Senator Palin? No, Not Her. The Dude!

Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet at 9:11 PM on October 28, 2008.

There's lots of smart and fun speculation on the law blogs about Sarah Palin's future.

We all know that Alaska's Sen. Ted Stevens, now convicted of political corruption charges, has been urged to step down by many, including John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. That is the root of the speculation that Gov. Palin might want to appoint herself as Sen. Palin, should Sen. Stevens step down -- although there is no sign that the Senate's senior Republican senator is inclined to do so.

But anyway, Sarah Palin's future is a hot topic -- notwithstanding that event on Nov. 4.

Here's how Rick Hasen's Election Law blog has pondered the prospects for a self promotion (headline included):

The Alaska Senate Vacancy Issue is Even More Interesting Than I Thought

In this post from yesterday (which contains a correction about the earlier New Jersey case), I wrote about the rules which would apply if Senator Stevens decided to resign before his current term ends. I cited to provisions of the Alaska Elections Code that I took from the Alaska legislature's website.

It turns out, however, that voters passed an initiative in 2004 (in response to the then-governor appointing his daughter to a vacancy) which changed the method of filling vacancies. (The full text of the current Alaska statute is after the jump.)

But it gets better. Because this statute was passed by initiative, there's a question whether it violates the 17th Amendment, which provides in Clause 2: "When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct." The people, through the initiative process, get no role.

Here's the rest of Rick's blog entry. Now, this is interesting enough, but Edward Still's blog on law and politics has another take. He says that the telegenic vice presidential candidate would be barred by Alaska law from accepting a lucrative television deal while still in office, but not a big book deal.

Citing a report from Politico.com, his entry, says it may be illegal for Palin to be the next Fox News star.

If Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin does not become vice president on Nov. 4, she can look forward to a sweet payday for a memoir about her unlikely VP run should she choose to write one. But she might have to forgo hundreds of thousands of dollars in lucrative speaking fees and perhaps even millions more should she be asked to host a cable or network television show.

Palin, who is expected to serve out her term as governor, which runs through 2010, would likely be allowed to write a book about the VP race under Alaska state laws that govern outside pay of government officials. But restrictions under the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act could disallow her from accepting speaking fees or a salary for television appearances while she’s serving in state government.

Section 39.52.170 of the ethics law declares that public employees “may not render services to benefit a personal or financial interest or engage in or accept employment outside the agency which the employee serves, if the outside employment or service is incompatible or in conflict with the proper discharge of official duties.” In addition, “the head of a principal executive department of the state may not accept employment for compensation outside the agency that the executive head serves.” -- Law may preclude TV stardom for Palin.

So it looks like Palin can't appoint herself as the next Alaskan senator and can't be the GOP's answer to Oprah, which leaves one option that has not been discussed on the law blogs thus far, but which a non-lawyer friend suggested on the phone: appointing her husband, Todd Palin, to fill Steven's seat if -- but more likely when -- the current Senator steps down.

Can you say Senator Dude? Can you see the oath of office on a snowmobile? Can you see all the McCain campaign staffers and Republicans in exile figuring out their next moves in America's version of Siberia?