An investigation I've been doing into the current status of the Gravina Access Project (the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere") has been stymied by the refusal of Palin administration officials to respond to questions about the project. Other events in Alaska and the general circumstances of this refusal lead to the possible conclusion that Alaska state employees may be at risk of getting fired should they provide information to reporters that reflects negatively on Sarah Palin.
Of course, we have heard about similar circumstances occurring with Troopergate.
More below the fold:
While Mr. Wetherell initially indicated he would respond by Friday, September 26th, he had not responded by the day before. When phoned about the status of the response, he gave a shocking response. He claimed that this was "party advocacy journalism" by a "blogger," and that "as a state employee," he could not respond. He also took the unusual step of noting that he had been a press person for the state for 25 years, and had never before refused a request for information.
This somewhat suspicious response led me to at least one instance in the last month where he did respond to a blogger who was engaging in journalism far more partisan than mine. Al Giordano and Bill Conroy of Narco News published a September 15th story where they quoted Mr. Wetherell on the subject of a tanning bed installed by Governor Palin in the Governor's mansion:
"The governor did have a tanning bed put in the Governor's Mansion," Roger Wetherell, chief communications officer of Alaska's Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, confirmed to this newspaper. "It was done shortly after she took office [in early 2007] and moved into the mansion."
Moreover, similarly suspicious claims were made by a different state employee in response to inquiries by Salon's Alex Koppelman regarding trade missions to Russia under Governor Palin.
[Kate] Morgan said she could not legally discuss any trade missions with me because she's a state employee and I had first heard this claim through the Couric interview, which was part of Palin's campaign for the vice-presidency. When I pointed out that any trade missions that occurred would have been official state business, Morgan again noted that I had learned about them in the context of the campaign. "The law is very stringent," she said, and recommended that I contact the McCain-Palin campaign.
Again, somewhat suspicious claims. Of course, we have been hearing that Palin has had her personal people refuse to answer questions from reporters not permanently based in Alaska for several weeks. The McCain campaign has air-dropped at least a dozen Republican operatives into the state to try to handle things.
McCain's campaign has sent at least one dozen researchers and lawyers to Alaska to pore over Palin's background, ready to respond to questions about her tenure as governor and mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. Griffin has been leading the team in Alaska, which includes operatives of the Republican National Committee.
More recently, accusations have been made that the McCain campaign has been taking illegal actions in an attempt to hold up the Troopergate investigation. Representative Les Gara "asked the state police to investigate whether state laws against witness tampering have been violated." Hollis French, the chairman of the bipartisan committee investigation Troopergate, has said in recent court filings that "recent events demonstrate that witnesses or participants who want to stonewall Mr. Branchflower's fact-finding inquiry can count on plenty of assistance from lawyers and McCain campaign operatives." Has the McCain campaign moved beyond Troopergate to apply similar pressure to other state employees?
Such actions would be illegal under the Alaska State Personnel Act, AS 39.25.160: Prohibitions Generally.
(c) A person may not require an assessment, subscription, contribution, or service for a political party from a state employee.
Has the McCain campaign or Governor Palin been taking such illegal actions? That is not yet clear. However, if such actions are not being taken, Kate Morgan and Roger Wetherell ought to respond to inquiries and let the American people know the details of Alaska state business that has taken place under the aegis of a Governor running for a position a heartbeat away from the presidency.