(Sarah Palin with Alaska's Rep. Don 'Bridge to Nowhere' Young.)Palin's Financial Disclosure Forms on the Web
Just as I was growing curious about Alaska's disclosure requirements for elected officials, and starting to search for a state sunshine panel, I read in the New York Times and at an advocacy blog about some curious items of interest in Gov. Sarah Palin's public disclosure forms.
And thanks to the Alaska Public Offices Commission, I found Palin's disclosure files on their web site. See below for links to the seven files at the commission's web site.
Saturday's NY Times contains a profile of Palin and cites details from the governor's disclosure forms:
In addition to Ms. Palin’s $125,000 state salary, Mr. Palin earned $93,000 last year running his own commercial fishing business and working part-time at BP’s oil production facility, according to her public financial disclosure reports.
The Center for Public Integrity blogged today about Gov. Palin's push for transparency and some info contained in her disclosure forms, thus shedding more light on this person who may become the next vice president:
One of her first acts was pushing ethics bills that advocated greater access to politicians’ financial disclosure reports and restricted gifts from lobbyists to public officials . . .Follow the Palin paper trail and click where it says "View" to link directly to the reports, or go here for her forms on the Alaska Public Offices Commission web site:
On house ownership, the Palins can’t match the McCains’ eight homes, but her real estate portfolio is respectable, thank you very much. Palin owns three houses, according to her 2007 financial disclosure form. The forms don’t list the value of the properties, but indicate that one is residential and the other two are used for recreation.
Public Official Application Search
Total Records: 7 Last Name First Name Office Sought Position Palin Sarah Governor View Sarah Governor View Sarah Governor View Sarah AOGG Commissioner Y View Sarah AOGCC Commissioner View Sarah Governor View Sarah Mayor Wasilla View
34 comments:
I would place a large wager that of the two recreational "houses," one is a hunting lodge/shack, and the other is a fishing lodge/shack. If they both even have electricity, I'd be surprised.
Looking at Sarah Palin's financial disclosures as both a voter and as a Certified Financial Planner, I was impressed. The first thing that impressed me was the openness of the disclosure - it put actual amounts and not just value ranges like those in Congress. Furthermore, she got as detailed as putting in a girl's basketball carpooling arrangement with someone registered as a lobbyist. Try getting someone within the beltway to be as open or as specific.
With regard to her and her husband's investments, I was impressed that Todd participated in both the 401(k) with BP and had a SAR-SEP IRA for his fishing work. Todd is showing great responsibility in planning and saving for his retirement. Given that Todd has a SAR-SEP it indicates he has been saving for his retirement for a long time. Why? The reason is that no new SAR-SEP's could be opened after 1996 and this account had to have been established in 1996 or before. In terms of his investments, he uses a mix of mutual funds, exchange traded funds, and very little stock and holds a diversified portfolio. He'd doing things right and has shown more financial responsibility than the majority of Americans.
So it will matter a lot what those houses actually are.
Many Alaskans have small second homes away from the southern coast. These tend to be modest, often constructed by the families themselves and used either for summer vacations or as a place to stay for family members who work on the north slope when weather permits.
A far cry from the wealth of Kerry, the Kennedys, the Clintons or McCain for that matter.
She won a Dog Sled race? Cool!
Interesting.
When was the last time you saw a Governor who filled out his/her own reports?
And that kind of money is not that fabulous in the state of Alaska where the COL is higher than a lot of the country.
So her son worked in a snowboard shop and construction job before joining the army and her daughter served coffee. And he husband they have less money in brokerage accounts than Hillary earns in interest in a day, month?
Are those recreational properties developed or just a cabin or raw land?
Frankly, my opinion about the 3 houses that she owns. I would have to say that the value of homes in Alaska are extremely lower than that of Hawaii or the mainland America. The cost of the most expensive home is the average of $241,000. So between her salary and her husband's pay, it's not that unrealistic to have 3 homes in Alaska. Now comparing to that to John McCain's wife's homes which probably goes in the millions each.
Also their mutual funds / stocks that they own are only worth $354226.90 with the amount of shares declared at the time with today's stock price. So it's a nice and reasonable retirement fund although they got many years left before they're done.
didn't look like show owned three homes to me, but a house and part ownership of two tracts of land.
Let me see if I get this right: Palin is rich and out-of-touch with the average American, owns three houses, and her husband has ties to the oil industry. Yep, she's a Republican, all right. I'll take Joe Biden as my choice for Vice President, thank you very much.
I am glad that Mrs. Palin is a well adjusted individual, a soccer mom, has a responsible husband, has 5 kids, etc. I am glad that she has at least 1 home and perhaps 2 others or 2 other properties of some sort. Good for her that she has been able to get great approval ratings during her term as governor.
However, I am voting for President, not Vice President. John McCain scares the hell out of me with his talk about "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran"; his talk about "cigarettes are one way of killing them (Iranians)"; his talk about being in Iraq another "100 years"; his reply to a woman a couple of weeks ago that he agrees with her about having a military draft so that we have enough people to catch Bin Laden.
One may say that these are just "figures of speech" or may even be "jokes."
But the fact is, John McCain has as his foreign policy advisors the likes of Robert Kagan and Randy Scheunemann who are Neocons, members of PNAC (Progress for a New American Century). This PNAC organization strongly encouraged Bill Clinton in 1998 to attack Iraq, well before 9-11, well before Bush actually went there (don't tell me Bush and especially Cheney were not predisposed to going to war). This PNAC organization's mission is to lead the world through the use of military force. This PNAC group has produced the likes of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Scooter Libby, and Paul Wolfowitz. While PNAC no longer actually exists as a group, these people are out there, and John McCain has hired at least 2 of them, probably more, as TOP foreign policy advisors.
While I believe we should be strong on defense, I also am very worried that John McCain has such people creating his foreign policy, John McCain who seems to make hair trigger decisions (like Palin) and will have his hand on the trigger when he gets that 3 AM phone call.
anonymous @ 8:56, proves that idocy still walks the land; and, you're welcome to Slo-Joe. Please take him as far away as possible.
anon 8:56 - you illustrate so beautifully why thinking people are increasingly contemptuous of progressives. In Alaska, that combined income is certainly well-off but not rich. Cost of Living. Out-of-touch? Your evidence would be...? You might want to check with headquarters on that. I think the talking point is supposed to be that she is too much like the average person, just a hockey mom and such. Not that Democrats won't try to have it both ways, but we should have some standards.
The three houses complaint has been dealt with by several commenters. Have you read them? You might not want to shoot from the hip on that one. And "ties" to the Oil Industry. He's a union steelworker for them. By that standard, I guess we all have "ties" to the Oil Industry every time we fill up.
0-4.
I think the Republicans in general, and the Mccain/Palin ticket are absolutely frightening. What they represent is big business - special interest, and to Hell with regular people. Palin's evangelical Christianity is scary - the subjugation of women (no choice), no exceptions for abortion, teaching creationism, gay rights down the drain. Bush better be the last evangelical we get. The choice is so clear - for the sake of our nation: OBAMA
Perhaps Hollywood Beach missed Sarah Palin's veto on bill that would have banned same-sex benefits and that she argued for the inclusion of creationism in classroom debate, but plainly stated that she would not push the state's education boards to include creationism alternatives in the state's curriculum requirements.
It was her Husband who won the Race... I think via Snow Mobiles.
It's nice how Karl Rove trashed the potential Kaine Governor pick for Obama on a prior Sunday morning news show... forgot date, but it's out on Crooksandliars.com.
And Kaine has more experience, people, etc than Palin governs. McBush is SO toast.
Good post and blog. Thanks for your work.
hollywood beach,
Slogans and ignorant non-sequiturs, strung together with chewing gum and chicken wire, are a piss-poor excuse for an argument, much less a philosophy.
Maybe you haven't heard: Sarah Palin did have a "choice" when she learned her fifth child would have Down's Syndrome: she chose LIFE.
Judging from your excuse for a post, I seriously doubt you could ever muster up even a fraction of the courage that Sarah and her husband showed on this occasion.
For you and your good-time buddies, death is always easy...but living is so hard and so unfair, isn't it?
"Subjugation of women?" She's a woman! Running for Vice-President!
"to hell with regular people"?
How much more regular can you get? PTA leader, mother, small town roots, etc.
Is Joe "I've got a higher IQ than you" Biden concerned with regular people? Is Barack "Columbia-Harvard-Wife from Princeton" a regular person? Which ticket is full of elitists and which is full of regular people? Neither Obama nor Biden have ever held a "regular job" only government (well, Biden was a lawyer for a couple of years, and Obama was a part-time law lecturer).
And if you are leery of extremist religious views, what about Obama's church?
re: Hollywood Beach
"subjugation of women" - I'm laughing my butt off here - being the governer of Alaska sure is an example of the subjugation of women... Yessirree...
hollywood beach --
You need to get out more.
Hollywood Beach, so you are saying that Palin's version of Christianity preaches the subjugation of women? If that were true, do you think that she runs Alaska from inside the kitchen that Todd forces her to work in?
Come on, this is the 21st century, I'm sure there are some pockets of ultra-traditionalists out there, but do you really need to worry about the subjugation of women from a woman who is not only governor of a state but the second female VP candidate?
let's see obama and his ilk publish the like!
the moonbat comments speak for themselves
Thank you very much for doing the work the MSM ought to be doing. Genuinely appreciated. Please continue it and keep us educated. With links and All I might add--great work
I'd take Sarah Palin over Obama any day of the week. Obama supporters, please feel free to compare their accomplishments side by side. When you do that, Obama comes off as what he is - a pipsqueak meeting moth who kissed the rings of every political power broker he could as he climbed his way to power through all kinds of election chicanery.
bomb, bomb, bomb Iran ....
Do you really think that the old pro Ronald Reagan didn't know that was an open mic when he said "The bombing starts in ten minutes"?
It is a good thing if your enemies are unsure whether you're making a joke or sending a message.
Kaitian:
You need to look again
Gov Palin's disclosure form has a page of the stocks they own and these are well in excess of $10million in value --
Look at the Center for Public Integrity 2007 Financial Disclosure form
The bigger question is how does someone amass that kind of wealth given the history and background of the individual
They have 1.6 million shares of Alger Hiss Small Cap I which is trading at $22.30 a share today - that one holding is in excess of $3.5 million dollars - and there are many others
Let's at least learn the truth about this woman
Follow the money
Hollwood Beach:
"Palin's evangelical Christianity is scary - the subjugation of women...."
LOL!!! Does Palin look, sound, or like she's subjugated?
You're just another lib trying to use scare tactics. You're going to wake up November 5th wondering what the *(&$&#@* happened.
Allison,
I think you a misread the # of shares. You also need to by a calculator...1,6000,000 X $22.30 = $35,680,000.
And it is about 1600 shares anyway or $35,000.
Alison,
It is 1668 shares or $37,200.
Buy a calculator 1.6m @ $22.30 share would be $36 million...
MarkJ-
You stated she chose life; that is true. Palin & her ilk want to take away that choice from all of us.
Years ago, prenatal tests of one of our children indicated a 50% chance he would be born with Down Syndrome. My wife & I discussed it over several weeks. The result is WE chose to take him to term. I don't want the government to make that choice for us.
If the situation were reversed, and the law was all "defective" children would be aborted, I would oppose it just as strongly.
Looking at the financials, the Palins appear to be leasing property containing natural resources (oil/gas?), Todd works in oil production as well as fishing, they own BP stocks, and Gov. Palin is a commissioner for the AK Gas Commission. While they do not appear to be rolling in money by Alaskan or US standards, one would wonder about her objectivity about the energy/oil industry based on their own investments. BTW, Gov. Palin's church is promising to convert all gays by praying for them. As my daughter says, "Have fun with that."
When Sarah Palin became governor Todd Palin gave up his position in management with BP and took a job as a worker.
Remember the familiar response to rabid atheists : "What? You're afraid of a nun?" Sarah's the punch lone.
The left has been demonizing religion for years. Then the Ogre walks out on stage in front of 40 million people. Methinks God has kind of a Satanic sense of humor.
If you are using that benchmark, then Nancy Pelosi had better include in her income the difference between a normal size airplane and the jumbo jet she demanded to cart around her family, including grandchildren.
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