Complaint says she crossed line between job, self-promotion

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Palin publicity blitz: No signs of slowing
Complaint says she crossed line between job, self-promotion

By KYLE HOPKINS
[e-mail]

(11/19/08 00:01:33)
She's a national political figure and one of the world's most famous people.

She's also governor of Alaska.

As Sarah Palin settles back into her job as the state's chief executive, a new ethics complaint filed Tuesday says she's already improperly mixing her official duties and broader political ambitions.

The charge: That Palin broke state ethics rules by holding national television interviews about her run for vice president from the governor's office.

The complaint comes as Palin's personal life, her prospects as a future presidential candidate and everything she says and does continues to draw headlines.

Zane Henning, a North Slope worker from Wasilla, said he filed the complaint with the attorney general. He says Palin is promoting her future political career on state property, pointing in particular to the governor's Nov. 10 interview with Fox News Channel host Greta Van Susteren.

"The governor is using her official position and office in an attempt to repair her damaged political image on the national scene," Henning wrote.

The Palin camp, besieged by interview requests, said the governor was no longer a candidate at the time of interviews, but otherwise had little to say about the complaint.

"The consideration of complaints under the executive branch ethics act is a confidential process, by law," wrote Palin spokesman Bill McAllister.

The state executive branch ethics rules say officials can't use state resources to help or hurt a political candidate. Or a potential candidate. That means, for example, no fund-raising phone calls on the state dime and no making political fliers on government copiers.

The latest complaint about Palin may be breaking new ground. . The rules don't spell out whether state officials can tell a national television audience about their past political campaigns from their government office.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/594143.html

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