Alaska Politics Blog : More Palin-and-the-presidency, on the FEC Web site

Alaska Politics Blog

This is the place to talk about Alaska politics, state, local, national. Public life in the Last Frontier has rarely been more interesting -- a full slate of federal and state elections, the influence of former Gov. Sarah Palin, the usual hardball Alaska politics. Come here for news, tidbits and information, and join the discussion. We encourage lively debate, but please keep it civil and stay on point. Don't use profanity, make crude comments or attack other posters. Posts that violate the Terms of Use will be deleted. Repeat offenders will lose their ability to post comments.

Contributors

Sean Cockerham

Sean Cockerham writes about Alaska state politics. He's worked for the ADN in Anchorage and Juneau, covered the legislature for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and covered Washington state politics for the Tacoma News Tribune. E-mail Sean at scockerham@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins covers rural affairs, general assignments and politics for the ADN. He covered the 2006 campaign for governor, has blogged extensively about Alaska politics, covered Anchorage city government and was a reporter based in the Mat-Su. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and previously wrote for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Anchorage Press. E-mail Kyle at khopkins@adn.com and also find him on our rural Alaska blog, The Village.

David Hulen

David Hulen, the ADN's state and local news editor, is responsible for political coverage. He has been an editor and reporter at the ADN for more than 20 years. E-mail David at dhulen@adn.com

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Alaska political corruption

When the FBI raided state legislature offices in Aug. 2006, it publicly launched an investigation that ultimately reached the highest levels of Alaska politics, and continues to this day.

More Palin-and-the-presidency, on the FEC Web site

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Anchorage Daily News

Posted: January 28, 2009 - 11:50 am

From Erika Bolstad in Washington D.C. --

Ever since Gov. Sarah Palin opened up a political action committee yesterday, there's been a lot of speculation about why her name suddenly is popping up in the Federal Election Commission database as a candidate for president in 2012. (To see for yourself, click here, search for "Palin," and you'll get a list of committees with her name on them, including this one, which describes her as a candidate for president in 2012.) It's especially eyebrow-raising since a spokeswoman for Palin's new political action committee said yesterday that the new PAC is emphatically not a presidential exploratory committee.

Here's how it happened: On Nov. 20, David L. Kelly of Colorado Springs, Colo., filed a statement of organization for a federal election committee: the 2012 Draft Sarah Committee. When Kelly did so, in the section that describes the type of committee it is, he checked off a box saying "this committee supports/opposes only one candidate, and is NOT an authorized committee." He wrote in "Sarah Palin" as the name of the candidate his committee either supports or opposes.

Basically, when the "2012 Draft Sarah Committee" wrote in Palin's name on its form, she got automatically entered into the FEC database as a candidate for president in 2012. Anyone whose name was entered in the form would have been designated as a candidate.

But there's nothing else filed with the election commission to suggest that Palin is a presidential candidate right now. If "no official documents of an authorized committee appear on the FEC site, the individual identified has taken no action to become a candidate," said Mary Brandenberger, a spokeswoman for the FEC.

I've e-mailed Kelly, the "Draft Sarah" treasurer, through the committee's Web site , but haven't heard back yet. Adam Brickley, the blogger who fueled some of the early buzz about Palin as a vice presidential candidate last year, said he is unconnected to Kelly, although both are from Colorado.

Much of the speculation about the FEC designation seems to stem from the very understandable questions people have about Palin's political future -- and she herself stirred those up yesterday when she formed her own political action committee and launched a website. As the ADN reported today, the PAC itself doesn't indicate that Palin will run for president in 2012. But it sure shows she's interested in remaining a national political figure.