Palin billed state for nights she spent at home

ANCHORAGE - Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by the Washington Post. Her daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel and many of the trips were to and from their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said yesterday that Palin's expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first family could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so.

During her speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Palin cast herself as crusader for fiscal rectitude as Alaska's governor. She noted that she sold a state-owned plane used by the former governor.

The state finance director, Kim Garnero, said Alaska law exempts the governor's office from elaborate travel regulations. Said Leighow: "The governor is entitled to a per diem, and she claims it."

WASHINGTON POST

ANCHORAGE - A Republican effort failed yesterday to unseat the Alaska state senator overseeing the ethics investigation into whether Governor Sarah Palin abused her power when she dismissed the state's public safety commissioner.

Democratic Senator Hollis French was accused of manipulating the probe for political effect on national and state elections since Palin is now the GOP vice presidential nominee. Republican Representative John Coghill last week asked the Alaska Legislative Council, the body that appointed French to oversee the probe, to discuss replacing French. Coghill said he believed the investigation was lacking in fairness and due process after French was quoted in media reports that the probe's results were going to be an "October surprise" that is "likely to be damaging to the administration."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

It's still nearly two months until Election Day, but John McCain already has his first major newspaper endorsement. The New York Post "enthusiastically" backed the Republican in yesterday's editions, and threw in a plug for vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as well.

"McCain's lifelong record of service to America, his battle-tested courage, unshakeable devotion to principle and clear grasp of the dangers and opportunities now facing the nation stand in dramatic contrast to the tissue-paper-thin résumé of his Democratic opponent, freshman Senator Barack Obama," the editorial declared.

FOON RHEE

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as running mate gave him a measurable boost in Web traffic. According to Nielsen Online, traffic to McCain's campaign website increased 242 percent during the week he named Palin to the GOP ticket. In the week ending Aug. 31, McCain's site drew nearly 1.8 million unique visitors, compared with 524,000 the week before. Obama's Web traffic still vastly outpaced McCain's that week; for the week ending Aug. 31, Obama's website drew about 3.4 million viewers, compared with 2.6 million the week before.

JOANNA WEISS

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden will sandwich fund-raising stops tomorrrow in Boston and Holyoke around his planned campaign trip to New Hampshire, a battleground state. Biden is scheduled to arrive in Boston at 11 a.m. for a reception followed by a noon luncheon, both at the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel.

BRIAN C. MOONEY