Anchorage Daily News

Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday chose Talis Colberg, a Palmer lawyer with no obvious experience in oil and gas cases or criminal law, as the state's next attorney general.

Colberg is something of an unknown outside his Valley stomping grounds, which is precisely what Palin likes about him.

The new governor, who won election campaigning on ethics and change, said she tapped Colberg, a former Mat-Su Borough assemblyman, to be the state's top lawyer partly because he doesn't run in the inner circles of state politics.

"I wanted to find someone without an agenda, if you will, but just someone to just provide good, solid, sound legal advice," Palin said.

Also Wednesday, Palin appointed Emil Notti, the first president of the Alaska Federation of Natives and a state official in the 1980s, as commissioner of the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. She announced Karleen Jackson will remain commissioner of Health and Social Services.

Sharon Leighow, the producer of Dan Fagan's KFQD-AM talk radio show, will be Palin's deputy press secretary. Palin's former campaign manager, Kris Perry, will run Palin's Anchorage office.

As far as appointments go, the attorney general job is big. It's choosing the person who will be the state's chief law enforcement officer, the legal advisor to other departments and the boss of a department with more than 500 employees.

Colberg, who has a small law office in Palmer and focuses on workers' compensation cases, said Palin called to offer him the job Monday, and things have been happening fast.

"I'm a little bewildered by it, but I'm thrilled to have that chance," he said.

His appointment now goes to the Legislature for confirmation.

Colberg is clearly a mystery to many Alaska legal and political officials and insiders. The immediate reaction among many on Wednesday was: Who?

Anchorage Sen. Hollis French, a former state prosecutor, said that before Wednesday, he'd never heard Colberg's name.

French, a Democrat, said he's approved of many of Palin's early appointments, which he described as "nonideological, competent individuals." He said he wants to learn more about Colberg.

"It would be nice if we could get an A.G. who at least had spent some time as a prosecutor," French said. He said he thinks Palin is right to look for someone who doesn't have political baggage or business ties, although a big part of the job is dealing with complex oil and gas issues.

The first attorney general that former Gov. Frank Murkowski appointed, Gregg Renkes, a former Murkowski U.S. Senate aide and lobbyist, was heaped with criticism for owning stock in a company that could have benefited from his actions. He eventually resigned. Renkes' replacement, David Marquez, was a corporate counsel for oil companies.

Palmer Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler has presided over cases Colberg has presented and knows him through the state bar association. She called him quiet, intellectual and "a very good lawyer."

"I certainly think in the legal profession in the Valley that he is a person of high integrity," she said.

Cutler didn't think his lack of criminal law experience and managing people would be a problem. "I personally don't have qualms about that knowing Talis and his skills. I guess I would just say in my experience he's a good leader and a very quick learner."

He's also a teacher. Adjunct professor, actually, at the University of Alaska Anchorage Mat-Su campus.

"My Eastern civilization class will take their final exam (tonight)," he said.

Colberg, 48, finished the second of two three-year terms on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly in October. He earned his law degree at Pepperdine University and said he's been practicing law for more than two decades.

He's a registered Republican who said he voted for Palin but didn't donate money to her campaign. Colberg said he and the new governor knew of each other but didn't have extended conversations.

Palin said Colberg's ready for the job. People around the state may not know his name -- which is Latvian and pronounced tall-iss, by the way -- but that she used to be an unknown too.

"The advantages of being an outsider, if you will, far outweigh the disadvantages," Palin said.

Jackson is the second commissioner Palin has kept from the Murkowski administration. The other is Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, commissioner of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

At the Egan Convention Center on Wednesday, Jackson had just come from a big luncheon downstairs, where she was one of 10 women to receive the Women of Achievement awards from the YWCA. Palin addressed the luncheon briefly and, with the keen sense of political timing that served her through her campaign, announced that she was adding one of their honorees to her cabinet.

Palin's choice to run the Commerce Department, Notti, served under Gov. Bill Sheffield in the 1980s as commissioner of Community and Regional Affairs. He was a key figure in the early years of Native corporation politics in Alaska as the first president of the Alaska Federation of Natives.

At one time, Notti served as a president of Fairbanks-based Doyon Ltd.

But he has not played a leadership role in some time, and more recently has been aligned with reform-minded Native shareholders pressing for greater scrutiny by state securities regulators of the Native-owned corporations. Securities regulation in Alaska comes under the Department of Commerce.

Asked Wednesday whether the state had been making changes to provide greater oversight, Notti said, "Not enough." He said he might want to look at that subject as commissioner.

Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins can be reached at khopkins@adn.com. Daily News reporter Stephanie Komarnitsky contributed to this report.

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