Palin bunch travel at Alaska expense
Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:34:18 GMT
The State of Alaska paid for the Palin children to watch their father in a snowmachine race.
Republican running mate Sarah Palin has reportedly charged the State of Alaska more than $20,000 to cover her children's travel expenses.
An investigative report by the Associated Press reveals that the State of Alaska paid $21,012 for 64 commercial flights and hotel accommodation for Governor Palin's three daughters after she took office in December 2006.
The children traveled with Gov. Palin to events where, according to some event organizers, they had not been invited to and did not even participate in.
However, three weeks before Palin was surprisingly chosen to run as Senator John McCain's vice president, she ordered changes to previously filed travel expense reports for her daughters.
In the amended reports, the Alaskan governor added phrases such as 'First Family attending' and 'First Family invited' to explain the girls' attendance.
Palin's three daughters once joined her on an official trip to watch their father in a snowmobile race.
Among her other trips, Palin took her 17-year-old daughter with her to New York for a five-hour conference, where they stayed for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel and put it on the state's tab.
The Alaskan law only addresses expenses for anyone conducting official state business and does not allow covering the expenses of a governor's children.
Palin spends big on fashion amid recession
Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:08:25 GMT
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin
The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 on clothing and accessories for vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September shortly after Gov. Palin was picked as Senator John McCain's running mate.
The records show the cash expenditures were not only spent on the governor herself, but also her husband, Todd, and her infant, Trig, Politico reported.
A McCain camp spokeswoman, Maria Comella, declined to answer specific questions about the expenditures, including whether it was necessary to spend that much.
"The campaign does not comment on strategic decisions regarding how financial resources available to the campaign are spent," she said.
Only hours later, however, after the story raised concerns among Republicans and angered Democrats, the McCain camp released a statement. "With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it's remarkable that we're spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses," read the statement.
"It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign," said spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt.
Democrats, meanwhile, have employed the subject to raise the alarm that Gov. Palin is not like the rest of middle-class Americans as she claims.
"It shows that Palin is not like the rest of us," Huffington Post quoted Tom Matzzie, a Democratic strategist, as saying.
"It [the issue] can help deflate her cultural populism with the Republican base. The plumber's wife doesn't go to Nieman's or Saks."
The financial records indicate that the cash spent by Gov. Palin included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York amounting to a combined $49,425.74.
