A second report, produced by a group of Gov. Sarah Palin’s appointees clears her of all possible ethics violations, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

The first Troopergate report found that Palin broke the law in pressuring state employees to push her top safety official to fire her ex-brother-in-law over a long-standing family feud. But that report also found that Palin was within her rights to fire the safety official, Walt Monegan, without cause, even though her brother-in-law, Trooper Michael Wooten, was a factor in the decision to oust him.

The new report concludes:

- There is no cause to believe Palin violated the state ethics law in deciding to dismiss Monegan as public safety commissioner.

- There is no cause to believe Palin violated the state ethics law in connection with Wooten.

- There is no cause to believe any other state official violated the ethics act.

- There’s no basis to conduct a hearing to “address reputational harm,” as requested by Monegan.

This second report is the result of an investigation initiated by Palin after she was tapped to run on the GOP presidential ticket. Palin had originally agreed to participate in Troopergate Part 1 in June. But McCain campaign lawyers entered the picture in early September. The stall tactics have riled Palin critics — and even some supporters.

Palin and the McCain campaign argued that it should be the appointees on the personnel board, not an independent investigator hired by state lawmakers that should review

Palin got her way in that the personnel board took up the cause, though, the original Troopergate investigation remained underway.

Early on, Troopergate 2 didn’t look good for Palin. The personnel board hired an independent investigator to handle the matter.

But, the findings of this report look far better for the governor.

Gov. Sarah Palin and family members at the Republican National Convention. (wdcpix)

This tough campaign hasn’t changed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in at least one big way. For Sen. John McCain’s running mate, the line between personal and professional life has always been blurry — and the last nine weeks have not changed this for her.

On Friday night, Palin sat for an interview with Greta Van Susteren of Fox News while traveling on her campaign bus in Pennsylvania. In Palin’s presence were her husband, Todd, and three of their children — Piper, Willow and Trig. Fox’s viewers saw clearly how Palin comfortably mixes family life with campaign issues.

Illustration by: Matt Mahurin

Since her first week on the hustings, and before as governor of Alaska, Palin’s easy mix of the personal and the professional has gotten her into trouble. Critics and allies alike say her inability to separate the two is one of her chief political flaws. Judging from the Fox interview, she still doesn’t see the problem.

Halloween decorations provided the backdrop as Palin sat flanked by her youngest daughter Piper, 7, and her husband, Todd. On the other side of Todd, daughter Willow, 14, bottle-fed the youngest Palin, Trig, age 6 months.

When Van Susteren asked her what the public should know about Todd, Palin gushed.

“Oh my gosh, he is just this all-around, hard-workin’ good dad,” Palin responded. “I don’t know if people really know what a good dad he is.”

Palin went on to say that Todd is her teammate — as she has described him before. She explained that he helps her run the household when he’s not working in the oil fields or fishing so she can focus on being governor.

She also views Todd as an unofficial team member in her administration, a role that drew criticism from a special investigator looking into the “troopergate” scandal. In her interview with Van Susteren, Palin seemed to suggest that her professional relationship with her husband would not change should she become vice president.

“And I anticipate and get to look forward to that, also, right?” Palin said, smiling and looking at her husband. “Workin’ there in the White House.”

Todd smiled back.

When Sen. John McCain announced that Palin would be his vice presidential nominee, the troopergate scandal, already simmering in Alaska, burst into the national consciousness. Palin reputedly fired her state’s top safety official after he would not fire her former brother-in-law. An official state investigation into the scandal concluded that personal factors played a role in his dismissal.

A second state investigation into the matter is now underway.

Two weeks after Palin’s national debut, the personal again seemed to influence the professional. News broke that she had fired one of her closest aides after he began dating the ex-wife of a family friend. Spokespersons for Palin have given conflicting explanations for the aide’s departure.

When the aide, John Bitney, first left the administration, a spokesman said it was an “amicable” departure for “personal” reasons. Once Palin started running for vice president, a spokesman cited Bitney’s poor performance — despite the fact that just weeks before his dismissal, Palin had publicly lauded him for his work.

As the campaign season has continued, more instances of how Palin blurs her personal and professional lives have come to light. She has come under investigation for charging taxpayers $21,000 to fly her children to state events. Alaska officials are also looking into why Palin collected $17,000 in per diem for 300 nights she spent at home in Wasilla, 600 miles from the state capital, Juneau, and 40 miles from her office in Anchorage.

A spokesman for Palin has said all her travel-related expenses were within the scope of the law in Alaska. Another spokeswoman noted that Palin has spent less money overall than her predecessor.

This series of revelations has proved damaging for a candidate who built her reputation as a reformer in a state government tainted by corruption.

But, for Palin, her family is indistinguishable from being governor. Her husband is her chief adviser, and she has repeatedly used her power to keep her children close to her and to settle family or personal scores.

Those who work with Palin, or who are her close advisers, have noted that business is personal for her. She does not clearly distinguish between her work and her family.

State Rep. Les Gara, a Democrat from Anchorage, wonders whether Palin’s tendency to take work personally will translate into problems if she doesn’t become vice president.

Gara pointed out that many state legislators have not supported her national run. Others did not defend her during the troopergate investigation. “I hope she doesn’t come back here and hold grudges,” Gara said during a recent interview in his Anchorage office.

The first gentleman, known in Alaska as “the first dude,” has also come under fire for the part he played in the firing of Palin’s top safety officer and his broad involvement in the her administration.

Todd held multiple meetings with state officials in the governor’s offices about ousting his ex-brother-in-law.

He was also frequently included on email messages for state officials about official business. The emails cover such topics as a bill on parental consent for abortion; a police union contract with the state; and Andrew Halcro, a local car-rental business owner who challenged Palin in the 2006 race for governor. Halcro is a vocal critic of the Palin administration.

“I have heard criticism that I am too involved with my wife’s administration,” Todd Palin said in a written statement he submitted as part of the troopergate investigation. “My wife and I are very close. We are each other’s best friend. I have helped her at every stage in her career the best I can, and she has helped me.”

Those close to Palin in Alaska note that Todd, who works for BP on the Prudhoe Bay oil field, has been her chief adviser and confidant in her political career.

Palin’s interview with Van Susteren also showed that Palin still includes her children in her work life.

In Alaska, event organizers were often surprised to find that the governor brought her children along to state events. The Associated Press reported that Palin billed the state $21,000 to fly them on official trips with her. The state has since launched a probe to determine whether Palin violated any rules or laws in billing the state for her children’s travel.

“[Palin] said any event she can take her kids to is an event she tries to attend,” Jennifer McCarthy told AP. McCarthy helped organize a picnic in Ketchikan that Palin attended in her role as governor — and brought her daughter Piper along.

The McCain-Palin campaign has said Palin followed state policy for the children’s travel.

Piper, in fact, fielded the first question of the interview with Van Susteren Friday. Wearing a tiara and a white dress, and periodically eating candy from a plastic pumpkin, Piper smiled as she said that her aunt had helped her pick out her snow princess costume from Target.

Van Susteren chatted with the governor, Todd, Willow and Piper for about six minutes before getting to the substance of the interview.

Even when the topic switched to a somber question about national security, Palin’s family stayed on camera.

“In the event something horrible would happen and you ended up being president — I mean, not through the usual procedure, but the unusual,” Van Susteren said. “If you got that three o’clock in the morning call, I mean, whatever it may be, whether it’s some country being actively hostile against Israel or something, what’s the process?”

Piper leaned her head on her mother’s shoulder. When Palin began to respond, Piper leaned across her lap to say something briefly to Todd.

“You assemble your national security team right then,” Palin responded to Van Susteren, ignoring Piper. “And, of course, everybody’s going to be standing by, ready to assist. But you do not blink when you have to make a decision to defend the homefront, to defend American lives.”

Palin remained focused on Van Susteren through the serious moments of the interview, even as Todd told Piper to be quiet.

Palin demonstrated that she is confident in doing two jobs at once — mom and leader.

This wasn’t the first moment in the campaign when Palin included her family in an interview.

In September, Katie Couric was surprised when she met Palin in her hotel room for the start of a series of interviews to find that Willow would be accompanying her mother that day.

Van Susteren wound down her interview with a final question for Piper.

“Piper,” Van Susteren asked, “if you could vote, who are you going to vote for?”

Piper sheepishly responded, with a smile, “My mom.”

Palin smiled and squeezed her daughter.

The decision is most likely a blow to Gov. Sarah Palin.

She had pushed for a personnel board investigation rather than the now-completed probe conducted by the independent investigator Steve Branchflower and overseen by a council of 14 state lawmakers, 10 Republicans and four Democrats.

In September the McCain campaign argued that the personnel board, whose members were appointed by Palin, was better equipped to handle such an inquiry.

So far, it looks like the stall tactic has actually backfired for Palin. Not only was the first Troopergate investigation completed on schedule, before the November election, and resulting in a finding that Palin broke a state ethics law, now it looks like the political personnel board is actually taking the matter seriously.

Best case scenario: Palin doesn’t end up with a second finding against her.

Up until last week, seven potential witnesses said they would defy independent investigator Steve Branchflower’s subpoenas, a startling move considering Palin had welcomed a transparent process before Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee, tapped her as his running mate.

Eventually, Branchflower heard from almost everyone, including Todd Palin, though, in writing rather than in in-person interviews. The only person he never heard from was the governor herself.

McCain campaign lawyers argued that Branchflower should not have been handling the matter at all. Instead, the state’s personnel board, whose members are appointed by the governor, should investigate the matter.

Some of Palin’s critics doubted whether a review by political appointees would yield a fair result.

So far, though, it looks like the personnel board is actually looking into the matter. They’ve hired an independent investigator who has requested Branchflower’s investigation report and the accompanying evidence. The state legislature will vote this week on whether to hand over even the confidential evidence.

The personnel board’s investigation is also reportedly broader than the first Troopergate investigation — including other possible ethics violations by the governor.

The body is scheduled to meet twice before the November election, though it is unclear how long the full investigation will take to complete.

At the same time, some in the state legislature are uneasy with how the Troopergate report was conducted, saying the McCain campaign interfered — perhaps even illegally.

Last month, Rep. Les Gara (D-Anchorage) wrote to the Alaska State Troopers asking that they investigate potential witness tampering by the campaign. Gara noted that everyone had agreed to cooperate in the investigation — until Palin became the Republican vice presidential nominee.

In a meeting with Gara yesterday in Anchorage, he handed me a letter he received from the director of the state troopers, Col. Audie Holloway. Holloway told Gara that he “raise[s] a serious issue,” but that the troopers cannot handle such an investigation because they are so closely tied to the original investigation. Palin is accused of pressuring state employees to push the commissioner of public safety, Walt Monegan, to have her ex-brother-in-law, Michael Wooten, fired from his job as a state trooper.

Holloway writes:

[Alaska State Troopers] is a central figure in the circumstances surrounding the investigation you request. Even though I have no doubt that we would provide an unbiased investigation, it would never be perceived that way…

There are other venues which may be more appropriate such as a joint legislative/executive directive to AST to hire and manage an unbiased investigator for this type of sensitive investigation. But at this time, the further embroilment of AST into this would be detrimental to the agency and would not lead to any type of acceptable conclusion.

Holloway also cites a lack of resources as reason for not taking up Gara’s request.

If the personnel board’s investigation picks up steam, or if questions of witness tampering persist, Palin could find herself in even hotter water — if she finds herself back in Alaska.

Gov. Sarah Palin (Zuma Press)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – As one of the most successful newcomers in Alaska’s political arena, Gov. Sarah Palin should have known better than to get into an ethics scandal right now.

The mood of the public in Alaska has been changing, gradually, but noticeably in the last few years. Palin was one of the first to catch on to it — and exploit it to win an upset victory in the 2006 governor’s race.

Before then, an Alaska official who pursued a personal vendetta in office probably would not have drawn the ire of the state’s legislature. Voters in the state would have looked the other way too.

But Alaska seems to have gained a new political maturity.

Palin ran for governor on a reform platform that proved widely appealing. She knocked out the state’s sitting governor, Frank Murkowski, in the GOP primary and defeated a well-known former governor, Tony Knowles, in the general election. Knowles campaigned on “experience” — which effectively tied him to the corruption-tainted old guard, though it was the GOP that was embroiled in scandal. That year, voters elected four Democrats to replace Republicans in the state House and Senate.

The politics that Palin pledged to reform was typified by a clique of state lawmakers that embraced the nickname the “Corrupt Bastards Club” because of its cash-for-votes relationship with an oil services firm, Veco Corp. The group had baseball caps made, on Veco’s dime, with their “CBC” insignia embroidered on the back.

Illustration by: Matt Mahurin

The CBCers eventually landed in trouble with the law. The FBI raided 12 legislative offices in 2006, as part of a broad investigation into ties between state and federal lawmakers and Veco Corp., whose former chief executive, Bill Allen, and former vice president, Rick Smith, have pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges.

Since the raids, three state legislators have been convicted of bribery charges in connection with Veco. Allen and Smith are cooperating with prosecutors.

A testament to just how much the legislature has changed came this summer when news broke that Palin may have unethically fired her commissioner of public safety, Walt Monegan, over a long-standing family feud with her ex-brother-in-law.

The legislature acted swiftly. It hired Steve Branchflower, a well-respected former Alaska prosecutor with 28 years experience in the Anchorage district attorney’s office, to handle the investigation. A legislative committee voted unanimously Friday to release his 236-page report on “Troopergate,” as the scandal is known,  to the public.

Alaska, only 50 years old this year, is growing up politically.

TROOPERGATE

Branchflower’s report found that Palin violated a state ethics law by overseeing a coordinated effort to get her ex-brother-in-law, Michael Wooten, fired from his job as a state trooper. Palin ultimately fired Monegan after he wouldn’t oust Wooten, despite being pressured  by the governor’s husband, Todd, as well as multiple state officials, including the state attorney general. Todd Palin also pressured Monegan’s replacement on the same issue.

Branchflower exonerated the governor on her final decision to fire Monegan, though the investigator concluded that Monegan’s refusal to oust Wooten was likely a factor in his removal.

Before Troopergate, it had been more than 20 years since the legislature asserted itself so aggressively in an ethics matter.

“It was just over two years ago that the FBI raided the legislative offices in Anchorage and Juneau,” said state Sen. Hollis French, the Anchorage Democrat who headed the Troopergate investigation. “Since that time, the state’s been very alert to ethical lapses in government.”

The state legislature approved the hiring of Branchflower to investigate the matter in June, three months before Sen. John McCain tapped Palin for the GOP ticket. Branchflower spent much of his career evaluating cases submitted by police and state troopers for prosecution to determine if the D.A.’s office should take them up.

“Steve Branchflower’s report is a model of keen analysis and hard work,” French said. “He’s fair. He analyzed the facts, and I think he came to balanced conclusions.”

Even among lawmakers who have doubts about the report’s findings, none has questioned Branchflower’s integrity.

“The report was probably rushed to get done before the election,” said Rep. Bill Stoltze, who voted to appoint Branchflower and voted Friday to make the report public.

Stoltze said he didn’t like that Branchflower used inference to reach his conclusions, though he did not question its fairness. Stoltze said he wished there had been “more participation” — a reference to Palin’s decision not to testify, after she had first agreed to cooperate.

THE REFORM CANDIDATE

Palin has said the report is a vindication  of her conduct. “I’m very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there,” Palin told the Anchorage Daily News in a phone interview from the campaign trail.

One of the report’s findings, however, is that Palin broke the law.

That Alaska governor’s ethics problems certainly don’t square with the reform candidate of 2006.

Palin had a strong sense of the changing attitudes toward corruption in Alaska and tapped those sentiments to move into the governor’s office. “Alaskans deserve transparency and accountability from their leaders,” said Palin on her 2006 campaign website. “It’s a philosophy I will promote as governor.”

About a month before voters went to the polls in 2006, news cameras captured FBI agents carrying boxes of material out of the 12 state lawmakers’ offices — including Senate President Ben Stevens, son of Sen. Ted Stevens. The younger Stevens has not been charged.

Buttressing her reputation as a reformer after the election, Palin stood up to her own state party chairman over accusations of a conflict-of-interest with oil companies. And she filed a bipartisan complaint that led to the resignation of the state’s GOP attorney general.

Things were even starting to change for the federal delegation.

ALASKA’S 50th

Sen. Ted Stevens (WDCpix)

This year, Alaska celebrates its 50th year of statehood, thanks to Sen. Ted Stevens, who helped usher the territory into statehood in 1958. Stevens, the longest-serving GOP senator, has been in the Senate since 1972.

T-shirts are on sale all over Anchorage right now featuring the image of a 1958 newspaper front page with the headline: “We’re In!”

By 2006, Stevens — known here as “the most famous Alaskan” — was starting to take heat nationally for his infamous earmarking. The non-partisan watchdog group Taxpayers for Commonsense estimates that Alaskans see about $4,300 per person in federal dollars return to their state, compared to states with far larger populations like Texas or New York, where residents see about $95 per person.

Stevens, now on trial in federal court in Washington on charges of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from Veco Corp., without disclosing them on Senate ethics forms, is slipping in the polls in his reelection bid. The gifts include the construction of a new first floor in his Girdwood home, furnishings and a state-of-the-art Viking grill.

Stevens is locked in a tight race with Democratic challenger Mark Begich, Anchorage’s mayor. The last poll showed Begich with a four-point edge. In 2002, Stevens won with 78 percent of the vote.

Many long-time Stevens supporters are starting to reconsider whether the state should keep the longtime GOP senator in office. “[Stevens] brought a lot of money to the state,” said Susanne Hutzel, a nurse who lives 20 minutes outside Anchorage. “But, we have to have a balance.”

Still, change doesn’t come all at once. Stevens garners nearly 50 percent of Alaskan voters Alaskans like Claude Morris, a retired oil field project manager and World War II veteran who lives on the same street in Girdwood as Stevens. Morris credits the senator with bringing Alaska into the modern era, not to mention the town of Girdwood, a small ski-resort town about an hour and a half drive south of Anchorage.

“Ted Stevens has got my vote no matter what,” Morris said in a recent conversation in the Double Musky Inn’s bar, Stevens’ favorite hometown restaurant. “For what he has done for Alaska for the last 40-some years.”

The state’s only congressman, Rep. Don Young, a feisty character who has never achieved the same popularity as Stevens, is facing a far tougher electoral battle. He’s down about nine percentage points in the polls.

Young’s popularity has been sliding since last year, when a series of corruption scandals came to light. Young has been accused of taking money from Florida developers in exchange for a $10-million earmark. The Senate has since asked the FBI to look into the earmark, added to a bill after it passed Congress.

News also broke last year that Young is under federal investigation for his connections with Veco. Federal agents are looking into an annual pig-roast fund-raiser held at Veco chief executive Allen’s home. Last year, Young was booed and oinked as he arrived at the event.

“Don’s problem in that race is that in six polls in a row he’s had a negative rating above 50 percent, and he’s got to push that down into the mid-40s, or below, to have a chance,” Anchorage pollster Ivan Moore told Alaska’s NBC affiliate, KTUU, when the last Young poll was released. “You know, you just can’t win when more than half the people don’t like you.”

PALIN’S FUTURE

If Palin returns to Alaska as a state politician, it’s unclear if she will be regarded by voters as another of their pols who doesn’t deserve their trust.

Little is likely to happen before the regular legislative session begins Jan. 20, according to House GOP spokesman Will Vandergriff.  For there to be a special session, a supermajority of lawmakers — 45 members out of 60 — must approve. Palin could also call a special session — though that is considered unlikely.

If the legislature went into special session, Palin could face impeachment.

Sen. Kim Elton (D-Juneau), who served as chairman of the Legislative Council that oversaw the Troopergate investigation, said in an interview with TWI shortly after the report was released Friday that he is not prepared to start considering taking action against Palin. The violation of the state ethics law outlined in Branchflower’s report caries up to a $5,000 civil penalty.

“This is like truth and consequences, Elton said, standing in a hallway of the Anchorage legislative office building where the report was released. “Today, I will say we got the truth. The facts are now public. I’m not prepared to go to consequences.”

Once the legislature is back in session, it will have to decide whether to act on Branchflower’s report.

Does all this signify a turning point for public corruption in Alaska?

“I think we will try to grow up,” said former Anchorage Daily News editorial page editor Michael Carey. “Or we will be caught in the Palin lie machine.”

Here’s what Palin told the Anchorage Daily News:

“Well, I’m very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there,” the governor said from her car on the way to a campaign stop in Philadelphia.

Here’s an image of the report’s findings. Note finding No. 1:

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.

I’m not sure how to reconcile Palin’s statement on the report with, well, the report.

Palin was accused of firing the head of the Alaska safety commission, Walt Monegan, for not intervening in what amounted to a personal family feud. Evidence in the report suggests that Palin and her husband, Todd, pressured Monegan to fire their former brother-in-law, the state trooper Mike Wooten.

Though the report found that Palin was within the scope of the law in firing Monegan, that doesn’t mean she’s off the hook. The report says she knew “pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda..”

The report explains that Palin’s actions amount to a violation of the state Ethics Act. In fact, the case is “one of the very reasons the Ethics Act” was established.

The question now: what happens to Palin?

The chairman of the Legislative Council, Sen. Kim Elton (D-Juneau), told me in an interview shortly after the report was released that he has confidence in the integrity of the report. But he said that he is not prepared to start considering taking action against Palin.

“This is like ‘truth and consequences,”" Elton said, standing in a hallway of the Anchorage legislative offices where the report was released. “Today, I will say we got the truth. The facts are now in the public. I’m not prepared to go to consequences.”

The spokesman for the House Republicans, WIll Vandergriff, told me that nothing is likely to happen before the regular legislative session begins, on Jan. 20, 2009. He said it would take a supermajority of lawmakers, 45 House and Senate members, or an executive action from Palin’s office to hold a special session on this issue.

Update: Sen. Kim Elton (D-Juneau) was wrongly identified as a Republican when this post was published. We regret the error.

I just spoke with an Anchorage lawyer who has known Branchflower for about 20 years. The lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described Branchflower as “one of the most disciplined people I’ve ever encountered.”

Branchflower served as an assistant district attorney in Alaska for many years. He spent much of his career evaluating cases submitted by police and state troopers, determining whether the D.A.’s office would take them up. In that role, he made deals left and right, while staying focused on the case at hand, the Anchorage lawyer told me.

Over his long career, Branchflower also tried cases — including some high-profile murders.

Alaska trial observers say he is famous for winning the “quickest jury verdict ever.” Lore has it that the jury came back with a decision while the court exhibits were still being bundled.

Branchflower, who took the testimony of seven aides to Gov. Sarah Palin this week, after they initially resisted his attempts to interview them, still had his final report in on time today. No surprise there.

Branchflower prizes efficiency, according to the Anchorage lawyer:

He is the kind of guy who travels to Germany and cites his visit to either the Mercedes-Benz or BMW factory as the highlight (he drove one or the other) because the factory was so efficient.

It sounds like there is not a wasted word in his 236-page report.

It’s unclear when, if ever, the public will get to take a look at it.

The bipartisan body set up to review the report met this morning behind closed doors to discuss its findings. The report, prepared by retired assistant district attorney Steve Branchflower, is 263 pages long and has 800 pages or so of evidence.

Branchflower had been wrangling to get statements from witnesses ever since Palin was tapped to run on the GOP presidential ticket. Her early cooperation turned to stonewalling, with the help of a team of lawyers Sen. John McCain sent to Anchorage.

Still, Branchflower was able to interview key witnesses.