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2009-08-07 Home Front: Politix

After Palin, Alaska attorney general wants to target 'bad faith' complaints

Just days after Sarah Palin left the governor's office, in part because of a crush of what she called frivolous ethics complaints, Alaska's new attorney general is proposing sweeping changes in how such matters are handled.

Attorney General Dan Sullivan on Wednesday released a 19-page opinion about the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act and said reforms are needed to prevent bad-faith misuse of the process.

As evidence of a troubled ethics system, Sullivan singled out the leak two weeks ago of an ethics investigator's confidential report on Palin just as efforts were under way to resolve the matter. Such breaches could be stopped by changing the law so that people who bring complaints don't get interim reports from investigators, the way they do now, he said.

Sullivan also wants to change the rules so that the state can cover legal bills for public officials who are exonerated after an ethics investigation.

Perhaps the biggest, and most controversial, element of Sullivan's proposal targets people who abuse the ethics complaint system for political reasons.

Posted by Fred 2009-08-07 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ] Top

#1 The liberals will just shit over this.

Posted by DarthVader 2009-08-07 00:07|| 2009-08-07 00:07|| Front Page Top

#2 I live in Alaska, and the dipwad who filed most of the frivolous lawsuits was on the tube almost as much as Palin. I think it would be pretty funny and ironic if the Palinistas would start filing frivolous lawsuits against her, running up her legal bills.

Posted by anymouse">anymouse 2009-08-07 00:09|| http://theworldsworstblog-really.blogspot.com/]">[http://theworldsworstblog-really.blogspot.com/] 2009-08-07 00:09|| Front Page Top

#3 Sullivan also wants to change the rules so that the state can cover legal bills for public officials who are exonerated after an ethics investigation.

Simple solution is have the [false] accuser pay all expenses if there is no ethics violation. What part of 'thou shall not bear false witness' don't they understand? /rhetorical question.

Posted by Procopius2k 2009-08-07 08:29|| 2009-08-07 08:29|| Front Page Top

#4 I think this is probably a bad idea.

we're going to have to be careful about what laws or policies we implement being used against us.

Look at how the left was able to use the ethics law Palin put into place against her. Now we need to think about what they're going to do with whatever precedents we set now.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2009-08-07 09:40|| 2009-08-07 09:40|| Front Page Top

#5 Should be loser pays just like lawsuits should be.

Posted by Sockpuppet of Doom 2009-08-07 09:41|| 2009-08-07 09:41|| Front Page Top

#6 Just extend the laws on barratry to cover frivilous ethics complaints.

Posted by Lemuel Elminetch5977 2009-08-07 13:00|| 2009-08-07 13:00|| Front Page Top

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