Palin Charged Childrens’ Travel Expenses to State of Alaska

A recent AP report has uncovered possible malfeasance by Governor Sarah Palin, who allegedly charged the state of Alaska for her children to travel with her to functions on several occasions, including some to which they were not specifically invited. Further, the young vice-presidential candidate apparently altered her expense reports to indicate that the children were, in fact, on official business with her. The charges paid for by the state of Alaska included hotels and commercial flights for her three daughters to join her on a trip to watch their father in a snowmobile race and another trip to New York, among others.

Since December, 2006, when Palin took office as governor of Alaska, she has charged the state over $21,000 for commercial airline flights for her daughters. Though Alaska law does not specifically forbid these expenses, the law does stipulate that payment of expenses is to occur only for those expenses incurred for the purposes of official state business. Apparently, Palin made it a point to seek permission for her children to attend various state functions around the country, and in other instances simply showed up with the children in tow.

As a note, and in a great twist of political-style Catch-22 irony, had Palin not taken her children to these events, the story you would be reading right now would instead by about Palin’s woeful neglect of her three impressionable children as she jetted her way around the country. Alas, in American presidential politics there is no way to win…one can only hope to survive long enough to win the big money book deals that come from a stint in the oval office.

Regardless, Palin is sure to continue to take heat for her apparent disregard for the spirit of her state’s laws. Notes Tony Knowles, father of three children and the former Democratic governor of Alaska who lost to Palin in a 2006 re-election bid: "There was no valid reason for the children to be along on state business. I cannot recall any instance during my eight years as governor where it would have been appropriate to claim they performed state business."