Palin Accepted $25,000 in Gifts, Alaska Records Show

Todd Palin accepted an $805 charter flight from Barrick Gold and a $200 flight from Red Dog Mines. Both companies are clients of Chamberlain, a top lobbyist with Legislative Consultants, which led the state in lobbying income last year.

Red Dog is the sole taxpayer to the Northwest Arctic Borough, an Alaskan jurisdiction represented by Chamberlain that received $10.9 million from the zinc mine in 2007. The borough gave Palin a whale baleen basket valued at $300.

Chamberlain, the ex-wife of an influential former state lawmaker, said in an interview that she was unaware of her clients giving gifts to the Palins.

Under the new ethics laws, Palin may not accept lobbyist gifts unless the lobbyist is a family member. The governor explains in detail in her disclosure how she reimbursed Chamberlain for a summer trip made by Palin's 14-year-old daughter, Willow. Willow is friends with Chamberlain's teenage daughter, Mackenzie. Chamberlain said Willow accompanied her and her daughter in the summer of 2007 to a basketball camp and then to Mexico.

"This is not a gift," reads a handwritten note on Palin's disclosure form. "It is merely interaction with a parent who is registered as a lobbyist with the state of Alaska."

Chamberlain said she kept trip receipts to ensure that the Palins could reimburse her. The lobbyist said she has been careful around Palin in government settings.

"Because our kids are together quite a bit, people made the assumption we are good buddies, but we aren't," she said. "I was a bit nervous of her, and I guess she was a bit nervous of me."

It was an unspoken rule that lobbyists should not directly approach Palin, Chamberlain said. The lobbyist said she had access to the governor's key staff members and she set up meetings for her clients. "I didn't have business conversations with her, because she didn't see lobbyists," Chamberlain said. "She preferred to see clients without lobbyists present."

Chamberlain also represents the Pebble Partnership, which has proposed a massive gold mine on Bristol Bay that has encountered opposition from conservationists. Palin has come under fire for speaking out against a statewide initiative, Proposition 4, that would have imposed costly environmental regulations on mining operations, particularly the Pebble Mine. A hearing by a state ethics watchdog agency has been scheduled for mid-November to see whether statutes prohibiting partisan activity apply to the governor's statements on the initiative.

Mining interests did not play a major fundraising role in Palin's gubernatorial campaign, but post-election donations to her inaugural committee came from four mining companies, including Northern Dynasty, the Pebble Mine co-developer. The money was spent on inaugural balls and on travel by the governor and her family for events. The amounts were not disclosed.

Palin also reported receiving $1,000 in gifts -- an Aleut woven basket, a sea otter headband, a Tlingit rattle and an Athabascan chief necklace -- at an inaugural reception thrown by the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Executives of several of Chamberlain's clients serve on the center's board and many were in attendance when the gifts were presented to the governor.

Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.