Rumor patrol: Bailey & Frye

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: December 2, 2008 - 4:28 pm

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From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Avis exec, blogger and now radio host Andrew Halcro recently wrote that two high-profile Palin aides -- Frank Bailey and Ivy Frye -- were headed from the governor's office to jobs at the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.

Is that right?

Frye, a special assistant to the governor, indeed started a new job as a project manager for AIDEA in late November. AIDEA director Ted Leonard said Palin's chief of staff recommended her for the post.

But Bailey remains at the governor's office as director of boards and commissions.

"No one has ever mentioned that I was supposed to hire Mr. Bailey. So I'm not sure where that rumor got started," Leonard said.

So did someone mention he was supposed to hire Frye?

Leonard, who worked for Palin when she was mayor of Wasilla, says no. Her name came up when he was talking to chief of staff Mike Nizich about a position Leonard wanted to fill. Nizich said Frye might be a good fit, Leonard said.

"No one ever said, 'Ted Leonard, you must hire Ms. Frye,'" he said.

Frye and Bailey have been part of Palin's team since her 2006 run for governor and have held a series of jobs -- sometimes the same title at different times -- in Palin's administration.

-- Frye, who once worked for Valley Sen. Lyda Green, served as Palin's director of boards and commissions for about six months. She then worked as a special assistant to the commissioner of Administration, according to the governor's office.

She returned to the governor's office as assistant director of boards and commissions, and was most recently the governor's special assistant for "outreach to local governments," wrote Palin spokesman Bill McAllister.

Palin watchers have made public records requests for her e-mails, and for Baileys, and both are among the members of Palin's team subpoenaed by the Legislative Council during the troopergate investigation. In September, the New York Times wrote that Fry had called Wasilla blogger Sherry Whitstine, who writes about Palin, to say she should be ashamed and should stop blogging.

Frye is filling a vacant job in AIDEA, Leonard said.

Her role is to support AIDEA's two ther project managers, to communicate with the state and federal governments and Alaska Native corporations, and to provide "support and liaison" services as AIDEA works on its strategic plan, Leonard said.

Palin spokesman Bill McAllister said there are "no immediate plans" to fill her special assistant job at the governor's office.

-- I covered Palin's run for governor in 2006 and can remember seeing Bailey from the very beginning. He's held some of the same jobs as Frye - including the director of boards and commissions job and special assistant to the Department of Administration commissioner.

He played a high-profile role in the troopergate investigation when Palin revealed a tape of Bailey telling a trooper lieutenant that the governor and her husband couldn't understand why Palin's former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, still had a job with the troopers. Bailey said the governor never told her to make the call, which Palin condemned.

(Here's a phone interview with Palin the day after the Bailey call was released.)

She placed Bailey on paid leave for a little over a month this summer, bringing him back to work in late September.

A Personnel Board investigator who cleared Palin on the troopergate charges also looked into claims Palin's team inappropriately paved the way for a supporter to get a state job. In his November report on that probe, the investigator recommended Bailey take ethics training because of a series of "troubling e-mails."

AIDEA is a state agency that works with banks to finance business loans and large development projects.

Leonard, former finance director for the city of Wasilla, became director in May. He previously worked as deputy commerce commissioner.

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