Legal Expense Fund Set Up for Palin

05/07/09

According to Cole, the fund was set up to help Palin ''defend herself against what she described as ''the onslaught of frivolous attacks against her.'' The money raised by the fund will go towards paying off legal bills that were incurred by Palin, her staff and family members. Most of the complaints were filed against Palin when she ran as the Republican vice presidential candidate alongside John McCain, however some of the complaints were dated before she joined forces with McCain.

Cole remarks that ''these baseless accusations are designed to inhibit her ability to focus on the issues Alaskans truly care about, and they force massive personal debt on her and her family.''

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According to Cole, donations are capped at $150 and each quarter, the names of all donors will be disclosed despite the fact that the fund is not mandated to reveal this information. The $150 cap was decided upon to ''make it available to as many Alaskans as possible.'' Certain entities are not allowed to donate to the fund including lobbyists, labor unions, corporations and non U.S. citizens.

Palin is in debt to an anchorage law firm that represented her against various ethics complaints that were lodged against her. Palin concludes that these complaints are part of the ''political blood sport'' allowing ''only the independently wealthy or those willing to spend their income on legal fees'' to serve in the political ring. Palin owes money to Clapp Peterson Van Flein Tiemessen, the Alaskan legal firm that represented her when she dismissed the state's public safety commissioner, which was later dubbed ''troopergate' by the media.

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Palin was still in the ethical spotlight just last week when a complaint was lodged by Sondra Tompkins, an advocate for children with disabilities. Tompkins hails from Anchorage and is the mother of a special-needs child also. Tompkins complaint accuses Palin of reneging on her duties when she attended various out-of-state political events at the end of the legislative session, which is a crucial time. Last week, Palin attended a Right to Life banquet and breakfast in support of families with children suffering from Down's Syndrome. According to Meghan Stapleton, former McCain-Palin campaign worker and current spokesperson for the Palin family, Palin's trip was paid for by her political action committee and the hosts of event.

Palin’s decision to allow the creation of the legal expense fund was decided after Clayton Paslay offered to use his own political group to help her. Paslay created the organization, Free American Citizens to support his “favorite causes and conservatives” which include Palin and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Paslay started to solicit donations for Palin after hearing Bill O'Reilly of Fox News make a request for viewers to help Palin in paying off her legal bills. Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, requested that supporters refrain from sending donations until such time as a fund could be set up to direct donations directly to the lawyers that Palin owes money to.

According to Stapleton, ''Governor Palin is truly humbled by the tremendous outpouring of support from her fellow Alaskans and the wonderful people across our great country.''

Palin's political action committee officially ended its relationship with Campaign Solutions on Friday. The Virginia based company handled online fundraising for the McCain-Palin campaign and was headed by online campaign guru, Rebecca Donatelli. The company set up the online fundraising system for SarahPAC and also helped Palin establish her online presence on Facebook and other social networking sites.