Anchorage Daily News

Here are some afternoon news updates related to Gov. Palin's run for the vice presidency:

Palin's relationship to Alaska Natives gets heightened scrutiny. Local blogger Alaska Real reacted to a document circulating on the Internet that assesses Gov. Sarah Palin's approach to handling issues sensitive to the state's Native population.

You can read the report with its supporting legal documents at the Alaska Politics blog, and you can read local Alaska Native blogger Alaska Real's reaction to this assessment of the governor's record.

Again, the facts of this document are true, I'm just a bit cautious about saying "Palin believes this" about anything that she will come in and say "Oh, but that was my staff, not me" on. Which she has done. Frequently.

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Tomorrow's editorial has 10 questions for Sarah Palin. The Kansas City Star is revving up for the Charles Gibson interviews of Sarah Palin by offering some questions they'd like asked. They've been kind enough to include the follow-up question as well. Here's a sample:

Are you fully cooperating with the Alaska Legislature's attempt to learn whether you or someone in your family or staff improperly pressured the state's former public safety commissioner to fire your former brother-in-law from his trooper job?

Follow up: What's your explanation for the commissioner's departure?

If you make motherhood a centerpiece of your public biography, should you realistically expect your family to be off-limits to media coverage?

Follow up: Did you consider turning down McCain's offer to protect the privacy of your family?

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Palin candidacy raises profile of abortion measures in three states. The Seattle Times reports that the enthusiastic reception anti-abortion candidate Sarah Palin got at the Republican National Convention is increasing the profile of abortion measures that will appear on Nov. 4 ballots in California, South Dakota and Colorado.

"We're thrilled," said Karen Cross, political director of the National Right to Life Committee, after Palin was chosen. At the same time, the NRLC denounced Democrat Barack Obama as "the most pro-abortion candidate ever nominated by a major political party."

The California measure would require a 48-hour waiting period and parental notification before minors could obtain abortions. South Dakota's would outlaw abortions except in cases of rape, incest or a serious threat to the mother's health; Colorado's would define human life as beginning with "the moment of fertilization."

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Palin information management: Taking a page out of the Arnold Schwarzenegger playbook. The San Francisco Chronicle put the Palin rock-star story in a different context today. To Californians, her campaign mirrors what happened when Arnold reached for the governor's mantle in their state. A surprise candidate, a "frantically short" run to the election and rare opportunities to interview the candidate.

The man who ran media for Schwarzenegger's successful bid, Steve Schmidt, is now doing that job for the McCain/Palin ticket.

"The biggest parallels I see is that they both come out of the blue. And the voters are desperate for a hero. ... They're desperate to have hope in someone who can actually fix things," said GOP strategist Rob Stutzman, who was communication director for Schwarzenegger during the historic recall. "There's a lot of similarities. ... People fall in love with the idea of a hero that can actually provide a refreshing change."

Stutzman says Americans are infatuated now, but the drama has yet to play out.

"What happens to her in the next 60 days will be fascinating to watch," he said. "The only concern I have is that America loves celebrity ... and they love to see celebrities fall."

Jason Farago, a columnist at The Guardian, calls this management style "Sarah Palin's war against information."

"Shame on you!" they shouted in unison, like Puritans around a ducking stool, as Palin scolded the media during her speech last Wednesday in St Paul, Minn. It's ironic, to say the least, that the GOP has decided to hit the press in order to win an election for McCain, a man who has enjoyed the media's adulation for 25 years and who used to call reporters "my base." But the stratagem is plain: Discredit the messenger, and reports on Palin's serious ethics problems or shoddy record can be written off as baseless (and sexist) attacks by a group with a vendetta, hell-bent on destroying an unimpeachable hockey mom who shares your values. Unlike that other guy.

Closer to home, Dermot Cole, a columnist at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, takes exception to the message management happening now in his hometown with Palin's impending arrival.

MESSAGE CONTROL: It's one thing to show support for our governor in her bid for the vice presidency. It's another thing for the Republican Party to invite the public and then take extraordinary steps to control what messages might be communicated at this afternoon's rally.

It was counterproductive, at best, for a party spokesman to proclaim "we're encouraging you not to come" unless you support Palin for vice president.

Likewise, the decision to have all signs made Tuesday night on the premises and to ban people from showing up with their own signs was a move to allow the GOP to control the content of the messages contained on those signs.

This may be standard practice elsewhere, but there is no need for this heavy-handed approach in Alaska.

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Todd Palin at center of governor e-mail fracas. The Washington Post this morning reports on an administrative appeal filed Tuesday specifically asking the governor to release 1,100 e-mails from the governor's office, especially 40 that were copied to her husband. According to the story, a June request, the governor claimed executive privilege then.

She has allowed Todd Palin -- who has not been elected by the people of Alaska, who is not a state employee -- to entangle himself apparently as he sees fit in the operations of the executive branch of the state government," said Don Mitchell, the attorney for activist Andree McLeod.

"From the case law, if government voluntarily opens up that internal decision-making to what I would call civilians, then that is waiver of that protection of the government policy decision-making process. That is what happened here, and it happened because Sarah Palin doesn't understand it," he said.

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Other Palin headlines of interest to Alaskans:

> Alaskans shrug off Palin's faith (National Post)

"The higher she rose in Alaska the more she suppressed her social conservative agenda," said Steve Haycox, a professor of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

"Social conservatism doesn't play well, here but people expect the rhetoric."

Haycox does not think Palin would bring her social conservative agenda to the White House, even if she should find herself president.

"I would expect her with her extraordinary political instincts to function pragmatically," he said. "She will do what will work and won't let the religious rhetoric get in the way."

> Palin initiates talk with major oil producers (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)

The substance of the discussions isn't known, though the passage of the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act endorsing the TransCanada approach to a gasline, has left a rift between the state and oil companies.

Palin has had a rocky relationship with the three companies since coming to power in December 2006.

After dropping direct negotiations with the oil companies pursued by the previous administration, Palin pushed the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, or AGIA, through the Legislature last year, which was tailored to attract competition from third-party players.

One industry official described it as "slamming the door" on the producers. The companies have expressed frustration in the past over what they see as the lack of dialogue with the state on the project

> Sarah Palin: 10 things we've learnt (BBC News)

> Court warns Palin not to badmouth sister's ex (Newsweek)

> Palin aides defend per diem billing (The New York Times)

> What does it take to run Alaska (Wall Street Journal)

In Alaska, the governor has line-item veto power over the budget and can only be overridden by a three-quarters majority of the Legislature. In 1992, the year Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was elected president, his state budget was $2 billion and among the smallest in the country. Compared to that, Sarah Palin is an executive giant.

> The Hockey Mom is home or away? (John Farrell, U.S. News)

As Michael Kinsley notes, the inhabitants of Alaska are as rapacious as the Saudis, Iraqis, and Iranians when it comes to oil; they have no qualms and show no embarrassment at soaking dumb Americans. The Alaskans put huge state taxes on their oil, driving up gasoline prices and the cost of home heating oil for us down here in the Lower 48 and divvy up the proceeds like Fagin and his boys. (Each of them will soon receive a $3,200 cut in the form of an oil rebate check.)

If Palin wants to call her house a Red Roof Inn, they've got the bucks to let her.

News from around the state:

"Don't call it bait; call it caviar." The Juneau Empire has a richly detailed story about the little-known European market for chum salmon eggs. What's remarkable about it is how lucrative it is.

On our way to the caviar-processing side of Northern Keta, a fresh salmon smell wafted up the stairwell.

"Do you smell that?" says Elisabeth Babich, owner of Northern Keta Caviar. "That's the smell of money."

Northern Keta sells the fish flesh in 1,000-pound totes, where it is sold as cheap frozen protein in China or the Ukraine. But the caviar goes for $660 a bucket. According to the story, the bland flesh of the chum makes for delicate-tasting and expensive eggs.

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Avalanche forecasting in Juneau: What's wrong with this picture? The Juneau Empire reports that the city Assembly will decide tonight whether to pay $55,000 for a warning system for slide-prone areas. The city did not fund the program last year, which proved disastrous after an avalanche wiped out the area's cheap hydroelectric facilities for a period of time.

City Manager Rod Swope said the need to find a lower-cost solution became clear this spring, when the electric company did not monitor conditions or try to mitigate risks on its power lines before they were destroyed by avalanches in known slide paths.

"People were quite incensed. ... It was a real wake-up call," Swope said.

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Anchorage hires new teachers as student numbers climb. KTUU reports that the Anchorage School Board will add the equivalent of 18 new teachers to meet a surge of 200 students districtwide. Superintendent Carol Comeau is watching what effect the PFD direct deposits coming Friday will have on enrollment.

"I think that's the big unknown," Comeau said. "We're really kind of watching that, so we probably won't know until the middle of October what the final big picture is going to be in Anchorage."

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Don Young feeling confident about race outcome. If you haven't had a dose of Don Young lately, dial in to APRN's interview and listen to Rep. Young on how he feels about this election.

People that ask me on the quiet, why don't I resign and let others run. This was a great victory. This was not a defeat, it was a victory. You can check your pollsters, we were in very serious shape. And yet Alaskans rose to the occasion and said "Yes! Don Young can still do the job!" And for that I'm very grateful.

The final count and certification is expected next week. Lt. Gov. and candidate Sean Parnell says he'll check race margins before deciding whether to ask for a recount.

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