ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin, heralded by some conservatives as the future of the Republican Party, faces some cold political realities in present-day Alaska.

Within days of the McCain-Palin ticket’s defeat earlier this month, the unsuccessful GOP vice presidential nominee capped her tumultuous two months on the campaign trail with a whirlwind series of national media interviews and a headline-grabbing appearance at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Florida.

Now it’s back to her day job at the state capital in Juneau.
 
Palin’s state budget proposal is due in a month, with plummeting oil prices slashing Alaska’s revenues by billions of dollars.

The 1,700-mile natural gas pipeline she bragged about on the campaign trail – “We began a nearly $40 billion-dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence,” she said at the Republican National Convention – is nowhere near being built.

Some hard feelings linger over her administration’s initial decision to ignore subpoenas in the investigation of whether she abused her power in firing the public safety commissioner who wouldn’t oust her ex-brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper.

“The main focus is going to be on the gas line and on the long-term financial issues,” said Democratic state Sen. Bill Wielechowski. “You’re going to see really a clampdown on government services.”

Uncertain is whether the bipartisanship that existed during Palin’s 20 months as governor can survive the heated rhetoric from the presidential campaign and her own political ambitions, with the 44-year-old clearly signaling that she’s open to a bid for president in 2012.

The difficult task at hand “provides the governor with a great opportunity to roll up her sleeves and get back to her job,” said Kenneth Khachigian, a former adviser to President Ronald Reagan.
 
“She’s got four or five election cycles ahead of her where she can do things. She doesn’t have to comment on 2012 or 2016. Being a good governor is the best thing she can do right now.”

Among the challenges she faces:
      -THE BUDGET:
      Alaska has no income or sales tax, and a huge chunk of its annual revenue – as much as 90 percent – comes from taxes and fees on oil companies. When oil prices soar, as they did this summer, so do the state’s coffers: Alaska in the past two years has socked away billions in its already massive savings accounts.

But one of those accounts, the $28 billion Alaska Permanent Fund, sends every Alaskan a dividend each year – this year it was $2,069. So tapping its income to pay for government is considered political suicide, and falling oil prices can put big pressure on state spending.

The governor’s chief economist is working on a new revenue forecast, and many lawmakers expect the state to drastically reduce spending on such things as road projects.
     
-THE PIPELINE:
      With overwhelming support from Democrats, Palin awarded a license to TransCanada in August to pursue building a pipeline that would carry natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope to an existing pipeline network in Alberta.

Although the state granted TransCanada $500 million to plan the pipeline, there’s no guarantee it will be built. TransCanada says it won’t get financing for the massive project until it has guarantees from oil companies to ship the gas through the pipeline; the oil companies say they won’t give such guarantees unless Alaska sets a fixed tax rate on production of the gas, and Palin says she won’t approve the rates the oil companies want.

Solving that problem will require not only cooperation from the Legislature, but probably from the oil companies Palin has battled. And her claim to being a national leader on energy issues depends on it.

-TROOPERGATE AND THE CAMPAIGN:
      The episode – and the media spotlight that resulted from Palin’s vice presidential nomination – drew attention to practices that simply can’t be ignored.

Palin’s administration routinely used private e-mail accounts for state business, circumventing public disclosure laws. “We will undoubtedly address that in some form of legislation,” said Democratic Sen. Hollis French, who oversaw the Troopergate investigation.

Lawmakers also said they could hold hearings on, and possibly restrict, Palin’s practice of charging the state for her children’s travel and taking per diem payments for nights spent in her Wasilla home.

Democratic Rep. Les Gara has – without luck – asked the Alaska State Troopers and the Palin’s appointed attorney general to investigate whether the McCain-Palin campaign urged anyone to ignore their subpoenas. Under state law, to “induce a witness to be absent” from an official proceeding to which they’ve been summoned is second-degree witness tampering.

But even Gara, a recently outspoken critic of Palin, said he doesn’t want such matters preoccupying the government.

“There are much more important things in this state than rehashing Troopergate,” Gara said. “We all have to sit down and let bygones be bygones, but it’s going to take some conversations.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A report has cleared Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of ethics violations in the firing of her public safety commissioner.
   
Released Monday, the report says there is no probable cause to believe Palin or any other state official violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act in connection with the firing. The report was prepared by Timothy Petumenos, an independent counsel for the Alaska Personnel Board.

A separate legislative investigation recently concluded that Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, abused her office by allowing her husband and staffers to pressure the public safety commissioner to fire a state trooper who went through a nasty divorce from Palin’s sister.

Palin says the firing had nothing to do with the trooper.

ST. LOUIS – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is testifying behind closed doors about allegations she abused her powers during a personnel controversy that has distracted from her Republican vice presidential bid.

Palin arrived at a Missouri hotel Friday afternoon to meet with an investigator from the Alaska Personnel Board. The board is investigating whether Palin acted improperly by firing her public safety commissioner. The commissioner says he was dismissed for refusing to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law, a state trooper.

An Alaska legislative investigation concluded Palin acted unethically by trying to get her brother-in-law fired but fired the public safety commissioner lawfully. Palin’s lawyer says the governor is eager to tell her side of the story.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband are scheduled to give dispositions Friday in a second investigation into whether she violated Alaska ethics law by firing the state’s top public safety official.

Attorney Thomas Van Flein, who is representing both Sarah and Todd Palin, said the depositions will take place outside the state but declined to say where.

The governor is on the campaign trail as Republican John McCain’s running mate. Campaign officials have not yet released her Friday schedule.

The three-hour interviews are part of an investigation by the Alaska Personnel Board, which has hired independent counsel Timothy Petumenos. He did not immediately return a call left at his Anchorage office.

WASHINGTON – Former Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan said Monday he feels “relieved” by a legislative report concluding that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her authority by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.
 
“I’ve never contested my firing. My firing was completely lawful,” Monegan said in a nationally broadcast interview. “It wasn’t that I was fired that I asked any questions. It was, what were the reasons for the firing.”
 
Monegan declined to say in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show what legal options, if any, he might be exploring in the wake of the findings announced late Friday in Alaska by investigator Stephen Branchflower.

Monegan did say that he and his family were pleased with the report’s conclusions.

“Actually, I feel relieved,” he said. “My wife and I have been through a lot. It’s not a matter of being revenged. It’s just strictly a matter of being relieved.” Monegan was interviewed by telephone from Alaska.      

In his report Friday to a bipartisan panel that looked into the matter, Branchflower found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain. Palin has said that Monegan’s tenure as the state’s lead law enforcement officer ended because of policy differences.
 
The inquiry looked into the dismissal of Monegan, who said he lost his job because he resisted pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce and custody battle with the governor’s sister.

“I feel vindicated,” Monegan had said late Friday. “It sounds like they’ve validated my belief and opinions. And that tells me I’m not totally out in left field.”

On Monday, Monegan said the controversy “really isn’t about me.”

“I think that we’re more concerned about our governor,” he added, “and I think she took a big blow to her credibility and more significantly to her promises of being open and transparent.”

Asked how he planned to vote in the November elections, Monegan said he didn’t want to say, telling his interviewer that’s why they “put those little curtains around” the polling booth.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska lawmakers are expected to release an ethics report into Gov. Sarah Palin’s firing of her public safety commissioner today, but some Republicans say it’s being rushed in order to damage John McCain’s presidential campaign.

Palin has been accused of firing the state’s Public Safety Commissioner, after pressuring him to fire a state trooper involved in a nasty divorce with the governor’s sister. The report is also expected to touch on Palin’s husband Todd’s involvement.

Members of a legislative committee reviewing the matter have been meeting behind closed doors today and had to sign a confidentiality agreement before being allowed to read the report.

One of those lawmakers, Republican Peggy Wilson, wonders whether the committee is rushing to a conclusion, saying she’s barely had time to read the report. It’s estimated to be 300 pages long, with 1,000 pages of supporting documents.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska’s Supreme Court has refused to shut down an ethics investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee.

The decision Thursday sets the stage for state lawmakers to release a report on their investigation Friday. The report could prove to be an embarrassment for Palin and a distraction for John McCain’s presidential campaign in the final weeks of the race.

Lawmakers are investigating whether Palin abused her power to settle a family dispute. Her former public safety commissioner says he was dismissed after resisting pressure to fire a state trooper who had gone through nasty divorce from Palin’s sister.

Republican lawmakers had sued to block the report, saying it had become politicized.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Seven Alaska state employees have reversed course and agreed to testify in an investigation into whether Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her powers by firing a commissioner who refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law.

There is no indication, however, that Palin or her husband will now agree to testify about the case, which has dogged her for the past several months and could hurt John McCain in the final weeks of the presidential race.

Palin, a first-term Alaska governor, is the focus of a legislative inquiry over her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan a year after she, her husband and key advisers began questioning him about getting rid of a state trooper who had gone through a nasty divorce with her sister.

Monegan says he was dismissed because he wouldn’t fire the governor’s former brother-in-law, but Palin contends he was dismissed for insubordination. McCain operatives called Monegan a “rogue” who repeatedly tried to work outside normal channels for requesting money.

Lawmakers subpoenaed seven state employees to testify in the inquiry but they challenged those subpoenas. After a judge rejected a similar challenge brought by state lawmakers last week, employees decided to testify, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg said.
 
Democratic state Sen. Hollis French, who is managing the investigation, said that, following the court ruling, he again asked Palin and her husband, Todd, whether they planned to testify.
 
“We’ve had no response,” French said Sunday.

Palin says the legislative inquiry has become too political and she believes that only the state’s personnel board should oversee the inquiry. Palin has the authority to fire the members of that board.

Alaska’s Supreme Court, meanwhile, is considering whether to block the findings of the legislative inquiry. The high court scheduled arguments for Wednesday over whether the case is being manipulated to hurt Palin before Election Day on Nov. 4.

The independent investigator conducting the probe plans to turn over his conclusions on the case by next Friday to the Legislative Council, the body that authorized it.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The McCain-Palin campaign is “moving on many fronts” to stall an investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused the power of her office by firing her public safety commissioner, the Alaska lawmakers claimed in a court filing Thursday.

The filing is in response to a lawsuit by five Republican state legislators seeking to halt the investigation into whether Palin abused her power when she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan this summer. The legislators call the investigation by the Legislative Council biased, a violation of due process and a violation of the separation of powers between Alaska’s legislative and executive branches.
 
They want a judge to order the Legislative Council to cease investigating Palin or remove the leaders of the probe: Sen. Hollis French, the Democratic project manager of the investigation; Democratic Sen. Kim Elton, the Legislative Council investigator; and Stephen Branchflower, the retired attorney the council hired as the independent investigator.

Palin had agreed to cooperate with the investigation until she became Sen. John McCain’s running mate. Then, through the McCain campaign, she claimed that French, Elton and Branchflower were manipulating the report to be a potentially damaging “October surprise” before Election Day.

The attorney defending French, Elton, Branchflower and the Legislative Council said in the response filed Wednesday that the suit is one of several tactics the McCain campaign is using to stall the investigation.

“The McCain campaign and its supporters, having apparently convinced themselves that the facts would cause serious damage to the Republican ticket if publicly known before the national election, are now moving on many fronts – including this one – to slow and stop Mr. Branchflower’s fact-finding inquiry and to prevent his issuance of the report authorized by the Legislative Council,” said the response filed by defense attorney Peter Maassen.

McCain campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin did not address the stalling allegation, saying Palin is cooperating with a separate investigation by the Alaska State Personnel Board.

“Governor Palin looks forward to a fair and complete review of the facts insulated from the taint of partisan politics,” Griffin said in an e-mailed statement.

Maassen says the Legislature has broad fact-finding power and this probe falls well within its scope, and asks Anchorage Judge Stephanie Joannnides to dismiss the lawsuit.

The filing did not name other stalling tactics the campaign was using, though McCain officials have held regular news conferences denouncing the investigation. Also, several witnesses under subpoena, including Palin’s husband, have refused to cooperate. That means Branchflower will not be able to talk to key people, though he still plans to complete a report by Oct. 10.

Palin fired Monegan in July. Weeks later, it emerged that Palin, her husband, Todd, and several high-level staffers had contacted Monegan about state trooper Mike Wooten, who had gone through a nasty divorce from Palin’s sister before Palin became governor. While Monegan says no one from the administration ever told him directly to fire Wooten, he says their repeated contacts made it clear they wanted Wooten gone.

Palin maintains she fired Monegan over budget disagreements.