Some Alaskans are getting miffed about their inability to contact their governor. In a small state like Alaska, many things happen on a more personal level. The Presidential campaign has taken that away.
On Saturday, the Anchorage Daily News responded with an editorial, “Why did the McCain campaign take over the governor’s office?”
People who have business in the governor’s office are being given a phone number for the McCain-Palin campaign in Virginia. Basically, the McCain campaign has taken over public and press relations for the governor’s office.
At a press conference last week, Governor Palin’s official press secretary, Bill McAllister, was supplanted by spokespersons of the McCain-Palin campaign. McAllister was not even aware that the McCain-Palin staffers were giving a press conference.
A dozen or so McCain-Palin campaign staffers are answering phone calls including for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affair headed by John Cramer. A staffer returned a phone call to a journalist inquiring “John Who?”
McCain staffers are even answering phone calls for Palin family members.
Palin’s success as a governor rested on her transparency and bipartisanship. Both appear lost now.
The Troopergate scandal is at the heart of many of the problems. Before Palin was picked as VP, she promised to cooperate with the investigation. Now she says a personnel board filled with her appointees should handle it.
The state attorney general, appointed by the governor, advised about a dozen individuals not to respond to subpoenas issued by a legislative committee investigating Troopergate. What was intended as a quick, bipartisan investigation now looks to drag on for months into a bitter political fight.
