From David Hulen in Anchorage --

Gov. Palin remains a magnet for controversy. Now this: The group Defenders of Wildlife has launched an Internet-based campaign, Eye On Palin, "dedicated to exposing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's anti-conservation agenda."

Part of the campaign is a YouTube video with actress Ashley Judd criticizing the administration's support for aerial wolf hunting. "It is time to stop Sarah Palin and stop this senseless savagery," she says.

The governor's office issued a response this afternoon:

“It is reprehensible and hypocritical that the Defenders of Wildlife would use Alaska and my administration as a fundraising tool to deceive Americans into parting with their hard-earned money.

“The ad campaign by this extreme fringe group, as Alaskans have witnessed over the last several years, distorts the facts about Alaska’s wildlife management programs. Alaskans depend on wildlife for food and cultural practices which can’t be sustained when predators are allowed to decimate moose and caribou populations. Our predator control programs are scientific and successful at protecting vulnerable wildlife. These audacious fundraising attempts misrepresent what goes on in Alaska, and I encourage people to learn the facts about Alaska’s positive record of managing wildlife for abundance.

“Shame on the Defenders of Wildlife for twisting the truth in an effort to raise funds from innocent and hard-pressed Americans struggling with these rough economic times.”