As Michigan's 'First Gentleman,' Mr. Mulhern is championing the cause of state volunteerism and community service, chairing the Michigan Community Service Commission. He is an accomplished leadership coach and organizational development expert and is using those skills to guide the Office of Great Workplace Development ... (and) he serves as honorary vice chair of the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness," according to the Web site of the National Governor's Association.

The only position to which Todd Palin was named was the state's Workforce Development Commission. Van Flein said, in his statement, that Todd was appointed to head that hard-to-find state entity. A search of the state government Web site found no such commission. An attempt to contact the commission through the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development ended with a secretary in the commissioner's office who'd never heard of the commission. State travel records do show Todd at times accompanying state Labor Department officials to developing mines as "the first gentleman" and a guest; nowhere is there a mention of his position with the workforce commission. Likewise, Todd's e-mails don't appear to reflect any involvement with the workforce commission, but they do show him being consulted on a whole bunch of other boards and commissions, from the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and the Permanent Fund Board.

Some of the e-mails might even cause one to wonder who was running the office of Boards & Commissions -- Gov. Palin's staff or Todd? On May 7, 2007, Frye sent him an e-mail saying the American Red Cross was looking for a list of disaster team appointees and asking: "Do you know where I can track that down."

The question wouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone watching closely. Early on, the Palin administration was all about getting Palin people into positions on the many boards and commissions that oversee business and regulation in Alaska. It would be only logical to place Todd, Sarah's closest ally, in charge of that messy job. When the Palins decided they wanted to put longtime family friend Curt Menard, now deceased, on the Alaska Railroad Board, they had to jettison retired Air Force four-star Gen. Joe Ralston, the former supreme commander of NATO. The pretext for his removal was that he had a job with a Washington, D.C. company.

The late Bill Tobin, a conservative columnist and the longtime editor of the conservative Anchorage Times newspaper, was incensed.

"The governor's office dismissed Ralston by saying he was vice chairman of the Cohen Group in Washington, D.C. -- as though he lives there and not in Anchorage," Tobin wrote. "He read about his dismissal in the newspaper, in a report that gave utterly no reason for his ouster. For the governor's information, Ralston and his wife, Dede, have owned a home here since long before he retired from the Air Force in 2003 after a distinguished 37-year career ... Beyond that, the governor and her folks in Juneau might like to know that Ralston also is a director of Lockheed Martin," served on boards of several other prominent national companies, and yet had never missed a railroad board meeting.

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Sarah Palin has made much of her support for the U.S. military. It remains unclear if she or Todd, who appears to have been the one most intimately involved in boards and commissions, really knew who Ralston was. State e-mails released to date appear to show no mention of his name. Meanwhile, however, other e-mails contain information that leave some wondering about what Todd might have said about those he did know.

In one e-mail, Frye asked Todd about Kim Williams of Dillingham, whose term on the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault was expiring. Whatever Todd answered has been redacted by the state, but Frye's response is available: "Thank you. This was very helpful."

Williams was not reappointed. Williams told The Associated Press she doesn't care what Todd said or didn't say about her. Others might. Mitchell questions putting government power in the hands of those who operate outside the bounds of government rules.

The Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act sets strict standards for the behavior of "public officers." It makes no mention of advisers -- valued, trusted, spousal or shadow.

Who knows what the shadow might have been able to do, free from pesky ethics constraints?

"I think it is a matter of record (that) he was not a public employee," Department of Law spokesman McAllister said. As to all other questions, he directed a reporter to Nizich's letter to Palin.

"That's the law,'' McAllister said.

Mitchell would beg to differ.

There's no telling how much this Palin legacy will cost to sort out in the courts -- and no telling who might have said what about whom in those Todd Palin e-mails. The reason for many of them being withheld, according to the Department of Law, is Article I, Sect. 22 of the Alaska Constitution. That is the part of the Constitution that defines the "right to privacy."

Who knows what dirt the shadow might have been dishing on his fellow Alaskans?

Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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