State Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican from Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to give her the news.
“She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?”
“Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?” [link]
As Governor-elect Sarah Palin said her staff would be appointed “to look under the hood of state government and tell her what they think needs fixing”. Her Chief of Staff was Mike Tibbles who has moved over to become Ted Stevens’ campaign manager [link]. Here’s a “look at what she’s done to this state” with samples of her decisions as Governor-elect and Governor:
- She re-organized law enforcement into “blue shirts” and “brown shirts” – Alaska State Troopers who patrol towns and cities and provide police protection, and Division of Fish and Wildlife Protection who safeguard fish and wildlife.
- To lead the state’s Administrative departments, she appointed the treasurer of Chugach Electric Association.
- Appointed a real estate lawyer to lead the Department of Community & Economic Development,
- an elementary school principal as chief of the Department of Education,
- and for the Department of Environmental Conservation, she appointed a VP of Usibelli Coal and a VP of Sealaska Corp to ensure “representation for two of Alaska’s prime industries, mining and fisheries”.
- It’s known that she seeks to liberalize wildlife management rules to permit culling from aircraft, but not well known that her chief of the Department of Fish & Game is against Native and rural ‘preferences’ for subsistence hunting and fishing.
- Governor Palin’s appointment for leading Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services is a nurse practitioner, “president of the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club, which raised thousands of dollars for Palin’s campaign”.
- The Department of Law is led by the former executive director for the Alaska Board of Game.
- Palin was “apparently reaching out to another person with experience in serving as a small town mayor” by appointing the first Alaska Native woman elected mayor of Nome to lead the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
- There’s a froth of appointments and firings over oil and pipelines. Too much for this post.
Although it’s noteworthy that she appointed an executive of a corporation formed to develop the Arctic Slope as chief of Alaska’s Department of Revenue.
- And Chuck Kopp becames the top cop in Alaska heading the Department of Public Safety.
Source, Alaska Pride, November 2006.
The State of Alaska website had posted other 2006 appointments including Alaska’s longtime Executive Director of Catholic Social Services as Health and Social Services Commissioner, 30-year board member with the National Bank of Alaska as Community & Economic Development Commissioner, and a local attorney and part-time history professor as Alaska’s Attorney General to provide a “fresh perspective” and a “strict interpretation” of Alaska’s Constitution. [cache version]