US Election: Alaskan Inquiry Delayed Until After November 4

The Republicans yesterday effectively won their battle to delay the findings of the Troopergate investigation into Sarah Palin until after the White House election on November 4.

Her husband, Todd, and other witnesses signaled late on Thursday they would ignore subpoenas demanding they attend an Alaska senate judiciary hearing into the affair in Anchorage yesterday.

One of the Democrats on the committee, Bill Wielechowski, admitted that Todd Palin and the others could continue to refuse to testify for months without facing a penalty. A lawyer for Todd Palin, Thomas van Flein, told the investigators the subpoena was "unduly burdensome" because he would be out on the campaign trail with his wife until election day.

"His scheduling obligations over the next two months will make it virtually impossible for him to prepare for and present the testimony called for in the subpoena at the specified location during that time period," Flein said in a letter.

The Republican vice-presidential candidate is under investigation over allegations that she improperly fired her public safety commissioner in July after he refused to sack a state trooper involved in an ugly divorce from her sister.

The senate had been due to complete its investigation and report by the middle of next month, potentially damaging for Palin and McCain. A rebuke for Palin at that stage could have had an impact on a presidential race that is extremely tight. Although some polls earlier this week suggested the Palin phenomenon was beginning to fade as a result of Troopergate and other revelations about her record as governor of Alaska, one of the most respected polling organizations in the US, the Pew Research Center, published a survey yesterday suggesting that the Republican party brand has regained some of its lustre for the first time in three years and that this can be attributed mainly to Palin.

The Pew Research Center found independent voters, who will decide the election, have an equally favorable view, 50% to 49%, with the Republicans having the edge. Normally vice-presidential picks have little impact on elections. Stan Greenberg, the Democratic pollster, said that this basically remained the case, with people voting on the basis of the presidential candidate rather than the vice-presidential one. But he acknowledged that Palin, with her claims to be a reformer and not part of the Washington elite, "makes McCain look plausible as an agent for change".

The Democratic party has been reluctant to openly criticize her. Joe Biden, Obama's running mate who has had a relatively low profile, is due to debate with her in St Louis on October 2 on prime-time television. The Democratic vice-presidential candidate, who has extensive foreign affairs experience in contrast with Palin, told CBS last night he was having a tough time working out how to approach the debate. "It's hard to prepare, because I don't know what she thinks," he said.

Palin, who has been briefed extensively by McCain's team on foreign affairs over the last few weeks, is to spend next week in New York being introduced by McCain to some world leaders attending the United Nations general assembly.

But her plan to attend a rally against the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who usually attends the assembly, has had to be scrapped. The invitation to her from a Jewish organization to participate was withdrawn after Hillary Clinton, who had also been due to attend, pulled out because of the presence of the Republican vice-presidential candidate.