Going Rogue: An American Life (37 page)

Going

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I built my circle of close advisers carefully. The opportuniry to pull in the perfect partners was challenging because few prospeccandidates wanted to make the long commute ro the state capital. So I shook things up a bit and made concessions more readily than

governors about where my staffs home base

could be. New communication technologies allowed this. I wanted the right people for the job, and ifJuneau’s location was rhe main stumbling block, I wasn’t going to mandate that families uproot and move to a beautiful but isolated panhandle, especially when the previous governors had spent so much time in Anchorage and traveling out of state.

Early on, I announced a number of commissioners, including Walt Monegan as the commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. I also announced

appointments, including my chief

of staff, my legislative director, and my communications director, Meghan Stapleton. They were a young, motivated staff with lots of energy.

Some of the team had WOrked on my general election campaign. The new legislative director had lobbied for the chief of staff slot, but I knew he wasn’t ready for that, so a hint of internal rivalty cropped up immediately.

Stapleton was well known from her years as a political reporter and news anchor at our local NBC affiliate. She had national political experience from her days on Capitol Hill with the Republican National Committee and her work for GOP

power-broker Fred Malek, as well as corporate experience with an Alaska-based telecommunications company.

I also added my campaign manager and confidante Kris Perry as director of my Anchorage office, and she soon had everything

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running like a Swiss watch. During the vice presidential campaign, she would become the lone state staffer the McCain campaign allowed to accompany me on the trail.

Politically, Juneau always had a repuration for being a lot like Animal House: drinking and bowling, drunken brawls, countless affairs, and garden-variety lunchtime trysts. It’s been known at times to be like a frat house filled with freshmen away from their parents for the very first time. At other times, the capital city’s undetside was even darker: clandestine political liaisons and secret meetings, unethical deeds and downright illegal acts. When the legislative session begins, the good and decent people who live in Juneau can witness some of these extracurricular pursuits at places like the Red Dog Saloon and the Baranof Hotel. Others around the state tead about them in newspaper gossip columns. During the 2006 gubernatorial race, the FBI handcuffed a number of lawmakets.

In shorr, it was a lot like Washington, D.C.

With a state to run, a husband on the Slope, and an active family to shepherd, I didn’t have time to follow all the shenanigans. And though some held it against me that I didn’t spend time on the
cocktail circuit, I was confident of my priorities. Meanwhile, there
were many talented people who served in Juneau fur the right reasons, and I enjoyed spending time with them, as their good work demonstrated their servants’ hearts.

I attributed part of the corruption problem, besides the obvious selfdealing motives of politicians, to Juneau’s inaccessibility. Foreign tourists on cruise ships had better access to lawmakers in session than 80 percent of the citizens of the state had. That makes Juneau an island ofsorts, isolating legislators and stafffrom the people who elecred them. Until access improves, the political
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atmosphere there will not change much. And I know there are a handful of legislators who would prefer just that. Just as I took the helm, the results of an FBI investigation that had percolated between Juneau, Prudhoe Bay, and Washington, D.C., began bubbling to the surface. Bill Allen, the longtime CEO of VECO Corporation, the powerful oil field services company, had for years held court in Juneau’s BaranofHotel, where his firm maintained a suite. For decades, he was a big-time political fund-raiser, and, following the
Exxon Valdez
oil spill, his company was the prime oil services contractor. Like other business owners, Allen pressed for legislation that would benefit his company. But he pressed harder than most. Allen was friends with Governor Murkowski and his chief of staff, and with powerful Republican lawmakers.

FBI undercover surveillance video of the VECO suite in Room 604, which would become infamous, even showed the VECO

executive pressing cash into the palm of a Republican legislator. Months ofvideotaping and recorded phone calls earned VECO execurives a long with federal agents, during which they admitted having bribed several lawmakers ro push through legislation favorable to the oil industry. Allen pleaded guilty to extortion, bribery, and conspiracy.

His mea culpa led to other pleas, including one by Governor Murkowski’s chief of sraff, who eventually copped to a single count of conspiracy. All told, a dozen lawmakers, staffers, and oil company executives would be found guilty of multiple charges, including wire fraud, bribery, conspiracy, and extortion. Alaskans said the Democrats weren’t any berrer-they just hadn’t been caughr that go-round. But the reality was that it was the Republicans this time. And some of them didn’t like it when
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PALIN

my administration rode in

horse of ethics reform. At a press

conference after my first Srate of rhe State Address, we released a white paper on ethics coauthored by one Democrat and one publican. As Meg and I left the conference room and walked back ro my office, she commented on the anticipared favorable coverage in the media. “You reached across the aisle;’ Meg said. “I think Alaskans will appreciate that.”

But my legislative director wasn’t so happy. He had fought the release of the ethics paper because he knew it would rub legislators the wrong way-and would shut the revolving door between rhe administration and outside lobbying jobs. He was right: the moment the press conference was over, he delivered the unsurprising news that GOP lawmakers were furious and wanted a ing in my office.
Now.