Sarah Palin, 'reformer:' Jobs for donors

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin is campaigning as a reformer, a maverick running mate for a maverick candidate for president.

As a new governor in Alaska, she told the Republican National Convention, she "shook things up, and in short order we put the government of our state back on the side of the people."

But that's not all she did, according to an examination of Palin's hiring of campaign donors and friends, sometimes without apparent qualifications, by our colleague at the Los Angeles Times, Charles Piller, reporting today that:

-- "More than 100 appointments to state posts -- nearly 1 in 4 -- went to campaign contributors or their relatives, sometimes without apparent regard to qualifications.

-- "Palin filled 16 state offices with appointees from families that donated $2,000 to $5,600 and were among her top political patrons. Several of Palin's leading campaign donors received state-subsidized industrial development loans of up to $3.6 million for business ventures of questionable public value.

-- "Palin picked a donor to replace the public safety commissioner she fired. But the new top cop had to resign days later under an ethics cloud. And Palin drew a formal ethics complaint still pending against her and several aides for allegedly helping another donor and fundraiser land a state job.

"Most new governors install friends and supporters in state jobs. But Alaska historians say some of Palin's appointees were less qualified than those of her Republican and Democratic predecessors,'' Piller reports. "University of Alaska historian Steve Haycox said Palin has been a reformer. But he said she has a penchant for placing supporters, many of them ill-prepared, in high posts. He called it "cronyism" far beyond what previous governors have done and a contradiction of her high-minded philosophy.''

See the rest of the L.A. Times story on Palin's hiring of friends.