Is Palin violating ethics rules by backing parental consent ballot initiative?

[babylonsister]

Since she could be our competition in 2012, this stuff is important. The gift that just keeps on giving. :evilgrin:


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/04/palin-ethics-initiative/

Is Palin violating ethics rules by backing parental consent ballot initiative?
By Amanda Terkel at 10:55 am


There is currently a ballot initiative trying to gain support in Alaska that would bypass the state legislature and “forbid a girl under 18 from getting an abortion unless the doctor informed at least one of her parents beforehand.” The organizers’ goal is for Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell to certify the ballot language as legal, collect signatures, and get the initiative on the ballot for the August 2010 primary elections. Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has now come out and said that she plans to be the first in line to offer her signature:

“I got a preliminary opinion from Law (Department) just giving me a heads up that critics would certainly file an ethics charge against me if I were to sponsor an initiative. So though I maintain I have First Amendment rights just as any other citizen does, I won’t flirt with the notion of giving critics more ammunition to keep filing wasteful ethics charges against me, but instead I’ll volunteer to be the first signature,” Palin said.<...>

“I acknowledge the ‘new normal’ we’re dealing with today will no doubt see someone filing a charge against me anyway, for exercising my First Amendment rights as a citizen, but I will not hesitate to speak up in support of Alaska’s daughters,” she wrote.

State law says that a governor cannot spend money or “provide anything of value” to influence the outcome of a ballot measure unless the Legislature has appropriated money for that purpose.

Alaska election regulators are already investigating whether “Palin violated the law last summer when she said in response to a question at a state press conference that she would vote no on a controversial ballot measure to tighten limits on water pollution discharges from mines.”

[Eric J in MN]

1. Parental consent laws on abortion lead to teenage girls...

...giving birth, killing the baby, and then getting sentenced to life in prison.

We have parental consent laws in Minnesota, and there was a case like that last year.

[Ian David]

3. But in Alaska, they can give birth and then hunt the baby from an airplane. n/t

[gratuitous]

2. I don't see an ethics violation

But I'm not wholly familiar with Alaska state law. Generally, public officials can take a position on a public issue, they just can't devote their official time or staff to working on passage or defeat of a ballot measure. From the report, it sounds like Gov. Palin is either baiting the people who have filed legitimate ethics complaints against her (that is, she knows this isn't an ethics violation and is ginning up a fake ethical issue in an attempt to discredit real ethical issues), or she's gotten a little gun shy (so to speak) about shooting her fool mouth off.

Or, she could just be making another desperate bid to keep her name in the news.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. I don't either but like you said Alaska law may be different.

Here in AZ the Governor and legislators endorse or oppose ballot initiatives all the time. Yeah, they can't use their official offices to assist in the effort but they have every right as citizens to make their views known.