Somebody cue Queen: Another One Bites The Dust

Via The Anchorage Daily News' ubiquitous Sean Cockerham:

"The state has dismissed an ethics complaint filed by Andree McLeod against Kris Perry, a close adviser to Gov. Sarah Palin and the director of the governor's Anchorage office."

"McLeod charged that Perry did political work on the state's time. Her complaint focused on Perry's travels with the governor on the vice-presidential campaign trail and afterwards."

"The complaint was dismissed by the attorney general's office. (McLeod said it went to the AG's office rather than the personnel board because it was a complaint against a state employee rather than the governor or lieutenant governor.)"

"The dismissal said there was no evidence 'suggesting that Perry misused her state time in any substantial way or did not intend to benefit the public interest when accompanying the governor on her trips.'"

According to the dismissal, Perry was included on the trips to liaison with the governor's office in Alaska, thus keeping Palin in contact with state business:

The record clearly shows that Ms. Perry gave far more of her personal time to the state of Alaska than she may have used state time, if any, for non-state related or unavoidable personal activities," said the dismissal.

A full PDF copy of the letter of dismissal is here.

In the reaction from the governor's office, Palin aides emphasize the fact that the complaint was filed even after Perry obtained an opinion from her ethics supervisor, Linda Perez:

"It is outrageous to file an ethics complaint against a state employee who sought and obtained ethics guidance in advance," Mike Nizich, the governor’s chief of staff, said. "This is not about ethics. This is not about holding the governor or state employees accountable. This is pure harassment."

Such harassment is costing Alaska's taxpayers large sums of money. Gov. Palin's office says that over the past two years, the state has spent millions of dollars processing ethics complaints, public records requests, and related lawsuits

The governor's full news release is here.

- JP