Sarah Palin emails: Palin took note of rival's pipeline criticism

Sarah Palin emails: Palin took note of rival’s pipeline criticism

By Robin Abcarian

June 10, 2011 12 AM PT

Andrew Halcro is a conservative blogger and third party independent candidate who ran against Sarah Palin for Alaska governor in 2006. Though he was trampled -- garnering only 9% of the vote -- he continued to be a thorn in her side.

In late 2007, Palin became alarmed when it appeared that Halcro was misrepresenting the view of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski about Palin’s pet project, the natural gas pipeline, or AGIA, that would transport Alaska’s resources to market.

At the time, various companies were bidding on the project, which was eventually awarded to TransCanada.

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Though the gasline has since stalled, Palin was able to trumpet it as a major achievement at the time, and was wary of being undermined, especially by Alaska’s U.S. senator, with whom Palin had an uneasy relationship at best. Palin had beaten Lisa Murkowski’s father, Gov. Frank Murkowski, in the 2006 Republican primary, and was by many accounts still miffed that Frank Murkowski had appointed his own daughter to his Senate seat when he became governor in 2002.

According to an email sent to Palin by Denny Schlotfeldt, the general manager of Alaska Tent & Tarp, Schlotfeldt had been at a luncheon where Halcro had implied Murkowski was bad-mouthing AGIA. Halcro, wrote Schlotfeldt, said Lisa Murkowski had met with President George W. Bush’s energy secretary.

“Halcrow [sic] reported Lisa saying that the energy secretary sees AGIA as a complete failure and that they may as well forget ever getting Alaska gas.”

Palin aide Frank Bailey told Palin that he’d met with Murkowski’s chief of staff, who assured him that the senator “is excited about AGIA, but concerned if the producers don’t show up to play.”

As for Halcro’s story, wrote Bailey, Murkowski’s chief of staff said “that the senator’s words can be parsed and misconstrued by others as well as the media.”

In a reply to Bailey and Palin’s chief of staff, Palin wrote: “Lisa’s comment needs to be clarified asap then -- or Halcro’s going to spin it OUT of control. She told me the other night, “‘Great job -- keep it up’ after AGIA announcement.”

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