The partners of male presidential and vice-presidential candidates have consistently been highlighted and placed under public scrutiny on the campaign trail. So I present to you...Todd Palin the husband of McCain's VP candidate Sarah Palin. (I didn't include the "Shadow Governor" article, which can be found on a number of threads on Daily Kos and www.andrewhalcro.com. Concerns were raised around his possible role in Walt Monegan being fired. They raise the question whether Todd Palin is functioning as a defacto shadow governor. I didn't include the article in this posting about Todd Palin. If Sarah Palin was responsible for illegally firing an employee for personal vindictive reasons than the issue should be Sarah Palin and her abuse of power as governor of Alaska,than her allegedly manipulative and vengeful husband). One more interesting and absurd note, the white supremacist organization StormFront has posted a blog debating whether Todd Palin is white or not because he has some "Eskimo blood" in his heritage.
Todd Palin unique among nation's 5 first husbands
Jeannette J. Lee, May 27, 2007 Anchorage Daily News (AP)
Mr. Palin goes back to Prudhoe
Mike Ross August 21, 2007 www.ktuu.com
Statement by United Steel Workers International president Leo W. Gerard on John McCain’s selection of Sara Palin as his running mate
August 29, 2008
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Todd Palin unique among nation's 5 first husbands
Jeannette J. Lee, May 27, 2007 Anchorage Daily News (AP)
THE MAN: He's worked the oil patch, won the Iron Dog and takes care of the kids.
It was mid-February and Todd Palin, Alaska's newest first gentleman, was speeding across 2,000 miles of ice and snowy tundra en route to victory in the world's most grueling snowmobile race.
That same week, his wife, Gov. Sarah Palin, was in Juneau requesting more money for the state budget and assuring legislators they'd soon see her plan for a natural gas pipeline that could one day be the most expensive construction project in North America. Then she flew to Fairbanks to wave her exhausted husband across the finish line.
It's not just his title as the state's reigning snowmobile co-champion that sets 42-year-old Todd Palin apart from the nation's other first spouses. And it's not that he's one of just five who are men.
White-collar jobs in law, education or health care are typical among the current crop of first spouses, but Palin spent nearly 20 years as a blue-collar employee in the oil fields of the North Slope. And every summer he heads west to his birthplace in Dillingham to work the Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery from his property on the Nushagak River.
A lifetime of manual labor in the state's two largest and most physically demanding industries is helping Palin carve out his role as Alaska's first spouse, or "first dude," a nickname he has in common with the Kansas governor's husband, Gary Sebelius.
Like other first spouses around the country, Palin has been asked to champion an array of causes or institutions since his wife took office in December.
His favorite is steering young Alaskans toward stable jobs in the oil and gas industry. It's a singular choice among his counterparts, whose pet issues include schools, public health, domestic violence, poverty or the arts.
BP-TRAINED
"For those of us who learn by touching and tearing stuff apart and for those who don't have the financial background to go to college, just being a product of that on-the-job training is really important," Palin said one morning over pastries at an Anchorage coffee shop, before meeting with trainers at several companies and trade groups in Anchorage and Wasilla.
Palin, who took college courses, but does not have a degree, said he is grateful for the training he received from the multinational oil company BP starting in 1989.
Until recently, he earned hourly wages as a production operator in a BP-run facility that separates oil from gas and water. Palin was making between $100,000 and $120,000 a year before he went on leave in December to make more time for his family and avoid potential conflicts of interest. London-based BP is heavily involved in the gas pipeline negotiations with his wife's administration.
Palin's advocacy dovetails neatly with his wife's No. 1 priority: forging a construction contract with private companies to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Lower 48. The export of natural gas would presumably replace revenue from the state's dwindling oil reserves, which funded 80 percent of the state budget last year.
"He will be passing information on to me and participating in getting work force development programs up and running in Alaska," Sarah Palin said. "That's in addition to doing all the things that make Todd Todd. There are lots of things I would never want to take away from him, but this is something he's enthused about."
Those things include taking care of their four kids and escaping into the Alaska wilderness to fish commercially, hunt or train for the Tesoro Iron Dog, billed as the longest, toughest snowmobile race in the world. The Palins have a son, Track, 18, and three daughters, Bristol, 16, Willow, 12, and Piper, 6.
A PALIN PASSION
Palin is so passionate about the Iron Dog that he made sure to squeeze in snowmobile runs between official events this winter, such as statewide inaugural galas, and moving the family to the governor's mansion in Juneau. The capital is 600 miles southeast of the family home in Wasilla.
"I've got a really good group of buddies and we train either early in the morning or late at night so we can still make things like the kids' basketball games and try not to impact the family life," Palin said.
In past years, Palin has trained about 3,000 miles before the race to accustom his body to hours of constant jolting and to detect any mechanical kinks in his vehicle. This winter, Palin covered more than 2,500 miles on the frozen swamps and rivers around Wasilla.
Scott Davis, his race partner of five years, said Palin has the willpower to stay levelheaded while racing at high speeds over terrain that can range from glare ice to bare ground to flooded coastlines strewn with driftwood. The Iron Dog traces the Iditarod trail from Wasilla to Nome, plus an additional leg to Fairbanks.
"I have to trust my life in his hands, and I do, because he can still think when he's dehydrated and tired," said Davis, a seven-time winner. "You know, I think this is the longest I've been partners with anybody. A lot of teams certainly don't have fun when they're doing it and I like to think Todd and I do."
This year's win is Palin's fourth since he started running the Iron Dog in 1993.
Palin was born in the western Alaska town of Dillingham to Jim Palin and Blanche Kallstrom, who is a quarter Yu'pik Eskimo. He met Sarah Heath at a high school basketball game and they eloped in 1988, six years after graduation, to avoid having to pay for a wedding.
"We had a bad fishing year that year, so we didn't have any money," Todd Palin said. "So we decided to spend 35 bucks and go down to the courthouse."
At home, Palin takes care of the cooking, the bills and other domestic paperwork, in addition to driving the kids to extracurricular activities like basketball and soccer, according to his wife. He divides much of his time between Wasilla, where Track is recovering from shoulder surgery, and the capital in Juneau, where the Palin daughters are in school.
"He can go on just an hour or two of sleep a night. He says, 'I can sleep when I die,' " said Sarah Palin. "There is no way I could have done this job without his tremendous contributions to the home life. He's able to keep it organized, like a well-oiled machine."
Mr. Palin goes back to Prudhoe
Mike Ross August 21, 2007 www.ktuu.com
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A decision by Alaska's first family is raising concerns about a possible conflict of interest involving Gov. Sarah Palin and the oil industry.
The governor's husband, Todd Palin, is back on BP's payroll. Gov. Palin says his return will not influence her decisions involving the oil industry, but one former lawmaker who wrote an ethics guideline for the administration believes it's a bad move at the wrong time.
A few weeks after Gov. Palin was elected, Todd Palin took an unpaid leave of absence from his job as a North Slope oil field production operator.
But, the state's first husband recently returned to BP's payroll.
"You know, we've never hidden the fact that Todd had a job and he's created to work," said the governor. "He wants to keep working and after seven months of not working he is ready to go back."
Todd Palin said the family needs the extra income.
"I mean, we're still fairly young and we've got kids going into college. Some governors and their spouses, I'm sure, are independently wealthy, but we're not one of those couples. So we have to watch out for our kids' future," Mr. Palin said.
The governor has called a special session of the Legislature to possibly rewrite the Petroleum Profits Tax. Her proposals could have a multi-million dollar impact on her husband's employer. BP could also become a major player in the natural gas line project.
Former state Rep. Ethan Berkowitz co-authored the "Ethics White Paper" with former U.S. Attorney Wev Shea at the request of the governor shortly after she took office. He doesn't agree with Mr. Palin's decision to go back to work.
"It's bad timing. It's a tough situation for the family, but I think the interests of the state have to come first," Berkowitz said. "In the interest of the state, you need to make sure you're above the appearance of impropriety."
He said Todd Palin's employment with a major North Slope producer could raise questions and problems.
"The short version is, I think this adds an unnecessary, complicating variable to a very complex situation. Going through a revision of the oil and gas tax is going to be difficult enough as it is and you want as few distractions as possible. This will amount to a distraction," Berkowitz said.
But the governor and her husband strongly believe there's no conflict of interest.
"A conflict could be perceived if my spouse's position was in a management position with an oil company. But, because it's a blue-collar, in-the-field type job, working in a facility as a production operator, separating the oil, the gas and water; it's not a management position where decision are being made for the future of investment with this oil company in Alaska. So, it hasn't been perceived, on our part anyway, as a conflict of interest," Gov. Palin said.
Mr. Palin agreed that his position with BP makes a difference in the ethical debate.
"Like Sarah said, I'm not in management and I'm not making decisions for the company," Todd Palin said.
The first couple points out that Mr. Palin has worked on the North Slope since 1989, even during the years prior to Palin's election, when she served as chairman of the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission for former Gov. Frank Murkowski.
"If I thought there would be a conflict of interest, where I was going to be doing any favors for one company because my spouse happened to be a union hand, blue-collar for that company, I would be the first to say, 'This isn't right, I don't like it and it's not going to happen,'" stated the governor.
Berkowitz contends it's all about perception.
"There's at least a perception of a conflict of interest when you have a family member working in the industry and you're reviewing the oil and gas taxes. So, just the perception of a conflict is somewhat complicating," Berkowitz said.
Rep. Les Gara, one of the leading supporters of the governor's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, doesn't see a conflict with Mr. Palin's job.
"The big problem is when people start voting the way the people giving them money tell them to vote, right? That's why the FBI is in town. I don't see this as that problem," said Gara, D-Anchorage.
But even the governor's supporters concede that her husband's decision to go back to work for a major oil company will put her actions under closer public scrutiny.
Steve Rinehart, a spokesman for BP, said the company feels Mr. Palin is a skilled worker and is glad to have him back, but would not comment on whether his employment creates a conflict of interest for the governor.
Contact Mike Ross at mross@ktuu.com
Statement by United Steel Workers International president Leo W. Gerard on John McCain’s selection of Sara Palin as his running mate:
August 29, 2008
“It is important to realize that while the governor’s husband is a member of a union, this does not automatically qualify her for an on-the-job training program to become a heartbeat away from the presidency. And while her husband is one of 850,000 dues-paying members of the steelworkers union, it does nothing to absolve Sen. McCain of his long history of anti-union sentiment and anti-worker actions, including continuously pushing an anti-working family agenda that:
- Opposes giving workers the right to bargain collectively;
- Jeopardizes retirement security by privatizing social security;
- Further threatens job security by signing more job-stealing trade deals without the regard to human rights and environmental abuses; and,
- Erodes the ability of working families to secure quality health care by taxing their employer -provided coverage for both active and retired workers.
McCain’s choice is another example of his poor judgment and his desire to play politics as usual. McCain-Palin is not a team that works for working families. The first-term governor’s record is thin and divisive. And John McCain has a life-long record of being for the rich and powerful. No union card can hide that any more than Ronald Regan's union card did.”
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